Senior baseball nationals on the way to Royal Athletic Park
Jim Swanson, Victoria HarbourCats GM and co-owner, sees a lot of parallels to the halcyon era of the early 1990s in the current state of Canadian baseball.
And he is happy to surf that big blue wave.
The next breaker to crash into Royal Athletic Park will be the 2017 Baseball Canada senior championship in late August of that year, which has been awarded to the HarbourCats to organize.
The announcement this week follows the HarbourCats’ Hot Stove event over the weekend featuring former 16-season MLB catcher and current Rogers Sportsnet Blue Jays and MLB broadcast analyst Gregg Zaun, and also HarbourCats kids’ camps the past two summers featuring Blue Jays alumni greats such as Roberto Alomar.
“Canadians can’t get enough of baseball right now. We had [140] fans come out to talk to Gregg Zaun, and it was a very frank discussion with no topic off the table,” said Swanson.
The Blue Jays, of course, re-ignited interest in the sport across the country this year with their first post-season appearance since Joe Carter’s iconic walk-off home run in the 1993 World Series.
“Canadian youth baseball registrations are the highest they have been since 1992 to 1995 [an era fuelled by the Jays’ 1992 and 1993 World Series titles],” said Swanson.
The HarbourCats GM said he sees the 2017 national senior championship as part of the larger whole. The tournament annually features the best men’s amateur teams in the country. The Island circuit that plays at that level is the Victoria Mavericks League based at Lambrick Park.
“You get ex-pros who were released, but who still have the bug. [Former major-leaguers] Matt Stairs and Scott Richmond have played in the senior national tournament And you get current NCAA collegians playing for their local senior clubs through the summer before school starts,” added Swanson, about the standard that can be expected.
“There is a level of merit to the national championship.”
B.C. has hosted the tournament three times in the past 25 years, at Kamloops in 2005 and Prince George in 2002 and 2012, with Swanson involved in organizing both, the latter national tournaments when he lived in Northern B.C.
The 2017 national tournament, which will be chaired by Shawn Petriw, will take place in the third week of August, following the completion of the HarbourCats’ West Coast League season. Ten teams from around the country will take part. Each province is allowed one entry. How they want to configure their team is up to each provincial baseball governing body. Some provinces send all-star teams while others send their club champion, enhanced by some pick-ups.
The HarbourCats club, composed mostly of top U.S. NCAA players extending their collegiate seasons into summer ball in the WCL, is not eligible to play in the national tournament.
B.C. teams have won gold recently, including in 2013 in St. John’s, 2012 in Prince George and 2008 in Brandon, when the Victoria Mavericks captured the national championship.
The HarbourCats’ bid to host the 2017 nationals was submitted with the support of the B.C. Senior Baseball Association, Baseball B.C., Victoria Mavericks League, Greater Victoria Baseball Association, SportHost Victoria and the City of Victoria.
The HarbourCats are also bidding to host the senior nationals again in 2018 at Royal Athletic, with that decision to be made at a later date by Baseball Canada.