Chanderdat wants to win one for Majors family, fans

He’s the franchise’s all-time wins leader, at 337. Just three more this year would mean a championship for Roop Chanderdat — the first for the Majors since 1975.

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

Quit asking Roop Chanderdat what a championship would mean to him. He has no idea. Not yet, anyway.

“People always ask me that. I could answer it, but I really don’t know until I eventually go through those emotions at some point,” said the Majors field manager and co-owner. “I don’t know what it would mean to me, but I do know it would be good for all the Majors who have been with me since I’ve started … all the players, the coaches, the volunteers, the fans. I think of all those people when I think about a championship. They deserve a championship. That’s who I’d like to win it for if we can. But as for me, I don’t know how I would feel.”

OK, maybe we should quit asking Chanderdat what a championship would mean to him – for now. But with a shot at his first – and the Majors’ first since 1975 – only three wins away, you can’t blame people for asking.

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This is a special team – and Chanderdat has known they were special from Day One.

“This is an exciting team to watch, to be around. It has a spirit about it,” he said.

When he put this team together earlier this year, he heard the naysayers: “Maybe this is the year Roop’s team finally falls off.”

You could hardly blame the doubters. Coming off of a pandemic-scrapped season, Chanderdat wanted guys with experience, guys who had been through it before, even if they had been away from the game for a year, or sometimes more, and were now hungry to get back on the field. That’s not a common way to build a team.

But Chanderdat believed in his path forward.

What he ended up constructing was a hungry team filled with guys thankful for the chance and excited to compete.

Take guys like infielders Chris McQueen and Keith Kandel, who hadn’t played in the IBL since 2018, along with outfielder Humberto Ruiz, who hadn’t played since 2017. All three were major Majors this season.

Or take starting pitcher Pedro De Los Santos, a middling starter/reliever with an inflated ERA for the Toronto Maple Leafs the last few seasons, who turned into a dominant Majors co-ace. (Amazing what happens when a guy gets a fresh start away from pitching in a bandbox stadium like Christie Pits.)

Or take a guy like DH Cleveland Brownlee, an aging vet who has seen it all, but still dreams of that championship at the end of his storied career.

Chanderdat wanted guys like the guys he has. Hungry. Every one of them.

“I could list something about every one of these guys,” he says. “You’ll always hear me talking about the team, never the individual. It's a group of guys; we need everyone to do their part for the group to do well. They all bought into that early. That's when I knew we had something special. To go through a COVID-impacted season like this one with that type of record (22-8), it’s a grind. You need everyone when it’s a grind.”

At the start of the season, he wrote down on a whiteboard a handful of items for the team to focus on. Things like defense, hitting approach, pitching. He never had to wipe the board clean, only adding one or two items during the season. He didn’t need to add anything because the team remained focused on those basics all season.

That said, Chanderdat did add one item before the playoffs started: “Stay loose.”

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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The game is in his blood.

Chanderdat came to Canada with his family in 1977 from Guyana. There, he saw cricket played, but the only ball-and-bat sport to be found in the Forest City at the time was baseball. He fell in love with the game early, started playing, watching, living the sport, and never stopped.

Since the 2006 season, Chanderdat has been the Majors’ co-owner and field manager. In 2017, he became the franchise’s all-time wins leader, overtaking former manager Roy McKay's record of 257 wins. He moved past 300 wins in July 2019. With 337 wins in hand today, it’s the next three that could mean the world to him.

He loves the art of putting the team together. It’s a difficult group to balance, between young 18-year-old guys who live nothing but the game and grown men in their mid-30s (and occasionally beyond) with families and jobs. It’s quite a mix.

Chanderdat also juggles a life, a family, and a local business navigating post-pandemic challenges. This time of year, he even takes to the ice as the owner/general manager of the Komoka Kings Hockey Club.

“It’s a labour of love. You have got to really enjoy doing it. Scott (Dart, Majors co-owner) and I have the same vision. We want to put something out there that the city can be proud of, a great atmosphere, a good destination for kids to watch a game. We’ve done a good job with that.”

Baseball can be a tricky thing at this level in this city, competing with a host of summer activities. Other teams have tried and faded fast. But the Majors have found a long-lasting connection with the city.

“We are local – ownership grew up here, lives here, owns businesses here. We know the environment. We know the culture. We know what the people want in an atmosphere.”

Majors Friday Nights are the draw – that has been a perfect drumbeat for fans in the summer. Those crowds are his favourite. Sometimes, he glances around at the crowd, catches a bit of the energy of the room.

“I’m a traditionalist for baseball. I love the atmosphere on a Friday night, with kids hanging over the railing wanting your autograph, wanting a ball. They don’t know the difference between The Majors and the Blue Jays. Those are there heroes right there.”

He knows how lucky he is to play in Labatt Park. It’s a hell of an office, he admits.

“I could watch the grass grow there.”

* * *

London loves a winner. Chanderdat knows it. The Knights. The Lightning. The Mustangs. And don’t get us started on the recent Olympics. All those teams and athletes have recent hardware.

Chanderdat knows what a Majors championship would mean to the city. He knows thousands will be rooting for his team to join those other franchises as part of Title Town, Canada.

He is hungry for a championship right along with his team – even though he may not know exactly how he would feel about it.

“Every time I show up to that park, everything else melts away. Whatever else is going on in my day or my life, as soon as I get there, it’s like a switch flips. It turns right into baseball mode. I get excited and get those emotions going,” he says. “It’s hard to explain, but as soon as I walk through that door, I’m ready to go. Whether I’m tired or not, that kinda fades away.”

“This group, this is a good group. You don’t want to squander opportunities with a good group. We could make some exciting memories for them, for everyone right now.”