Over 100 athletes attend Blue Jays Baseball Academy in Portage

Young baseball players in the region picked up an abundance of tips and tricks yesterday at Rotary Republic of Manitobah Park. 

The Blue Jays Baseball Academy invaded Portage and saw an incredible turnout to their one-day training camp. Geoff Seto, Program Specialist of Amateur Baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays, was very happy to see the Portage community's enthusiasm for baseball. He says anytime they have over 100 kids in attendance, they view the day as a massive success.

"We're trying to grow the game of baseball across all of Canada. The Blue Jays have a completely different perspective than most professional sports teams in the fact that the fanbase is from across the country," Seto explains. "So, every year, we take a look at the markets we want to target, and we hadn't been to Manitoba in quite a while, so we decided this would be a good opportunity to do that. Portage did not disappoint."

He notes they had sessions in Winnipeg, Portage and will be going to Selkirk and Rosenort in the next few days. Seto says the rural markets are very important to them.

"Those are actually the target areas of where we try to go. Our goal is to create a lifelong fan, and that happens in these types of communities, so that's our target demographic," Seto continues. "If these kids enjoy their time today and be able to go home and watch a game on TV with their parents, that's a win for us. If they take one thing away from today, I hope it's having fun. If they go home and say, 'I really enjoyed playing baseball,' we've accomplished our goal."

Ryder Jeffery is an 11-year-old baseball player from Winkler. He took part in the Blue Jays Baseball Academy and says he learned a new technique to try next time he steps into the batter's box.

"I learned, when you're batting, instead of shifting your bat to hit the ball high, you should hit it low," Jeffery shares. "There's like an 80 or 90 per cent chance you'll get out if you hit it high, but if you hit it low, there's a pretty good chance you'll make it on base."

Ryder Jeffery.

Jeffery says he feels more connected to the Toronto Blue Jays franchise after attending this event yesterday. Seto says the prestige of the Blue Jays holds a little more weight outside of Toronto.

"There's that appeal of, 'Hey, the Toronto Blue Jays are in town.' I'm sure some of the kids didn't sleep a lot last night, being too excited, and that showed up at the registration table. They were super excited to get a hat and t-shirt," says Seto. "That's what it's all about, making memories for these kids. We're glad we were able to come out here."

Seto was very impressed by the diamonds in Portage, noting the Prairies get a reputation for being very flat, but one place where that's a positive, is on the baseball field.