On Monday night the purple and gold of Laurier got a temporary injection of blue as four members of the Toronto Blue Jays visited the WLU Athletic Complex.
Outfielders Vernon Wells and Travis Snider, along with catcher J.P. Arrencibia and pitcher Jesse Litsch, teamed up with Jaysโ coaches and members of Laurierโs menโs baseball team to give local kids instruction in baserunning, throwing mechanics, outfielding and infielding.
โAt the end of the day, itโs all about the kids,โ said Arrencibia. โWe were in this position at some point, we grew up wanting to meet players, and I remember what it was like for me when I got to hang out with someone I looked up toโฆ. [The kids] get to see that weโre just like them. At heart weโre just big kids playing the game we love.โ
The event was the first road stop of the Jaysโ 2011 Winter Tour, which will be travelling across the country offering skills camps to young baseball players throughout Canada. The tour was brought to Laurierโs campus thanks to Hawksโ baseball head coach Scott Ballantyne.
โI got a phone call from a contact I have with the Jays, telling me about the tour and that they wanted to make Kitchener-Waterloo a stop, they just needed a facility,โ said Ballantyne. โAnd I really have to say thanks to a few of the varsity teams who gave up their practice times so we could be out here but weโre just thrilled to host itโฆ. I think itโs huge for Laurier baseball, anytime you can get 100 kids out here with their parents, their families and introduce them to Laurier itโs great.โ
The Jays are travelling across the country this winter in an attempt to re-establish the national support they received in their World Series years by branding themselves as โCanadaโs Team.โ Despite Canadaโs taste for hockey, the players see great potential for acquiring new fans from coast to coast.
โCanadaโs pastime is hockey and I donโt think thatโll ever change,โ said Snider. โWe probably have the biggest fanbase to draw from of any team in the league and if Canadians buy into the fact that we are Canadaโs team I think weโll start to see more and more fans giving us support.โ
While the people of Canada are crucial to the Jaysโ success, the team has just as an important role to play in helping to increase popularity of baseball in this hockey-dominated nation.
โI think itโs all about getting back the support that was here in the early โ90s,โ said Wells.
โYou hear everyone talking about it and then the strike in 1994 really hurt things and the momentum of baseball Canada kind of slowed. But weโre being proactive and getting to work and letting people see that the Blue Jays are doing everything we can to make a connection with our fans.โ
While events such as the winter tour will help to generate a stronger fanbase, Wells knows there is one thing that will do more for the Jaysโ popularity than anything else.
โWinning,โ he said. โWinning solves everything. Thatโs what weโre trying to do is build a winner here and once we start to win and play the kind of baseball that weโre capable of playing weโll get this country back into the game.โ