From Hockey to Baseball: I kept them in stitches

Ken Carson’s career as rink rat, athletic trainer and executive has spanned sixty years from junior hockey to the NHL and from major-league baseball to the minors. Carson has sharpened skates with Bobby Orr as his helper; been frightened out of a wrestling ring by Yukon Eric; lived at the arena in Rochester, N.Y.; stitched up players for the Pittsburgh Penguins; celebrated the Blue Jays’ first AL East championship on the turf of Exhibition Stadium as the team trainer who doubled as director of team travel. He was the first trainer for two expansion teams in two sports, the Penguins and the Blue Jays, participating in the 1976 NHL All-Star Game and the 1980 MLB All-Star Game. In 1987, Carson became the Blue Jays’ director of Florida operations, which included the role of general manager of the Class A team at Dunedin. As a respected minor-league executive, he became president of the Class A Florida State League in 2015. Carson’s story, as told to Toronto sports writer Larry Millson, offers a unique perspective of sports over the generations.