Jul 31, 2008 - 04:30 AM

By Doug Smith

Greg Hamilton watched from a private box at the Rogers Centre yesterday as the man he thought would be the ace of the Canadian Olympic baseball team made his major league debut. And while he was happy for Scott Richmond, he couldn't have been at all impressed with Richmond's employers.

Not only did Hamilton's Canadian squad likely lose the right-handed starter after his surprise big-league call-up from Triple-A Syracuse, there's every chance Canada will now have to go to the Olympics a pitcher short.

And in a compact tournament like the Olympics, that could be a crucial blow.

"We're in a tough spot to (replace Richmond with anyone)," said Hamilton, the de facto general manager of the Olympic team. "We have to go through a pretty extensive appeal process now, and there's no guarantee we're going to be able to get another guy on the roster. It's not a closed door but it's not going to be easy, either."

Without Richmond, who figured to be one of the top pitchers in manager Terry Puhl's rotation, the weight of the front of the rotation will likely fall to righty Chris Begg, the Uxbridge native who's with San Francisco's Triple-A Fresno affiliate.

Begg, one of four holdovers from the Canadian squad that finished fourth at the 2004 Athens Games, was hurt earlier this year, which delayed his 2008 debut.

He's expected to get three starts over the course of the Olympic tournament.

"Obviously, this season's been a little bit shorter for me," said the 28-year-old Begg. "I started a little bit later (because of the shoulder injury) but I'm kind of in early- to mid-season form where these other guys are middle to end of the season.

"I'm assuming I'll have one of the starts in North Carolina (in a three-game series against the United States this weekend) and one of starts against Netherlands (in Beijing before the Games begin). It goes without saying I'm going to need to get some innings and keep throwing as much as I can without the days off where maybe another starter would enjoy an extra day's rest."

Begg said the loss of Richmond is just something ballplayers live with.

"Over the course of a season in professional baseball, 140 or 160 games, guys get injured, guys get hurt, guys get traded, guys go in slumps and you have to fill those voids, too," he said before the Olympic team worked out at the Rogers Centre last night. "We're used to seeing it and it happens but guys will step up and do a good job. Some guys won't perform well and some guys will perform better than you expected."

Richmond, who went 5 1/3 innings for the Blue Jays in their eventual 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday, remains on Canada's Olympic roster but if he's still with the Jays at midnight tonight, he won't be eligible for the Beijing Games, which begin next week.

And because of the timing of the Jays move – which caught nearly everybody outside of the organization by surprise – it could rob Canada of a player.

"The biggest hurdle here is BOCOG, which gave July 23 as the final roster submission deadline," Hamilton said of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. "Anytime after the 23rd, you're kind of in no man's land in terms of trying to get a yes out of them. We were able to do it with Peter Orr's situation (the shortstop was a late call-up by the Washington Nationals) right after the 23rd but as the days tick by it's more difficult.

"It'll be a challenge and we're going to fight that challenge and try to figure it out ... but it's a tough time."

The Jays have no plans to make Richmond available to the Olympic team – he's heading off to Texas for a weekend series against the Rangers.

There are eight teams in the Beijing tournament, which involves a seven-game round robin to find four semifinalists.

Canada opens its tournament on Aug. 13 against the host Chinese.