Back when Roberto Alomar was a prospect he didn’t have trouble getting noticed. The son of All-Star infielder Sandy Alomar, Roberto grew up around big league parks, so he wasn’t about to fly under the radar, especially considering his slick-fielding, switch-hitting skillset.
But present-day players growing up in Quebec or on the Canadian prairies might be overlooked were it not for Tournament 12, an amateur showcase event hosted by Alomar and the Toronto Blue Jays that brings elite high school baseball players from across the country to Rogers Centre.
“When I was a young boy, I had dreams to be in the big leagues someday,” Alomar said. “I think this is an opportunity for them to be seen by major league scouts, college scouts and hopefully we can sign some guys and give them an opportunity to reach their dreams.”
It worked last year, when Andrew Case of Saint John, New Brunswick signed with the Blue Jays after a strong showing at the first annual Tournament 12. This year, every MLB organization has scouts in attendance at Rogers Centre, and approximately 60 college recruiters are on hand as well in the hopes of finding a future draft pick or discovering the next Case.
“He’s a huge success story,” said Rob Jack, Blue Jays social marketing manager and tournament organizer. “The goal of the tournament is to get the most amount of exposure for Canadian-born players. Andrew Case is just the feather in the cap because he signed professionally.”
To the dismay of many scouts in attendance, top Canadian prospects, including Josh Naylor and Demi Orimoloye, will miss the beginning of the tournament due to flooding in Mexico, where the Canadian junior team had been playing in the 18U Pan American championship. They’re now faced with the choice of waiting for a flight or taking a 20-hour bus trip to San Diego and flying from there, which means the scouts were left to focus on some lesser-known prospects.
That’s not to say there weren’t familiar names on display during Tuesday’s workouts. Tristan Pompey, the brother of Blue Jays outfielder Dalton was on hand, as was Hunter Spoljaric, the son of former Blue Jays reliever Paul Spoljaric. Infielder Brad Aldred was one of the players to hit batting practice home runs, and while few players matched that kind of power, many displayed impressive foot speed in the 60-yard dash.
Alomar says he sees plenty of talented Canadian baseball players — more now than he did four or five years ago. What do they say to him? “They really don’t ask a lot of questions,” he joked. “I think they’re afraid.”
The players must go through a variety of exercises including batting practice, fielding and throwing drills, sprints, a grip strength test and a vertical leap test. Along the way they get encouragement from former Blue Jays such as 1987 American League MVP George Bell, Devon White and Duane Ward. If they’re lucky they might even get a little trash talk from Lloyd Moseby.
“It’s about getting an opportunity in life and this is a big opportunity, which is why I say to them ‘embrace this opportunity because it could be your only chance,’” Alomar said.
It’s a chance that didn’t exist until last year. But Roberto’s father, Sandy Alomar Sr., urges players not to put too much pressure on themselves. Alomar Sr. tells the high school aged players to relax and let their talent show.
“They try to impress the scouts and people here and then they get away from who they actually are,” Alomar Sr. said.
That’s why he’ll pull players aside on occasion and remind them to “live to express not to impress.” There’s a fine line between making a strong showing and overdoing it.
“When you try to impress you’re going to put pressure on yourself and when you put pressure on, you’re very seldom going to do things right,” Alomar Sr. said.
His son had a straightforward message of his own for the eight teams and 160 players in attendance.
“All I say to them is just ‘go out there, play the game and embrace this opportunity. Enjoy.’ Four things that I told them are respect the game, respect yourself, respect the coaches and go out there and play hard,” Alomar said.
Alomar worked with the Jays Care Foundation to raise $100,000 for the tournament to subsidize travel costs for teams from coast to coast. For example, players from British Columbia paid approximately $330 to play in the tournament, down from $1,400 a year ago. As a result, the Blue Jays were able to include players who wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford the tournament. They also reduced the number of teams from ten to eight to maximize the level of competition seen by MLB scouts and college recruiters.
“It’s more ‘Let’s take the group and make it smaller. Let’s take the really elite group and get them the most amount of exposure we can possible get,'” Jack said.
The scouts in attendance Tuesday were disappointed not to see Naylor and Orimoloye, but there’s always the chance that an unheralded prospect could impress. There’s a lot of projection happening, since these players aren’t finished products or close to it.
“This is what people need to understand,” Alomar Sr. said. “Because of the weather here in Canada these kids don’t get to play the amount of games that we used to play in the Caribbean. We played all year long. These kids play two or three months. Some of them are going to be a little bit behind, not because of the ability but because of the amount of games that they get to play.”
So even on a day that some of the most recognizable prospects weren’t in attendance, players were showing all-out effort and scouts were watching every minute of it in the hopes of uncovering big league talent.
