TORONTO – Dalton Pompey and Michael Saunders will suit up for Canada at next month’s Pan American Games qualifying tournament in Sao Paolo, Brazil, the national team’s first step toward a run at securing a berth for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Joining them will be fellow former big-leaguers Adam Loewen (as a two-way player), Scott Richmond, Phillippe Aumont, Chris Leroux and Dustin Molleken, as well as Pompey’s younger brother Tristan, the Miami Marlins’ third-round pick in last year’s draft.
Canada will play out of Group A along with the host Brazilians, Mexico and Nicaragua in the Jan. 29-Feb. 3 tournament, with the top-four finishers earning a spot in the July 26-Aug. 11 Pan Ams in Lima, Peru.
The United States is taking a pass on both tournaments since there won’t be any Olympic berths up for grabs at the Pan Ams. Rather, the top finisher among teams from the Americas at November’s Premier12 tournament will qualify for Tokyo, with two other chances to book one of the six spots for 2020 to follow afterwards.
The Pan American qualifier and the Pan Ams themselves, assuming Canada qualifies, will provide Baseball Canada with ample opportunity to build a strong roster for the WBSC Premier12 event, which runs Nov. 2-17 in Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
Other players who will suit up for Canada next month include Eric Wood, Daniel Pinero, Wes Darvill, Jacob Robson, Jesse Hodges, Kellin Deglin, Dustin Houle, Andrew Case, Ryan Kellogg, Evan Rutckyj, Jared Mortensen, Jay Johnson and Jasvir Rakar.
The junior national team, which earlier this month won bronze at the U18 Pan Am Championships, plays in the U18 Baseball World Cup in 2019 on a packed international calendar.
[snippet id=3305549]
CHANGE FOR WOMEN’S TEAM
The Canadian national women’s team will have a different look as it begins a new competitive cycle, with Aaron Myette at head coach and longtime mainstay Nicole Luchanski retired.
Luchanski, 29, leaves the program with five World Cup medals – including a bronze this past August – along with a silver at the 2015 Pan Games in Toronto. The two-time team MVP isn’t the squad’s only high-profile departure, with Andre Lachance leaving the dugout to focus solely on overseeing the women’s program.
That opened the door for Myette, a native of New Westminster, B.C., who was a Chicago White Sox first-round draft pick in 1997. The right-hander pitched in parts of six big-league seasons with Chicago, Texas, Cleveland and Minnesota, was part of the 2004 Olympic team, and joined the women’s team as pitching coach in 2016.
Focuses for the women’s team in 2019 will be a February development camp in Cuba, scouting this summer’s national championships for potential players and a World Cup qualification tournament.
CANADIAN-MADE GREEK DREAMS
With baseball’s looming return at the 2020 Tokyo Games rekindling Olympic dreams around the globe, two Canadians are trying to help rebuild a Greek program that’s come undone since 2004 Athens.
Rye Pothakos, an associate scout with the Kansas City Royals born in Thunder Bay, Ont., and now rooted in Saskatchewan, is the head scout and a coach for the Hellas National Baseball Team. John Bissylas, who was born in Toronto and coached high school and men’s teams in the city after being raised in Athens, is a coach for the squad.
Along with general manager Tom Mazarikis and manager Jim Essian, the former Chicago Cubs skipper, the two Canadians are trying to pull Greece back into Europe’s A pool after the national team fell on hard times in recent years.
While their chances of turning things around in time to factor in 2020 is unlikely, their goal is to develop a sustainable structure by building an under-23 team made up of North Americans of Greek heritage alongside the national squad.
“Making the Olympics is going to be hard,” concedes Bissylas. “But we want to build an organization that’s going to have some legs. That’s why the U23 is really important. We want to take the national team and U23 to the highest level and help these Greek Canadians and Greek Americans get exposure and opportunities.”
[relatedlinks]
To that end Pothakos, using his connections built up over years working the collegiate game, and Bissylas have been scouring Canada and the U.S., seeking eligible players. Among their plans is an exhibition series versus St. Clair College in Windsor, Ont., as part of the city’s Greek festival in the summer.
That will be part of the build toward the European B pool championship this July in Bulgaria and Slovakia, with the winner earning a berth in September’s A pool championship, when an Olympic spot will be up for grabs. Pothakos and Bissylas expect about a third of Greece’s 24-man roster of college and independent ball players to be Canadian.
Both have already had a taste of international competition with Greece and are looking forward to next round.
“I love the game of baseball and I love the country of my heritage,” says Pothakos. “You put those two things together and it fuels you.”
Bissylas’s work with the Greek national team has been especially fulfilling since a herniated disc kept him from taking part in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
“I felt complete, I’m part of the team,” he says of his first forays coaching. “I felt so proud. The most amazing thing is standing for the national anthem of the country of your heritage.”
