Ernie Clement has become cult hero with Blue Jays

LOS ANGELES -- Ernie Clement has become baseball’s newest curiosity, a cult hero in Canada who the rest of the league is finally waking up to.

Is there an American player who’s better suited to play for Canada’s team? Toronto is the city that celebrated players like John McDonald, Kevin Pillar and Ryan Goins, those “gritty” role players who played great defense and left each game with a dirty uniform. That was enough. Now, Blue Jays fans have found another, but this one can hit … and he has a hockey stick poking out of his locker where the spare bats are supposed to go.

Throughout the Blue Jays’ run to the World Series, chants of “Ernie! Ernie! Ernie!” have filled Rogers Centre and confused visiting media, who look from side to side wondering. No, they’re not chanting “Vladdy.”

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