OTTAWA- Baseball Canada was deeply saddened to learn that Jim Fanning passed away in London, Ontario on Saturday at the age of 87.
Fanning had a tremendous impact on Canadian baseball and was a great friend to Baseball Canada regularly attending our National Teams banquet in Toronto since 2004.
Fanning’s career in professional baseball spanned over 60 years - first as a player where he spent parts of four seasons with the Chicago Cubs and then as both a manager and front office executive that saw him still active in the game as an Ambassador of Amateur Baseball in Canada with the Toronto Blue Jays.
His relationship with Canada and Canadian baseball began in 1968 when he became the first General Manager in the history of the Montréal Expos franchise and stayed in that role for over a decade. In 1981 he took over the manager’s role with the Expos late in the season and was in the dugout when the Expos made their first and only postseason appearance. He stayed on as manager for the 1982 season before returning to the post at the end of the 1983 season. After a short broadcasting career, Fanning joined the Colorado Rockies organization as a scout.
In 2000, Fanning was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for his tremendous contributions to baseball in his adopted homeland where he would officially become a citizen in 2012.
Jim Fanning will be missed by many.
