Local Mimico kid goes 3 for 3 including a home run in his MLB debut

Joey Votto who was just called up by the Reds, had a pretty solid major league debut tonight against the Mets.

In addition to his 3 for 3 (and a walk) , he also made a great defensive play throwing out a guy at third (he's a first baseman)

HIs family lives around the corner from us, and my eldest played on the high school baseball team with him.

Was a second round pick, 34th overall and a great, great kid.

Congrats, Joey.

 

But now that the standard has been set so high for young players with the no-hitter last week, he's going to have to hit for the cycle or something tomorrow ...

That's awesome though. Good to see another Canuck doing well in the majors.

 

I'm trying to think of another Toronto born player who's made it in the majors in recent memory

Huggy might know.

Here's the video link

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?w_id=597236&w=mms%3A//a1503.v108692.c10869.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/10869/v0001/mlb.download.akamai.com/10869/2007/open/tp/archive09/090507_nyncin_votto_reel_tp_350.wmv&pid=mlb_tp&gid=2007/09/05/nynmlb-cinmlb-1&cid=mlb&fid=mlb_tp400&v=2&mType=w&urlstr=&mUrl=&type=v_free&_mp=1

 

JR

I watched this game today. He looked good. And he's been a top prospect for Cincy for a bit now. I posted his exploits on the MLB running thread. He was damn impressive.

Soon, every team in the Majors will have a Canuck on it!

 

The theory about most Canadian baseball players being pitchers, so I heard it, was that you could practice your pitching in a basement in the winter.

The last 15 years or so, it seems there are a lot more Canadian position players. Why do you think that is?

 

And the only reason this is worth a separate thread? Because JR wants to force anything and everything Canadian down our throats.

Besides, it was already mentioned in the baseball thread.

 

What baseball thread? There's about five of 'em.

Don't like it? Don't read it.

That's my attitude to all NBA threads, U.S college football threads. And I'm sick of them getting "forced down my throat".

 

And it used to be that most Canadian players came from B.C. because you could extend the season longer because of the nice weather.

I think a lot of it has to do with scouting. The guy who's the director of Canadian scouting for the Jays is a regular at The Goose and is on the road constantly. Maybe MLB teams are just figuring there's more talent up here than they realised. Still, it's a drop in the bucket.

 

Last Toronto-born kid? I'd say Dodgers C Russell Martin of East York (but I think he grew up in Quebec).

 

The grass roots programs started by the Blue Jays way back when are really paying off, not only in better kids but better coaching. And I think that has a ripple effect across the country as kids see the success guys like Larry Walker had.

My seven-year-old is an avid player and on occasion we've watched older kids play waiting for his games and there is some talent here on our area of the Toronto 'burbs. This area is also heavily scouted by US colleges.

 

That's awesome!

Doors are really starting to open, thanks to those who are paving the way.

 

Yeah, he grew up in Montreal I believe but we can still claim him here.

The funny thing about it is that baseball registration is way down. Three OMBA leagues in my area merged about 6 or 7 years ago just to keep going and the High Park Little League program has dropped a couple of teams at the minor and major level .