BY MIKE CORMACK
sportsnet.ca
With pitchers and catchers already trickling in to major league baseball spring training camps in Florida and Arizona, baseball season is clearly at hand.
And in our contuining efforts to enhance the depth and range of our baseball coverage from coast-to-coast, sportsnet.ca is proud to announce a new content partnership with Bob Elliott’s Canadian Baseball Network.
Those of you already familiar with the web site will know that for over a decade it has been an invaluable resource for news and analysis on baseball in the Great White North at all levels, amateur and pro, especially his Canadian MLB draft list.
The man behind the site for the past 17 years is 2012 J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun.
Elliott recently chatted with sportsnet.ca to help give you a sense of the type of Canadian Baseball Network content you can expect to see on sportsnet.ca in the weeks and months to come.
SPORTSNET.CA: At the bottom of your site, you list 1995 as the first year of the Canadian Baseball Network began. What happened that year?
ELLIOTT: It’s all Ryan Dempster’s fault. Well, not really, but in 1992 I started running in the Toronto Sun a Baseball America style-top 10 Canadians for the June draft.
The list was not my opinion-how could I compare a right-hander in B.C. to one in Quebec-but one compiled after talking with scouts from coast to coast. Some co-operated, some scouts did not, but I was able to come up a consensus.
The original story with a chart would run in February and then I’d update it two or three more times, the final time a couple of days before the draft.
All went smoothly in 1992 (Windsor’s Justin Adam and Toronto’s Terry Adams), in 1993 (Leamington’s Danny Klassen and Scarborough’s Todd Betts) and in 1994 (Nepean’s Mike Kusiewicz and Toronto’s Alex Andreopoulos) in the top five.
Then, came 1995.I sent in my first list leading up to the June draft and it looked like this:
1. RHP Ryan Dempster, Gibsons, B.C.
2. RHP Aaron Myette, Surrey, B.C.
3. RHP Yan LaGrandeur, Granby, Que.
4. RHP Trevor Bishop, Assiniboia, Sask.
5. C Blaine Forton, Lundar, Man.
Not an Ontario player in the bunch, so the paper decided not to run it based on the fact that it would not be of much interest to our readers, as at the time we sold papers from Windsor to Ottawa.
Assistant sports editor John Kryk suggested I try CANOE, our internet site which had just began. I met with Jim O’Leary and Mike Simpson, both former sports editors who had gone to the web site and they organized a SLAM! Canadian baseball page … giving the draft list interest coast to coast.
So, basically a lack of Ontario players in the top five that year spurred the move to the web site.
For more on the draft, read Elliott’s Draft FAQ.
SPORTSNET.CA: Why is a site such as yours so important?
ELLIOTT: Players such as Brett Lawrie, Phillippe Aumont, Adam Loewen, Jeff Francis or Scott Thorman didn’t need any help to be promoted heading into the draft.
Plenty of others have been noticed and checked out by teams. A few scouts have said after the draft, “You know, I didn’t even know about that guy until I saw his name on your list, went and checked him out.”
The site grew from the draft list to Mike Simpson’s idea of a master list of Canadians in college. At the time I asked Bill Byckowski of the Blue Jays how many Canadians were playing south of the border. He guessed about 100 and said it would be impossible to figure out. I scoured the web sites of all the schools, coaches and parents emailed in names and the first year our Canadians in College list totalled 490 in 1999.
That began the Canadian Player of the Week, the All-Canadian team, Canadians in the Minors and it continued to grow.
Now, the number of Canadians who play the majority of their season south of the border is over 700 each year … although all 2012 rosters have not been posted, so we’re only at about 620 for this year … to date.
A total of 469 Canadians were playing hockey on scholarship during the 2011-12 season.
Add to that another 750 Canadians playing at Canadian schools and you can see that stories of baseball leaving triple-A Calgary or Montreal does not mean the end of the game here.
Having watched players work out at indoor facilities, practice or play, I know they work as hard as any hockey player-but without the recognition. This provides a vehicle for recognition.
SPORTSNET.CA: You describe your draft list as the backbone of your site. Why is that?
ELLIOTT: Early on the list ran on MLB Canada and after some complaints (“Why isn’t my son on the list?”), and questions reaching the commissioner’s office in New York (“Does this mean the list is sanctioned by Major League Baseball?” the Toronto-based MLB Canada pulled the plug and the list was taken down.
This was around Dec. 15. On the Monday after New Year’s I received my first indication of how powerful the site had become, receiving nine emails from scouts, agents and school recruiters asking the same question: “Where is your list?”
So, we flipped the list over to SLAM! sports again and life moved on. Each year there are complaints: are you working for Team Ontario? The Ontario Blue Jays? The Ontario Terriers? Or fill in the blank.
A good line came from a reader last year when he remarked how I had a “tough job, flying from Toronto each night … to climb into bed with the Langley Blaze and then getting up in the AM and flying back to Toronto.”
The top two drafted Canadians high schoolers-and three of the top six-played for Langley in 2011.
Does being on the draft list guarantee being drafted? No, not at all.
We’ve had coaches and friends ask to put a player on the list … as a favour. But we’re not making someone happy for a week in February to have his hopes dashed in June.
The draft site continually leads the site in total hits.
SPORTSNET.CA: What’s the biggest challenge today facing baseball in Canada?
ELLIOTT: One thing facing high schoolers is deciding how to deal with advisors after being drafted. Does a player sign with a pro team or go to school?
Last I saw, the average major league career lasts 3.8 years, so most players are going to work longer than the number of years they can play so an education is a must, I think.
How much does one take to ignore an education? $50,000? $150,000?
As one former Canadian MVP said after a number of Canadians failed to sign: “do they not understand you make your money in the big leagues … not off your signing bonus?”
Shortening the draft from 50 to 40 rounds will hurt the total number of Canadians drafted (for example eight players were selected in the 41st round or later) but I’m not sure it will affect the number who sign. A year ago 35 Canadians were drafted with 23 signing, plus six free agent signings (that total should rise).
SPORTSNET.CA:You have a large network of hand-picked writers. Where are they based and how do you decide whom to use?
ELLIOTT: We have a lot of people with a great passion for the game led by Kevin Glew (@kevinglewsports), who used to work for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame; London’s Todd Devlin (@todddevlin); Toronto’s Alexis Brudnicki (@baseballexis), who has written for Baseball America and is currently down under working for the Brisbane Bandits, but she will be back for the start of spring training; and Chris Toman (@christoman), who is headed to MLB.com this summer.
Adam Morisette, who wrote for us before we loaned him to Baseball Canada, is a key contributor, as is trivia expert David Matchett.
April Whitzman (@alleycat17), from Campbellton, N.B., shares her interviews on Canadians from her site JaysProspects.com, and the same goes for Devon Teeple’s observations from the GM’s Perspective (@devonteeple).
Our prime catch is Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Allan Simpson, who founded Baseball America and now runs Perfect Game scouting service.
The wisest, most experienced scribe is North Bay’s Neil Munro, formerly of Stats Inc. and the No. 1 man when it comes to statistical facts about Canadians.
Calgary’s Jonathan Hodgson (@JHodgsonCBN) began writing for us in Grade 10 and has now gone off to school, while Robert Broughton from the West Coast looks after the NAIA and all things surrounding the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.
The roster is completed by Marc Alexander Blais (@mablais) of Quebec City, Calgary’s Ruben Lipszyc (@rubenlip), Steffan Oolup and Bryan Mcwilliam (@BryanMcWilliam), both of Toronto.
SPORTSNET.CA: What can you tell us about the Pointstreak scoreboard you use?
ELLIOTT: Pointsteak came about from a story we wrote about their inroads in the statistical market. Now, you can check our nightly scoreboard and see with the second baseman for the Fraser Vally Chiefs in the B.C. Premier League that night or is hitting on the season. Or how the right-hander with the Okotoks Dawgs is faring on the road, what his pitch count is, how many he’s walked and on and on.
These guys are ahead of the game. I’ve heard the story of the father with a Pointstreak phone app feeling his phone vibrate while he was standing in line at the airport, clicking on his phone and seeing his son hit a home run.
It’s as deep and detailed as ESPN’s GameDay.
SPORTSNET.CA:Is there such a thing as playing baseball a Canadian-way?
ELLIOTT: As Adam Stern told players at the Ontario Blue Jays inaugural Hall of Fame induction banquet in November, “Canadian players don’t quit. They bust their butts on every play. Players have a duty as a Canadian to be a grinder. Ask Justin Morneau, Joey Votto or whomever, and they will tell you the same. It is your job to break up two, to play the game hard.”
Logan White, the Los Angeles Dodgers scouting director who converted Russell Martin from an infielder to a future all-star catcher told me once, “I’ve seen a Canadian fail to make it because of a lack of talent. Never have I seen a Canadian fail to make it because of a bad attitude, like some kids.”
Dick Groch, who signed Derek Jeter, said when he began scouting Canada he liked to find out who had played hockey.
“There is something about the toughness which translates well to baseball,” he explained.
Another scout once said of his minor-league coaching days… “We’re playing, it’s a little chilly, it’s drizzling and the California guys are complaining about the bad weather. The Canadian kid is asking ‘can you hit me some more ground balls after the game.'”
Watch Canada play Cuba; it’s like watching Canada-Russia hockey in the 1980s: each team cracks the opposing catcher. It’s not a ballet of bruises at second base but rather an audition for down field tacklers on special teams.
And there has been a game or two when we’ve noticed the hit-by-pitch column contain more than four names.
SPORTSNET.CA: As you are about to be presented with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award at the Hall of Fame ceremonies in Cooperstown this July as the first Canadian winner, what are you most proud of?
ELLIOTT: Wow, great question. I have a lot to be proud of: speaking to high schoolers-aspiring players or writers-and getting thank you notes years down the road and two children, who have given me every reason to be proud.
Guess I’d be proudest of falling in love with a game, growing up chasing foul balls and helmets as a bat boy for my father’s teams in Kingston, stumbling onto a scorekeeper’s job in Grade 10, coaching a little and then being lucky enough to earn a living covering Major League Baseball and meeting coaches, scouts, broadcasters, writers, meeting wonderful storytellers and yes, even some players, while watching baseball from Puerto Rico, to the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Italy, Greece and North America.