Blue Jay greats offer pointers

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This article was published 21/07/2016 (3584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most of these youngsters weren’t even born in the heyday of these great Blue Jays, but these kids can say they did one better than the many who grew up idolizing them: they got to play with the pros.

Four of the best to wear the Toronto Blue Jays uniform took 160 budding baseball stars through the paces during a two-day camp at Optimist Park in Ile des Chenes that started Wednesday.

The names of these alumni can be rattled off with ease by any long-time Blue Jay devotees: second baseman Roberto Alomar, star outfielders Devon White and Lloyd Moseby and pitcher Duane Ward.

Many of the kids were in awe Wednesday. Some were too shy to reply to an alumni’s wisecrack, while others were quicker to the punch. All gave the alumni their undivided attention, something their usual coaches surely wish would happen more often.

They didn’t see these Blue Jays on their TV sets, but they gave these pros respect.

“They recognize the names because of their parents, they recognize the name of the team and they follow them now,” said Alex Grenier, the long-time baseball coach and volunteer from Ile des Chenes who applied for this camp to come locally for the first time. “It’s more about the Blue Jays for the kids than it is the stars of the team.”

Those who had the most fun were probably the local coaches and other high-level instructors who helped run the camp, figured Grenier. The adults grew up cheering for these pros, and this week they were still learning from them.

“Standing alongside Robbie Alomar and helping him do an infield drill or watching Duane Ward do some pitching drills or watching Lloyd Moseby doing some outfielding drills, it’s really something for those guys,” said Grenier.

Charlie Smith of Steinbach may have had a leg-up on the fellow campers. The 11-year-old saw some of the alumni play once on TV—an old World Series game from the early 1990s.

He knows they were great back in their day, and he was pleased to have an Alomar baseball card, passed down to Smith from his father, signed by the man himself.

“I liked working with Roberto Alomar just because he’s a baseball legend; it was cool to meet him in-person,” said Smith.

Jaxon Macey-Nolan, 13, who played on the Carillon Sultans Pee Wee AA team, brandished a baseball bat he wanted signed.

He said he was encouraged on opening day of camp to drive his shoulders through the ball while hitting.

“It’s good to get tips from pros,” said the ball player from Lac du Bonnet. “I think it’s great that they’re coming out and doing this.”

For alumni like Alomar, the Blue Jays Baseball Academy, which is crisscrossing the country this summer, is a chance to give back.

“We have to realize that we were kids once, and some of these kids had the same dreams you had,” said Alomar. “It’s always good to have fun with them and give back to them what I learned when I was a kid.”

That includes joking with the kids, like Alomar when he celebrated with a youngster who also wore the number 12 jersey, and being demanding. There were push-ups to be completed, and a plea from Ward to always take practice seriously.

“It was never playing for me,” Ward told the campers, “it was performing.”