Former Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis
More than three years removed from an 11-season, six-team journeyman career, former Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis has found his retirement groove as a father of three and assistant pitching coach for the Canadian Junior National Team.
The British Columbia native resides in Ontario and is helping out with the same program he came up through. He believes the efforts of Baseball Canada to find and develop the country’s top baseball talent — along with the success of Canada’s lone Major League team, Toronto — are critical in growing the game north of the border.
“It’s gone in waves here, and the interest revolves around the Blue Jays,” Francis said. “The Blue Jays had so much success in the early 1990s that you saw registrations go way up, and that was my sort of wave. When I came into the major leagues, there were 20-some Canadians playing in the major leagues, and now there’s only six.
“But the Jays are good again, and you’re seeing across the country that baseball registrations are way up because people are on their bandwagon again. So you never know. Maybe in 10, 15 years, you’ll see that wave again where a lot more Canadian athletes are playing baseball.”
Francis, who will be back in Denver next month to be recognized as part of the franchise’s All-time 25 Team, follows both the Blue Jays and the Rockies as a fan.
And as he reflects on his time in the Mile High City — where he played a central role in the Rockies’ improbable run to the 2007 World Series, and finished ranked third in club history in wins (64), second in innings pitched (1,066) and fourth in strikeouts (742) — the southpaw admits he wished he had stopped to smell the roses a bit more throughout his career.
“If there’s one thing I look back on, it’s that I wish I had enjoyed it a little more,” Francis said. “Even though as I look back, I did establish myself, but I never felt like I established myself. I was always chasing that success. … Now, it’s kind of a relief to not wake up every morning and worry about performing.”