HE'S GOTTA MAKE THE BIG CLUB:

Stern caused quite a stir (Chris Snow, March 13, 2006, Boston Globe)

They are Canadian, thus conscribed to enjoy hockey and beer, often together, and for this reason alone it should come as no surprise to learn how Team Canada spent its last night of camp in Dunedin, Fla., earlier this month before leaving for the World Baseball Classic.

''We got a cooler of beer and went out and played road hockey," Adam Stern said with pride yesterday, when the Rule 5 outfielder rejoined the Red Sox after 10 days away, having become a Canadian icon for his tour de force in a spellbinding 8-6 upset of Team USA last week. ''We were asking each other: Do other teams do this?"

The format: First to five goals won the game, best two of out three games won the series. The teams were picked before the Canadians arrived at the floor-hockey rink. Minnesota first baseman Justin Morneau, a former junior hockey goalie, captained one team, and built his squad around size and experience. Good plan, until the teams showed up at the rink and happened upon an Olympic-sized surface, 15 feet wider than the standard rink.

''They took the speed," Morneau said of Stern's younger, faster team. ''I didn't realize we were going to play on the big surface."

Stern played forward, on a line with a guy named Orr (Pete, not Bobby) and former Sox slugger Matt Stairs.

''We were having a field day," Stern said. ''Me, Orr, Stairsy. He had the big shot. He had a howitzer."

The only downer: the boys couldn't get the beer they wanted, which would have been either Labatt Blue (made in Stern's hometown of London, Ontario) or Molson.

''We couldn't get it shipped in, coming across the border," Stern said. ''We had Busch Light, Coors Light. For us that's like water. Pretty much we were hydrating with that stuff."