Most of these guys have had their shot.
More importantly, they were good enough to have a shot.
But they are not on college scholarships anymore and nobody is getting paid, even the meagre wages of minor-pro ball. Those days are in the past. Yet, the players gathered at Wilson鈥檚 Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park and Lambrick Park for the Canadian senior men鈥檚 baseball championship, can still bring it.
鈥淭hese are guys who love the game so much that they just can鈥檛 give it up. Now it鈥檚 just for the pure joy of playing the game,鈥� said Jim Swanson, who will manage the host Victoria Mavericks League all-star team in the tournament.
鈥淭hey may have lost half a step, or a full step, but what they no longer have in flat-out, 20-year-old speed, they now have in man strength,鈥� added Swanson, who has been a player or manager of two Canadian championship teams 鈥� Prince George Axemen and Langley Blaze.
They have man diamond sense, as well, which only comes with experience. These guys have been around the bases. That includes Victoria host team players Kyle Orr and Kurt Horne.
The six-foot-five first baseman Orr was the top Canadian selected in the 2006 MLB draft, going in the fourth round to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Orr received a $435,000 US guaranteed signing bonus from the Dodgers and additional $100,000 US for future university tuition. The Lambrick Park Secondary graduate played four seasons in the Dodgers minor-pro system before using the Dodgers scholarship money to pay for his bachelor of commerce degree from the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria. Orr won the bronze medal at the 2006 world junior championship in Cuba, on a Canadian team that included future MLB players Brett Lawrie and James Paxton, and can still smack the ball a ton.
The strapping six-foot-five mound lefty Horne came out of Sooke to become a New York Mets draft pick in 2014 and signed to pitch in their minor-league system through 2017 for the GCL Mets, Kingsport Mets and Brooklyn Cyclones.
There are eight former Victoria HarbourCats players on the host Mavericks team from their days in the West Coast League. They include Alex Rogers, Brady Rogers, Austin Russell, Connor Russell, Dylan Thorp, Charlie Strandlund, Eric Hegadoren and Brodan Bydeweg.
There are a total of 14 former WCL players in the national championship tournament, including former HarbourCats pitcher Luke Manuel and fielder Darren Honeysett on the sa国际传媒 champion Coquitlam Angels, and Ty Russell of the Alberta-champion Red Deer Riggers.
鈥淭hat shows you the level of our team, and of the national tournament as a whole,鈥� said Swanson, who is managing partner of the HarbourCats in his other baseball life.
In their opening game today at 7 p.m. at Royal Athletic Park, the host Victoria team is expected to face New Brunswick starter and former Kelowna Falcons WCL hurler Shane Kraemer.
The five-time Ontario-champion, and 2015 and 2016 national champion, Tecumseh Thunder from Windsor return. In last year鈥檚 national tournament, also held in Victoria, the Thunder featured pitcher and 2010 seventh-round Milwaukee Brewers draft-pick Joel Pierce.
After a sharply disappointing quarter-final exit last year in Victoria, the Thunder are motivated to recapture the national title it held back-to-back in 2016 and 2015.
sa国际传媒鈥檚 most populous province receives two berths with the Ontario 2 representative being the provincial runner-up Ilderton Red Army, which launched a community fundraising campaign in London, Ont., to raise the money to travel to Victoria for the nationals. The Red Army will be playing for their legendary manager, Rudy Godwin, who died of cancer in June at age 64.
Provinces can send their provincial championship team, with pick-ups allowed, or a provincial all-star team. Quebec is sending its all-stars from across the province. The Sydney Sooners represent Nova Scotia, the Oak River Dodgers are the Manitoba reps, while the champion Moncton Fisher Cats are supplemented with players from New Brunswick鈥檚 notably strong senior men鈥檚 league. Newfoundland will feature the oldest player in the national tournament in 45-year-old Troy Croft.
The home-run derby took place Wednesday night.
The tournament opens today with games at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. running concurrently at Royal Athletic Park and Lambrick Park, topped by the opening ceremonies at 6:15 p.m. at Wilson鈥檚 Group Stadium, followed by the feature game between Victoria and New Brunswick. Games on Friday go from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at both diamonds. The action switches exclusively to Royal Athletic Park on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The bronze- and gold-medal games are Sunday at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
This is the final year of a two-year agreement with Baseball sa国际传媒 to host the national tournament in Victoria.
