The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame pulled Kelly Gruber from its induction weekend festivities after the former Toronto Blue Jays third baseman made an awkward appearance during a Pitch Talks panel discussion a day earlier.
Gruber was briefly on stage at the Homestand Sports event Thursday night with host Ashley Docking and Rogers Sportsnet broadcaster Kevin Barker in Toronto. In a joint statement Friday DJ Moore Jersey , the Hall of Fame and Pitch Talks said the proceedings were stopped 45 minutes early due to Gruber’s ”unacceptable and inappropriate behavior.”
”Basically what happened was by the time he got on stage he appeared to be inebriated,” said Homestand Sports founder Kevin Kennedy. ”He was just acting sort of obnoxious, kind of erratic, he was confrontational with our host, Ashley, and quite quickly I knew that this wasn’t going in the right direction.”
Gruber was one of several former Blue Jays chosen to participate in various Hall events in the lead-up to Saturday’s ceremony in Ontario Youth Harrison Phillips Jersey , where former major league stars Pedro Martinez and Lloyd Moseby will be inducted along with baseball historian William Humber.
Gruber’s representative, Don Graham, emailed a statement from the former player to The Canadian Press on Friday evening.
”There’s two sides to every story and I would love to tell mine,” Gruber said. ”Maybe what I said was taken the wrong way. My intention for being there was to honor my teammate and buddy Lloyd, and the interview part went south for a variety of reasons which I will detail at a later date.”
The 56-year-old Gruber made his big league debut with the Blue Jays in 1984. He won a World Series with Toronto in 1992 and ended his career with the Angels the following year.
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The Latest on a suspected drunken-driving crash that killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and another man (all times local):
5 p.m.
A man being held in a suspected drunken-driving crash that killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and his Uber driver had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times Indiana’s legal limit immediately after Sunday’s deadly crash.
A probable cause affidavit filed Sunday in Marion Superior Court under the first name Manuel Orrego-Savala gave police states that a breath test administered at the scene found the 37-year-old man’s blood-alcohol content was 0.239 percent. Indiana’s legal limit is 0.08 percent.
Two vials of blood were later drawn from Orrego-Savala for testing. He remains jailed and prosecutors are weighing potential criminal charges against him in the crash that killed the 26-year-old Jackson and Jeffrey Monroe of Avon, Indiana.
State Police say Orrego-Savala is a citizen of Guatemala who’s been deported twice from the U.S.
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2:25 p.m.
An Indiana congressman says ”all Americans” should be angry that a suspected drunken-driving crash which killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson was allegedly caused by a man police say has been twice deported from the U.S.
Republican Rep. Todd Rokita tweeted Monday about Sunday’s crash that killed the 26-year-old Jackson and his Uber driver Youth Taron Johnson Jersey , Jeffrey Monroe of Avon, Indiana, saying ”this news should make all Americans angry.”
Monroe was transporting Jackson for the ride-hailing company when police say he stopped along Interstate 70 after Jackson became ill.
Both men were standing outside Monroe’s car when police say a pickup truck driven by 37-year-old Manuel Orrego-Savala struck and killed them.
Police say he’s a citizen of Guatemala who was deported in 2007 and 2009. He has not been charged in the crash.
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11:23 a.m.
Police say a man being held in a suspected drunken driving crash that killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson has twice been deported from the U.S.
Indiana State Police said Monday that 37-year-old Manuel Orrego-Savala is a citizen of Guatemala and gave officers a fake name following the Sunday accident.
Investigators say he’s in U.S. illegally and was deported in 2007 and 2009. He remained in the Marion County Jail on Monday.
Police say the 26-year-old Jackson and 54-year-old Jeffrey Monroe were standing outside their car along Interstate 70 in Indianapolis when they were hit and killed by a pickup truck being driven by Orrego-Savala.
Police say they believe Orrego-Savala was intoxicated and driving without a license. Police say they’re working with prosecutors on potential criminal charges.