By: Alexis Brudnicki

Canadian Baseball Network

At the tail end of a whirlwind season, Adam Hall is participating in his fourth Tournament 12 event at Rogers Centre, in just the showcase’s fourth year of existence.

One of only two players – along with Ontario Blue Jays outfielder and Hall’s Canadian Junior National Team teammate Cooper Davis – to earn a spot on a Tournament 12 roster every year, the Bermuda-born native of London, Ont., is proud of how far he’s come since he first stepped on the major-league field as a 13-year-old, and Hall is excited for his last opportunity at the Toronto Blue Jays-hosted event. 

“It’s like graduating Tournament 12 now,” he said. “The actual tournament itself hasn’t changed too much but my mindset on it has changed. Obviously, the first year I was kind of just going there and not really knowing what to expect, not really knowing what exactly Canadian baseball was.

“But now, having the experiences that I’ve had there, I understand and I get what it’s going to be. I know what I have to go here and do to prove myself – well, not necessarily prove myself to the scouts in the stands like I was early on, I’ve proven myself to them – but showing that I’m improving, and continuing to showcase what I have.”

Born and raised in Bermuda, the now-17-year-old played mostly soccer, cricket, basketball, rugby and did track and field growing up, honing his baseball skills as much as possible in the country’s rookie league, benefiting from competing against older players. When his parents – Helen and Tyler – took Hall to see his Canadian side of the family in Ontario on their summer break away from teaching, the young infielder got his first chance at a Canadian baseball season with the London Badgers.

It wasn’t long before Hall had moved full-time to the Great White North, and began working under the staff of former professional players at Centrefield Sports, becoming a member of the Great Lake Canadians program in the program’s first season. His initial shot at the showcase circuit was the inaugural Tournament 12, the first of many doors to open for the 6-foot, 165-pound shortstop, and his primary look at what the country had to offer on the diamond.

“I was surprised,” Hall said. “Not that I doubted myself, but I was younger than most of the guys there, so I was surprised that I was able to keep up as much as I did that first year.

“But I was also humbled a bit by seeing some of the guys who were there, especially the Junior National Team players. When I was in Grade 9, I remember setting a goal for myself at the beginning of that Grade 9 year – I wanted to be on the Junior National Team in my next year of high school. I did achieve that and I’m happy I did, but being able to see the overall talent there, it was definitely good for me.”

It was after Hall’s second Tournament 12 appearance that he earned a spot with Team Canada, taking his first trip in the red-and-white jersey to Orlando to match up against Fall Instructional League competition at just 14 years of age. Apart from a knee injury, the middle infielder has been on every trip since then, and has been to plenty more showcases.

Just this year, Hall travelled with Team Canada to Florida in March and April to take on spring training competition, in May he went to the Dominican Republic with the Junior National Team to compete against Dominican Summer League squads, in June he participated in a Perfect Game event in Fort Myers before rejoining Team Canada for their Cuba summer series amidst his Canadian Premier Baseball League schedule with the GLC, and after July’s Under Armour All-America Game at Wrigley Field in Chicago, he headed to the East Coast Pro Showcase in Tampa before the Area Code Games in California and the PG All-American Classic at Petco Park in San Diego.

Still on the schedule is another trip with Team Canada to Orlando.

“If I had stayed in Bermuda, I wouldn’t even be playing baseball because they don’t have age groups for me,” he said. “Maybe I would be doing track and field…Canadian baseball has changed my life a lot. Getting to work with [GLC coaches Adam] Stern and [Chris Robinson] and those guys at Centrefield Sports, they’ve been a huge part of my development. I would be here if it wasn’t for them.

“And the program that Greg [Hamilton, Baseball Canada’s director of national teams] runs is just phenomenal. When you talk to American scouts and they’re impressed and saying that it’s the best program out there, you know that’s really complimenting it. They’re going to want to say that the US has something better – the US is a baseball powerhouse – [and] they’re saying the Canadian junior program is the best program. What I’ve been able to develop through that and improve through that, it’s really been everything.”

Now a veteran on the high school showcase circuit, the Texas A & M University commit has learned a lot about what scouts and college recruiters are looking for, assisting him in being able to take a better approach to each event.

“The biggest thing from showcase events is you have to learn that scouts don’t care if you get a hit or not,” Hall said. “Obviously getting a hit is nice, but what they’re looking for is keeping the ball up, making good contact, and having good at-bats.

“If you’re not able to do that at the time, say you’re not doing well at the plate, there’s other stuff you can do, running a ground ball out, getting down the line home to first, making those plays in the field, making a smart play on the bases, anything like that. And it’s knowing that they’re watching to see how you fail too, because that’s part of the game, how you’re able to deal with the failure part of it.”

It was much harder for Hall at the beginning to direct his focus away from at-bats he wasn’t happy with, or individual plays in the field where he didn’t feel he could display the best of his ability, but now he’s settled in to the point that he can feel comfortable in all situations.

“Now I’m just thinking about having good at-bats, making good contact,” Hall said. “That’s a better approach to have at the plate, so that helps with getting hits a lot. There’s still a decent amount of pressure now, but controlled pressure, if that makes sense. You know that if something’s going wrong, you can do something else, not necessarily to completely make up for it but to help make up for it.”

With an incredibly serious approach to the game, Hall finds that his competitive nature is often mistaken for a lack of fun on the field. Even though he is always focused on the task at hand, his game is elevated by the pressure, and he is having more fun as time goes on and the games get better and harder. 

“There are lots of people who don’t think that I’m having fun when I play because I’m so serious about it,” he said. “But there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a great quality that I have, with my competitiveness. I may not be smiling out there, but I am having fun. It’s the competitiveness that I like and the way that I play the game is serious and always intense, so that’s just me. That’s how I play.”

Some of the most fun Hall’s had began with his first shot at Tournament 12, one of his most memorable moments on the diamond, also helping him earn his opening opportunity with Team Canada.

“I’ll remember my first Junior National Team trip for sure, to Orlando, almost three years [ago] now, forever,” the Londoner said. “Going to Japan [for the junior world championships with Team Canada], too.

“T12, probably the first year of T12 mainly, because that was the first time I had ever played on a major-league field, and T12 was definitely a part of me getting on the junior team…And then both of the All-American Games this year, playing on two more big-league fields is a pretty big thing.”

Happy to have one last chance before he graduates from A.B. Lucas Secondary School to play on the only major-league field in his home and native land, Hall is proud to participate in the fourth-annual event as one of just two players to have been fortunate enough to play in all four.

“It’s nice being at home and being able to have a showcase for just Canadians and the top talent from this country,” Hall said. “And playing at Rogers Centre is always pretty special and it’s pretty cool that we’ve been there all four years. There aren’t going to be too many guys who are ever going to get to have that opportunity.”