SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Agnes Kormendy wrote a book about her life to share with her family before she died in 2018. Born in Budapest in 1925, she enjoyed a good life before the Second World War, but when it ended with Soviet occupation and the establishment of a communist regime, she decided to leave, fleeing to Canada as a refugee in 1949.
“She had to leave it all behind, go figure out a life somewhere else. I heard stories of her sneaking through minefields. Ended up in Canada. Welcomed with open arms,” Jameson Taillon, the Chicago Cubs right-hander representing Canada for the second time in this World Baseball Classic, said of his grandmother. “I know without her escaping and without Canada welcoming her, there’s no my mom, there’s no me. It’s a crazy story.”
Honouring Kormendy, and the rest of his Canadian family, is why wearing the Maple Leaf is so meaningful for the Florida-born, Texas-raised 34-year-old, who starts Sunday evening against Panama (7 p.m. ET Sportsnet).
Escaping Hungary allowed Kormendy to build a new life in Toronto, enjoying a career in the Niagara wine industry and later working as a microbiology researcher at the University of Toronto. It’s where she had daughter Christie, who later married Michael, whose family is from St. Andrews West just outside of Cornwall, Ont. The couple visited each summer after moving to the United States, bringing Taillon and his siblings along.
The young Taillon didn’t always appreciate those trips north, especially when they meant missing some of his travel-ball tournaments, but “now I’m super grateful for those memories.”
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“When you’re a kid and you hear talk about it all the time, I’m seven years old, it’s hard for me to understand,” he said. “As I’ve gotten older and gained perspective, you really understand what she went through and how she’s the matriarch of our family. It’s just really cool.”
Kormendy saw Taillon pitch for Canada at the 2013 World Baseball Classic, when as a 21-year-old out of double-A allowed two runs, one earned in four innings versus a powerhouse American lineup, and he’ll be thinking of her during his first national team outing since.
“I always, in my heart, knew I wanted to play for Team Canada again, I was just waiting for the right time,” said Taillon. “In ‘23, I was in my first year with the Cubs. In 2017, I was just breaking into the big-leagues and this year, it’s like, I can’t miss this opportunity to represent my family.”
Last go for Espino
The 2024 season, when Paolo Espino pitched in three games for the Toronto Blue Jays, turned out to be the last of the right-hander’s 20 years in affiliated baseball. At that point in time, the prospect of pitching for Panama a third time in World Baseball Classic was a motivator to keep going, and as it turned out, the perfect spot to cap his days on the mound.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “Pitching the Classic was one of the things that I’m like, man, if I’m ever going to retire, I think it has to be after WBC representing my country. I think this is what gave me the strength to finally do it.”
Espino will walk away having pitched parts of six seasons in the majors, mostly with Washington, and 2,350.2 innings logged over 582 games from indy ball to The Show, as colleague Arden Zwelling detailed back in 2024.
Canada expected him to be a candidate to start against them Sunday, but Panama will instead go with Jamie Barria. Once all is said and done at the Classic, Espino isn’t yet sure what he’ll do next.
“I don’t have plans right now. I don’t have any jobs that I can do right after this, but of course I definitely want to stay in baseball,” he said. “I will be reaching out to see what’s going to be next. I’m going to be open to do anything related to baseball. So I’m excited.”
Dialing it up for the WBC
Yadier Molina, the St. Louis Cardinals catching great managing the Puerto Rican national team, offered an interesting insight on players in the Classic, describing some as regular-season players and others as tournament players.
The difference?
“My experience is like, when you put this uniform on, the Puerto Rico jersey, it’s a different feeling,” he replied. “So it’s the level of play, how you care. When you play a season, it’s 162 games. In the tournament, it’s like one week, maybe two. It’s a different feel.
“You’re going to find different guys that care more about this (pointing to his jersey), especially the older guys, the ones that are coming out for the game. They care to put on a really good show for this.”
