Davidi on MLB: Generation next
Posted March 3, 2011 8:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The grander vision for the years ahead is of a baseball game dubbed Canada’s Team versus Canada’s Future, an event that gets big play back home, one that attracts many of the country’s brightest stars in a celebration of the sport.
Picture the likes of Justin Morneau, Russell Martin and other Team Canada alumni members standing alongside the national junior team as it prepares to take the field against the Toronto Blue Jays in an annual exhibition contest, and you get idea.
For now, things are starting on a smaller scale with Friday’s friendly encounter between the Canadian juniors and a Blue Jays split squad featuring Aaron Hill, John McDonald, Brett Lawrie and some 40-man roster players at charming Al Lang Stadium.
The contest is part of the St. Petersburg International Baseball series, a 13-game event featuring an eclectic collection of teams.
The Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays join the Blue Jays in providing some big-league flavour, with both playing a single game versus the Dutch national team. South Korea’s Seoul Nexen Heroes, Penn State, the St. Pete Storm and an American team of former college players are also taking part.
Jim Neader – the former agent for ex-Blue Jays such as Jesse Barfield, Lloyd Moseby and Mark Eichhorn – helped organize the games as part of a local sports council formed by St. Petersburg mayor Bill Foster. Their goal was to bring baseball back to Al Lang Stadium after the Rays abandoned it as their spring home in favour of a new facility at Port Charlotte.
Friday’s game was an easy sell for the Blue Jays and Baseball Canada.
“We wanted to create a special Canadian day down here in partnership with the Blue Jays,” says Greg Hamilton, Baseball Canada’s director of national teams. “It’s not just a game, it’s obviously a partnership and obviously something we hope will have playback into the Canadian marketplace, and something we can engage our alumni in, and something we can build around and grow.”
Adds Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Beeston: “I actually never believed it was going to happen. But (Neader) just continued to persist and persist and persist and it’s a reality. I see this as the start of something that’s going to continue to grow. We used to play the NBI with the major-leaguers and eventually we’ll get back to that, hopefully.”
The NBI is the now defunct National Baseball Institute, which used to work alongside Baseball Canada to help prepare players for the college or professional levels. The national junior team program is now filling that role and Hamilton is hoping Friday’s game is the start of a new tradition.
“You look at college teams that play a major-league team in an exhibition; I think of Northeastern University and they’re Boston-based and they play the Red Sox every spring as part of their collegiate program,” Hamilton explains. “It’s a special day in Boston for both the university and the major-league team.
“That’s the idea here – it creates a realistic dream for kids to have.”
At the same time, Baseball Canada understands the Blue Jays have professional players getting ready for a season, and that their baseball needs must be met. The goal is to provide a reasonable level of competition for the pros, and Hamilton feels some of his top up-and-coming talent can do just that.
Tom Robson of Ladner, B.C., described by scouts as someone with the potential to go as high as the second or third round in this summer’s draft, will get the start and throw two innings.
“It’s a pretty big one, probably second only to the game I pitched against Cuba in the junior worlds (last summer),” the 6-4, 200-pound right-hander says of the outing. “I’m really excited to get going on Friday.
“I’ve been talking to both our pitching coaches, Chris Reitsma and Mike Johnson, and one thing they stress is don’t give the hitters too much credit. With the Blue Jays coming over to play us, it’s hard to kind of not think to yourself, ‘These guys are really good,’ and stuff like that. The one thing I want to do is keep confident in there and pitch like it’s another game, and hopefully I’ll have my best stuff.’”
Fellow right-handers Skyler Janisse of Maidstone, Ont., Jesen Dygestile-Therrien of Montreal and Ethan Elias of Enwistle, Alta., are also garnering attention for the 2012 draft and are scheduled to pitch against the Blue Jays.
So too is lefty Clayton Isherwood of Van Anda, B.C., who isn’t draft eligible until 2012.
Robson’s fastball sits 90-92 m.p.h. right now. Half of the heaters he throws are two-seamers that cut in to righties and away from lefties. He also features a curve and a change. A member of the Langley Blaze in the B.C. Premier League, he grew up a Blue Jays fan and loves the cerebral approach the team’s current ace takes on the mound.
“I was really upset when Roy Halladay left because I really loved watching him pitch,” says Robson. “But Ricky Romero, he’s my favourite now. I like how he doesn’t always just pitch with his physical ability, he really (thinks the game) as well now.”
That’s exactly the type of benefit Beeston hopes the junior team will be able to reap from the game. He knows full well that the healthier the sport is across the country the healthier the Blue Jays will be, too.
And the strength of Canada’s developmental system means the junior team can give the Blue Jays a reasonable enough level of competition for this point of the spring.
“If we were sending one player to the majors every decade it would be one thing, but we’re sending a player every year and we’re sending good players and there’s a lot of great baseball talent coming out of this country,” says Beeston. “This is just another way of trying to encourage people to follow their dreams. Someone is going to get drafted coming out of this game and say, ‘Boy, I can play with these guys.’”
Blue Jays travel roster for Friday’s game with junior national team:
Pitchers: Winston Abreu, Henderon Alvarez, Sean Henn, Mike Hinckley, Wilfredo Ledezma, Rommie Lewis, Deck McGuire
Catchers: Ryan Budde, Travis d’Arnaud, A.J. Jimenez
Infielders: Aaron Hill, Brett Lawrie, Mike McDade, John McDonald
Outfielders: Anthony Gose, Moises Sierra, Eric Thames
Minor-league invites: Gustavo Pierre, Marcus Knecht, Adam Loewen, Matt Nuzzo, Mike Crouse, Carlos Perez
