It was said Blue Jays spring training didn't officially get under way in Dunedin until Neil MacCarl showed up. By the time the Jays arrived as an expansion team in 1977, the Star journalist had plenty of experience in baseball, reporting on the World Series since the 1950s and covering the old Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League. MacCarl passed away Friday of pneumonia. He was 83.
MacCarl followed the Toronto Blue Jays' fortunes from the very start, beginning with the American League expansion draft at the Plaza Hotel in New York on Nov. 5, 1976.
He crowned his sportswriting career by covering the Jays' 1992 World Series championship against the Atlanta Braves.It was the capper to a 43-year career at the Star that began in March, 1949, after graduating from journalism at the University of Western Ontario and a short stint reporting for the London Free Press.
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