Canadian teen delivers a changeup
Vaughan’s Tomotsugu squeezes MLB event into hectic schedule
“When I was 5, I joined because my brother played baseball ... I stayed because I fell in love with it.” CAITLIN TOMOTSUGU
Caitlin Tomotsugu’s baseball talents and passion are taking her places.
The 17-year-old outfielder/ pitcher from Vaughan — who has played on boys’ rep teams for the past 10 years as well as in girls’ leagues — earned an invitation to this weekend’s inaugural MLB Grit tournament in Texas for elite North American players ages 18 and under.
Tomotsugu and about 60 other female up-and-comers earned tickets to Arlington’s Globe Life Park, home of the Texas Rangers, for instruction, games and presentations. The program has also been designed by Major League Baseball to introduce young players to the college recruiting process, as well as off-the-field job opportunities in the sport.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Tomotsugu, joined by her father Daniel for the groundbreaking four-day project, which started Thursday.
An accomplished two-position star who started playing baseball at age 5, Tomotsugu competes with the boys’ Thornhill Reds plus the York Simcoe bantam girls’ development team and midget-level Richmond Hill Athletics.
“When I was 5, I joined because my brother (Brodie) played baseball and I wanted to be like him,” she said. “But I stayed because I fell in love with it. Tomotsugu — who pitches right-handed and is known for her speed in the outfield — has advanced this far, in part, be- cause she refused to be intimidated by negative reaction when she started playing on boys’ teams.
“That’s something I had to deal with when I was younger,” she said. “One time there was a parent-coach who said I should play soccer with the other girls. But as the years went by, people in the leagues and everyone got used to me playing baseball.
“A lot of other female baseball players have had different experiences playing on men’s teams. In my case (now), the guys welcome me. They don’t look at me as anything else but a teammate.”
There’s a lot to take in at the MLB Grit showcase, where she’s also getting the chance to meet several women who have forged non-playing careers in the sport: Kim Ng, MLB’s senior vice-president of baseball development; Ashley Bratcher, senior director of baseball operations with USA Baseball; Texas Rangers vice-president Katie Pothier; and Emily Jones McCoy, who reports on the Rang- ers for Fox Sports.
While playing on multiple teams and representing Ontario at various age-group tournaments, Tomotsugu has also managed to find time to learn more about the game outside the lines — coaching in the Canadian Girls Baseball Association, a non-profit development league founded by Toronto’s Dana Bookman in 2016 for girls ages 4 to 16. Coaching takes Tomotsugu to parks all across Toronto — and puts a lot of miles on her father’s car.
Her Texas experience also includes the chance to pick the brains of some U.S. college coaches. Among the coaches for the weekend tournament: former Blue Jays infielder Homer Bush and ex-pitcher Marvin Freeman.
For games at the Rangers’ park and their MLB youth academy in Dallas, Tomotsugu will take the field along with several other Canadians — including national team members Elizabeth Gilder and Allison Schroeder, both from British Columbia — plus eight of the top young players from Puerto Rico. The U.S. contingent features Ashton Lansdell and Emily Tsujikawa, who competed in the Women’s Baseball Cup last year.
MLB Grit, which overlapped with Friday’s International Women’s Day, is all about the future of the sport for women. At 17, Tomotsugu — who lists tennis and ultimate frisbee as her hobbies, and plays alto sax in her school band — has given her baseball future a lot of thought.
The notion of a women’s baseball league, the equivalent of the CWHL or NWHL in women’s hockey, is something she is enthusiastic about.
“I’d love for that to happen,” she said. “Maybe in Japan they have a league over there for women, and I could maybe play there if I really wanted to pursue that. If there was a league in Canada or the U.S., that would be amazing.”