Stern caused quite a stir

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- They are Canadian, thus conscribed to enjoy hockey and beer, often together, and for this reason alone it should come as no surprise to learn how Team Canada spent its last night of camp in Dunedin, Fla., earlier this month before leaving for the World Baseball Classic.

''We got a cooler of beer and went out and played road hockey," Adam Stern said with pride yesterday, when the Rule 5 outfielder rejoined the Red Sox after 10 days away, having become a Canadian icon for his tour de force in a spellbinding 8-6 upset of Team USA last week. ''We were asking each other: Do other teams do this?"

The format: First to five goals won the game, best two of out three games won the series. The teams were picked before the Canadians arrived at the floor-hockey rink. Minnesota first baseman Justin Morneau, a former junior hockey goalie, captained one team, and built his squad around size and experience. Good plan, until the teams showed up at the rink and happened upon an Olympic-sized surface, 15 feet wider than the standard rink.

''They took the speed," Morneau said of Stern's younger, faster team. ''I didn't realize we were going to play on the big surface."

Stern played forward, on a line with a guy named Orr (Pete, not Bobby) and former Sox slugger Matt Stairs.

''We were having a field day," Stern said. ''Me, Orr, Stairsy. He had the big shot. He had a howitzer."

The only downer: the boys couldn't get the beer they wanted, which would have been either Labatt Blue (made in Stern's hometown of London, Ontario) or Molson.

''We couldn't get it shipped in, coming across the border," Stern said. ''We had Busch Light, Coors Light. For us that's like water. Pretty much we were hydrating with that stuff."

Hydrated and happy, Stern and his teammates headed off to Arizona, where they survived against South Africa, upended the Americans, and lost to Mexico, though the 2-1 record was not enough to advance.

Nonetheless, Stern's performance against the US last Wednesday will endure: He knocked in four runs, finished a double shy of the cycle, and legged out an inside-the park home run. In the field, he made a diving grab of Jeff Francoeur's sinking liner in the sixth inning. In the eighth, he crashed into the wall in dead center to rob Chase Utley of what could have been a tying two-run hit.

The Calgary Sun asked ''Do you Believe in Miracles?" The Cornwall (Ontario) Standard Freeholder, among other publications across Canada's provinces, labeled the game ''A Miracle on Grass."

A friend back home in Ontario told Stern the upset ranked among the top five moments in Canadian sports history. No. 1 on that list undoubtedly would be Paul Henderson (Canada's Mike Eruzione) scoring with 34 seconds to play in Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviets with international hockey supremacy at stake. The rest of the list is up for debate. There's Joe Carter's walkoff homer to win the 1993 World Series for the Blue Jays. There's the 1987 Canada Cup, when Mario Lemieux made his international debut and played with Wayne Gretzky. Morneau said to be sure to include the 2002 Olympic gold medal won by the men's hockey team, which hadn't won gold in 50 years.

Somewhere on this list falls last Wednesday's upset of the US. It's probably at the bottom. But it will not soon be forgotten.

''We wouldn't have gone out there if we didn't think we could win," Stern said, before acknowledging, ''I'm giving the classic we-know-we-can-win speech. Obviously, beating the USA, it's their sport. People say we're a bunch of minor leaguers. It's not like we were running out a bunch of nobodies."

Still, Stern's pride obscures some facts. According to Baseball Canada, only 19 Canadians played at least one inning in the majors last season, and a few of the best among them -- Dodgers closer Eric Gagne and A's starter Rich Harden -- didn't participate because of lingering injuries. The Canadian lineup featured eight lefthanded batters against Team USA lefty Dontrelle Willis.

''That's how we roll," Stern said. ''Lefties and more lefties. People say it's because of the way we shovel snow. But who knows. Everyone we have coming up [in the system] is lefthanded."

Stern doesn't know if the win will produce a generation of players who choose bats over sticks, but he'd like to think it will.

''I hope this World Baseball Classic helps a lot of young careers," he said.

It may have begotten one good young major league career in his own, but international competition has a drug-like grip on Stern. After the 2004 Olympics, he had a red maple leaf tattooed on his chest, with the Olympic rings stenciled over the leaf. He's now thinking ahead to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, though in bobsledding, not baseball.

''I am serious," he said. ''I want to play baseball for as long as I can. I'm focused on this team. I want to play here for 10 years or more if the game will let me. But that's something, 2010 being in Canada. I'm serious about it."

According to Stern, his brother, Jason, could have competed in bobsledding last month in Turin in the second of two sleds Canada raced. Jason Stern competed for Canada in Europe in 2004. But, he wasn't sure if Canada would finance two sleds and didn't want to spend two years preparing for something that might not come to pass. As it turned out, Canada did race two sleds. Come 2010, it may race even more, as the host nation. The sleds have room for four and Stern thinks, with his speed, strength, and another 10-15 pounds he could do the job.

Asked what job that is, he said, ''I don't know what it's called. Pusher? There's a driver, pusher, and brake man."

For now, he's sticking to baseball, though his day of excellence will follow him. In fact, he returned to the Sox clubhouse for the first time Saturday afternoon and ran into Kevin Youkilis, Tim Wakefield, and Manny Ramírez.

''They sang 'O Canada' for me," Stern said. ''I think they only knew the first two lines."

Ramírez included?

''Manny, of course he does," Stern said. ''He loves Canada."

What's not to love?