CANADIANS PLAYING US COLLEGE BALL

Bobble,

As I mentioned privately to you, my son thinks Mariotti is quite the player. He believes he was recruited as a pitcher however. I think he has been battling some health problems this fall as well.

The most famous Canadian I am aware of right now in the states is Doc_K_Kid! Anybody heard from Doc lately?

Hi cleveland.
Yes John is also a great hitter. He averaged 12-13 HRs at Gulf Costal over 2 years and hiiting around 375. My son has pitched aginst him. He played for The Branford Red Sox of the Intercounty League. That league is full of ex pros and top college players. I hope he gets better.
Doc has not posted for some time and I hope everything is well.

there are some canada kids playing at highpoint university in north carolina.some real good ones.
randy schwartz
jeff cowan
tom baleska
steve anderson[next year]

great kids also.

The 1st 3 are very good and should be assets to the team. I don't know the last guy but hopefully he is a good player. Is Boleska healthy ? I believe he was suffering with arm problems while at Miami-Ohio. I believe the 1st 3 were all draft picks.

Bobblehead and j.bags, my son played with Steve Anderson on Team Ontario and my sons OBA team picked him up to go to the Canadian Championships. My son was an underage 1 year younger than Steve, but the OBA team won the Gold Medal for the Canadian Bantam Championships a couple of years back. Steve is an excellent 3rd baseman with an exceptional bat also. My son was down in Jupiter playing for College Select and Steve was just there also playing he was playing for NY/SF Bandits. I am really glad for Steve that he is going to HighPoint and I am sure he will do really well.

deb-i coached the ny/sf.steve can play.i'm friends with danny t.and he sends us some great
players and people.who is your son?
cowen is a very good and hard nosed player.
We had weglarz committed than stolen away last
year.when highpoint wins this year,they are going to get more canadians and change the colors from purple to red.

Weglarz is a great kid. He was going to Oklahma State but signed when drafted. Lots of good guys going to Highpoint. Will be interesting to see if it helps. There is another big slugger up here that probably is headed to a NJ JUCO. Baldinelli signed with Niagara U. Has a big bat and broke some records at a JUCO he was at.

it's great to see so many talented canadian kids
coming out and now ,more and more,getting an opportunity to play at the southern baseball schools.i was up in toronto 2 years ago to evaluate players from team ontario.you have a lot of great kids on the rise in canada.
06's like orr and the pitcher from b.c.[can't]
remember his name,anderson and waltenberry,the pitcher out of quebec.also,a great group of 07's
leslie williams,jebb,bucksbourough and a number of other very talented young players.

j.bags,
My son is Cameron Gray he is an 07 RHP/OF for Team Ontario. When he played for College Select in Jupiter, Tom used him as a closer. He pitched against Marcus Lemon from the Chet Lemon Team and he was clocked with his fastball throwing 91 and his curve ball 74, and he got the strike out. He has been clocked at 92 with his Team Ontario. Cameron plays on the same team as Leslie, Matt, and Colin. His coach has said it is unusual to have a Canadian boy throw over 90 but to actually have 2 on the same team is extraordinary. Leslie has also been clocked over 90, I am not sure about Colin. Cameron has had a lot of mail from different Universities and a couple of calls from Major League teams. His Team Ontario Coach has said wait until next year and he will be receiving a lot more. Cameron is already saying he can't wait until he can play again, but with the weather up here in Toronto it is very hard for the Canadian boys, it has been snowing all day today and with the wind chill -7 degrees. Cameron played as an underage last year for Team Ontario red team which Dan T. was his coach, Leslie played on the Black Team and Marc was his coach.This year Cameron and Leslie are playing with their own age group. Cameron, Leslie and Colin were also invited a month ago to the Team Canada/Mizuno camp held here in Toronto and Cameron had a chance to work out with the Toronto Blue Jays pitching coach (arnsberg). Arnsberg showed Cameron a slider and it is working really well for him. There is a number of really good 07 players and next year should be a great year for them all. I hope this gives you a bit more history and I would be glad to answer any of your questions

i know who your son is thru d.t.
did not see him play but heard good things.
i am close with d.t. and derrick and a few
other of the coach's.in fact,they helped run
the underclassmen bandit team this year at
ft.myers and last years jupiter team[played
at ft.myers]called team ontario.each team had canadians on it[last year-kielty,cowan,weglarz,
ivan rusalvo,m.anderson].keep these good players
coming,i'm sure your kid fits the mold.
i understand about the cold,when i came up 2
years ago it was 20 below that weekend.tell
d.t.i'm stealing him so he can play for us in
florida[only kidding].

Ruscova played for the Tbirds and is currently playing in the Dominican League. Anderson as well as many other Team Ontario Inc. players left last year. Anderson played for The Oakville Royals and signed with a JUCO in Arazona. Waltenbury plays for the Ontario Blue Jays now and several of the players transfered to Team Toronto. Thompson and Picard are great guys but there are lots of chages. Choy and Rick Johnson former TO Inc coaches have been planted in coaching spots for the Ontario Youth Team which is the team that represents Ontario 19U. Team O Inc pushes the 17s.
So far this year the OBJ 18s which where the powerhouse team in Ontario have been getting beat by at least 2 teams in the CEBC.
There are tons of 90mph pitchers in Ontario. One Mexican kid was hitting 90 off flat ground at 16. If you want ball players you have to look at more teams than Team O Inc. The last 2 years that club is middle of the pack. The Team Ontario thing is still fooling a lot of people including Team Canada. That was a very shrewd move by the TOI coaches.
One thread asked if it mattered what team you play for and it sure does.
Excuse my RANT but this is a major sore point in Ontario. I admire the caoches and blame OBA for allowing this to happen. If it were up to me I would seek an injuction to stop them from using Team Ontario unless the letters Inc followed and that when soliciting funds and players it was accompanied by a disclosure that the team did not rep the province.

It took these changes to put a winning Team together for Ontario.

Bobble,

Cameron is my youngest of 3 boys that have played baseball, my older 2 boys strickly played for OBA Rep teams and never got the quality and dedicated coaches and opportunities that Cameron has received. Cameron has also played for The Ravens and the Niagara Renegades. Team Ontario does do a lot of scouting though and saw Cameron at the Canadian Championships in Windsor and invited him out for a try-out, they also scouted the Ontario Elimation Tournament, They also were scouting when they played the other teams in the PBLO because Cameron pitched against them when he played for the Niagara Renegades and asked about him at that point also. We do have 4 kids on the team from Windsor and many other parts of Ontario. They usually hold 2 open try-outs and 2 invite-only tryouts from there scouting reports. The cost for the team this year was $4,200.00 but for what they receive in the tournaments and exposure is well worth it, this amount also covers there food. It is not all about the money because they will do everything in there power to see that a child has the opportunity to play, regardless of finances. I agree that there are many more great players here in Ontario and I do not think they are misrepresenting the name. Until you had posted it never even came to my mind. I do not misreprent the name either, My son plays for Team Ontario, I never beleived it had all the best players in Ontario. I really don't care what name they have I only know about the time and dedication and skills of these great coaches we have. Cameron's 16 year old team this year did play in the senior division of the PBLO and I think it only benefits them to play against this great opposition. His coach dosen't care if they lose, only that they play there best mentally and physically at all times. They also teach them to be good young men both on and off the field.

Deb not trying to rain on your parade but I can send you a copy of my son's invite from Mr Cohen. Mark Picard is one of my favorite pitching guys but to say it is not a misrepresentation is naive.
At 15 my son made the team and he walked on at the final tryout after about 15 tryouts all over Ontario. They wittled down to the finalists and I got permission to bring him. We actually ended up playing for the Renegades for $1200. I worked out Team O was close to $6000 if you went to Florida. My son played OBA as well and Picard sat with me several times during district allstar games. 2 years ago they invited him back and after the 1st tryout invited him to the final tryout.The coaches said he had one of the best glove work they had ever seen. They wanted to play 1st but he just wants to pitch. Only 2 invited. We ended up not going. One of our fiends son's joined and everal of my son's friends played for Team O.
They are at schools that are no better than the one my son goes to. In fact if you look at the RPI they are rated much worse. The rare few such as Weglarz,Davison and some others from the previous years at a good schools like Oklahoma, Northeastern ETC.
I will say that if you want to play Team Canada you almost have to play for team O Inc or OBJ. I think that is common knowledge. Why do you think Team Canada never gets past 1st base. A few years ago the Canadian Thunderbirds were invited to pu together a team to fill in for a Country team that could not show. The organizer called and asked if they could atleast throw some bodies together and atleast showup. They did that and killed Team Canada and won the tournament. They had all their hired guns Loewen Davidson etc and the The Tbirds beat them all.
You may not have used the wrong impression but my son's friends freely admit using the name to extract funds. In 04 we played the 17's and mercied them in the 1st game. The 2nd game they jumped on our pitcher and we had to fight back from an 8 run deficite to tie the game. Team Toronto with all the name players got beat in the elims last year by those lowly OBA guys that the Elite guys dump on.
I will bet that most US scouts think Team O Inc reps the province.

i don't relate to theinternal politics up there,
in different degrees it haqppens all over.
d.t.is great,i can't speak for the other guy's.
your canadian kids are a joy to come and play.they fit in great.we haven't had one that was a problem.
again,take care of d.t.,he's a class act.

j-bags you will not meet a better bunch. WEndt, Cohen Picard all class acts. The only thing I have a problem is with the use of the name.
The batch of players you mentioned was the group my son was with. Probably the end of the 18U high end crop.
The politics have hurt Ontario ball but the talent is still there but more spread out. The Canadian ThunderBirds probably have the most in depth organization and place the greatest # of players into the US. The owner just bought an Intercounty team which is full of ExPro and college players. Ruscova played for them.
You will find most of the organizations have qualty coaches. Several of them are ML scouts. The T-Birds held 15 tryout averaging 100-120 players. We have just under 700 players in the US colleges and this market is untapped. BC also has great players and are easier to view because they have a major tournament called Parksville. Ontario has tons of great players that never get a call. I recommended a RHP to a University in our home town. He won rookie of the year. This guy had no one knocking his door down.
About 3-4 years ago the pro scouts stopped coming to our big tournaments and generally started looking at College guys. Before that we would get 50 scouts to our tournaments. Thats not alot but it was enough. The last time my son was seen by scouts in a game was at the Cannon Cup when he was 16 where he was 1 of 32 selected to tryout for the Ontario Youth Team. He was underaged but trashed Team Toronto.
All I ask is that you look at some of these other teams if you are looking for great players. This coming year there will be some big changes and the politics appears to be letting up a little.

quote:

Originally posted by BobbleheadDoll:
I will say that if you want to play Team Canada you almost have to play for team O Inc or OBJ. I think that is common knowledge. Why do you think Team Canada never gets past 1st base. A few years ago the Canadian Thunderbirds were invited to pu together a team to fill in for a Country team that could not show. The organizer called and asked if they could atleast throw some bodies together and atleast showup. They did that and killed Team Canada and won the tournament. They had all their hired guns Loewen Davidson etc and the The Tbirds beat them all.

Sorry to jump into the conversation but just for the out of country viewers. The tourney Bobble is referring to was a re-warm event in Ottawa before the 2002 World JR Championships. It was the last and final warm up for each the US and Canadian Teams before the Worlds. Believe it or not, after touring all summer neither team cared how they did this tournament. In fact, the US team lost to the Ottawa White Sox, just as Canada lost to the TBirds. Furthermore, in the Canada game the pitchers used were kids who had actually been told they were cut...the night before the game. And one last thing...the White Sox and TBirds were rep'd by mainly older college players 20-22yrs old...playing against 16-18yr olds. Canada and the US did very well in the 2002 World Tourney placing 3rd and 4th respectively.

I was at the presentation when the T-Birds were introduced. Most of the team was there senior team and they had a few 1st yr Canisiud players. I knew them all and they were 19yr olds. Team Canada pitched adam Loewen and all there top guys.

Interesting Adam Loewen pitched, thats funny...because he didnt throw an inning that summer or in that World Tourney. He, his family and his agent agreed it would be best not to pitch until he signs/goto college so that he would not risk injury.
Also, the TBird team had random players that had no ties to the organization at all. (Example Sean Latimer and Chuck Roberts both 20yrs old at the time)
My point is only that the US and Canada did not care how that tournament went, they were tired and anxious to start the real thing. And also that Canada absolutely did not pitch Adam Loewen in that game. A kid by the name of Dustin Molleken pitched for Canada, he was told the night before he would not be on the final roster.

I believe that was the year after the tournament I am talking about. I remember when they would only allow him to play 1st base. He definitely pitched and I thought it was im Montreal. I don't recall the White Sox being in this tourney and several of the International teams were there. The T-Birds won the tournament. I have a hard time believing ant team at that level would put up less than 100%. I used to have the press releases but have tossed them. I will be seeing Davidson in a couple weeks and will try to remember to ask him.

Im talking about 2002. That year the Worlds were in Sherbrooke Quebec. Davidson will tell you that if Canada had Loewen pitching they would have won Gold. I believe you when you say the Tbirds won, however in that tourney Canada also beat Italy 1-0. Showing how much they really cared about being there. (They went on to beat Italy 17-2 in Sherbrooke)

The reason I believe Loewen was pitching is because the coach described the game against Canada and talked about Loewen hitting 94 and how the batters watched it zip in.
THat year in 02 was probably the best Canadian team at the junior level. Did you play for them?

Anybody know whats going on with DOC he did not post on the board for a while...

I emailed him a w3eek ago and no answer. Hopefully he is just studying hard.

I e-mailed Doc on the 21st and haven't got an answer yet. I sure hope it has nothing to do with the scholder problems he has been haveing. But, hey, maybe it is something silly like his computer crashed. I just hope he's alright.

I am concerned about Doc as well. I know lafmom sent him a pm and nobody's heard from him. Please post if anybody finds out anything. Thanks

I've emailed in general everyone and have also posted on the Doc_K_Kid forum.

On a side note SLAM! has a site that lists every Candian playing in the Colleges of the US