Érik Joseph Bédard (born March 6, 1979 in the Ottawa
suburb of Navan, Ontario, Canada) is a Major League
Baseball starting pitcher for the Seattle Mariners.
Bédard previously pitched for the Baltimore Orioles
where he was the staff ace, setting the franchise
single season strike outs per nine innings record at
10.93 in 2007.
A Franco-Ontarian, Bédard began his baseball career
in the Orleans Little League and the Ontario
Baseball Association. Érik was a pitcher on the 1992
Orleans Junior Red Sox team which beat Glace Bay in
the 1992 Canadian Championship. Bédard did not play
high school baseball, which is the norm in Canada
due to the short season.
Although 5'4" and 120 pounds as a senior, he grew
seven inches and gained 30 pounds during the summer
between graduating from high school and beginning
college. He accompanied a friend to a tryout at
Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut,
and made the baseball team as a walk-on.
While in college, he added 10 miles per hour to his
fastball, gained another 30 pounds, took the "lowest
level" non-credit English language course to enhance
his knowledge of the language, and became a junior
college All-American.
