July, 9, 2016 at 7:31 PM

By Jim Ellis
jellis@miaminewsrecord.com

FREDRICTON, New Brunswick — Jason Dickson has come full circle so to speak with Baseball Canada.

He recently was elected president of the governing body of amateur baseball in Canada which he credits with opening doors for him to attend Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in 1993-94.

“Really, from my time at NEO, that’s when my baseball career really took off,” Dickson said by phone last week. “I played year round and had some good competition. I was in the right baseball environment for me. Baseball Canada kinda sparked that and NEO was the springboard.”

Dickson, raised in Miramichi, New Brunswick, said playing on the Canadian National Team in 1991 was the turning point.

“Jim Stevenson (a former Norse assistant, now a scout for the Houston Astros) spotted me and created that opportunity for me to go down to NEO,” Dickson said.

He thought about going to school in Canada, then making the transition to NEO.

But Stevenson was able to lure him to Oklahoma. The fact that Dickson was one of several Canadian players on the NEO team helped sway his decision.

“The thing I remember the most is I came from a bit of a smaller area, so it was back into that environment again of a small town (Miami) where everybody knew everybody and a lot of stuff centered around the college,” Dickson said. “It was a good fit for me.”

Dickson was only 9-9 in two seasons at NEO, but was drafted by the then-California Angels in the sixth round of the 1994 amateur draft (153 overall).

“He was throwing around 92 (mph) when he was at NEO and he had pretty good sink on the ball and had a decent breaking ball,” former Norse coach Rick Ritschel said. “He was working on that and a changeup. He probably would have gone higher if he were just a little bit taller.

“They wanted the 6-3, 6-4 guys. I think Jason was maybe 6-1. If he’d been any taller, he may have gone in the first or second round.”

Also on the Norse staff was Eric Iverson, who assisted in baseball before moving over to softball and eventually volleyball at NEO

Dickson enjoyed a meteoric rise through the Angels’ farm system and made his major league debut on Aug. 21, 1996.

It was an inauspicious one: his very first major league pitch was blasted for a home run by New York’s Derek Jeter. The Angels went on to post a 7-1 victory.

Dickson was named to the American League All-Star Team in 1997 as a 24-year-old.

He finished with a 13-9 record with a 4.29 earned run average in 203 2/3 innings of work.

“He was a great student, he was classy, he worked hard,” said Ritschel, now living in Glenpool. “You never had to ask him to run or anything. He did it all. He worked hard and it paid off for him.”

The injury
Dickson struggled in 1998, going 10-10 with a 6.05 ERA. Things soured after that as a torn labrum in his pitching arm started his downfall.

He missed the entire 1999 season recovering from shoulder surgery and won just twice in 2000, starting only six games.

Dickson bounced around, signing with Toronto, Tampa Bay and San Francisco, but never saw action. He attempted a comeback in 2004, going 2-2 with a 3.55 ERA and 20 strikeouts in five games with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League.

He then signed with Kansas City on May 21, 2004, and reported to Triple-A Omaha, but never pitched for the Royals.

“I don’t know if I pushed it, tried to come back too quick or what the problem was, but I tore it again and had to have a second surgery,” Dickson said. “I think I finally go it somewhat mended, but it got past that fine line of being able to play at the big league level. I was still functioning at the Triple-A level, but I knew that I was never going to get back to the form that I once was in.”

He made the decision in 2004 to stick it out long enough to get to the Olympics, which were held in Athens, Greece.

“That was the final kick of the can for me,” Dickson said. “I felt I had a lot of other things to offer, so I was kinda anxious to move in that direction, too.

“I am very fortunate for that. It was a pretty special event, played with a couple guys I had played with on the junior team many years before that. The opportunity to represent your country is pretty special. There is another memory I will never forget.

Canada finished fourth, losing 11-2 to Japan in the bronze medal game.

He’s hopeful of getting baseball back into the Olympics.

“We (Baseball Canada) are pushing hard,” Dickson said. “Our staff is working with all those different groups and are lobbying doing everything we can. Obviously we want to get it back in there.

“They combined baseball and softball together, they are two different organizations in Canada, as they are in the States, but we are working with our softball partners to really get it back in. I would really love to see it get back in.”

Dickson became the 11th president in Baseball Canada’s 52-year history last month, succeeding Ray Carter, who held the position since 2000.

Dickson served a stint as executive director of Baseball New Brunswick and has been Baseball Canada vice president for the past six years.

“Ray is an unbelievable guy,” Dickson said. “He’s been around my baseball career probably for 25 years. He is the voice of reason and handles his business with respect and he’s well respected. He treats everybody fairly and equally. He’s such a good guy.

“I was lucky enough to be around him for the last six years while being the vice president. He groomed me and helped me understand about what was coming along, hoping I would take on the role. Ray is in his 70s and has done a lot for baseball, but he decided it was time for him to go. Obviously I was never looking to push him out.”

Efforts paying off
Dickson has seen the fruit of the labors pay off as more than a dozen Canadian players dot rosters of Major League Baseball, including the Blue Jays’ Russell Martin and Michael Saunders, plus Brett Lawrie and Justin Morneau of the White Sox.

“Our program has come a long way,” Dickson said. “You see the results in the big leagues. There are a lot more Canadian players. There are players filtering through some of the college systems, too.

“Baseball in Canada has come a long way. We were known as ‘hockey country’ for a lot of years, but in the last little while, we have made some huge improvements. We’re seeing it with the results on the worldwide scale, in rankings and things like that.”

Just like the Dallas Cowboys once were “America’s Team,” the Blue Jays are Canada’s team, both literally and figuratively.

The move of the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C., after the 2004 season left Toronto as the only MLB team north of the border.

“It’s the one team everybody roots for,” Dickson said. “If the Jays have a good run like they had last year, we see our membership jump. I think we are looking at 20 percent this year across the country.

“You add more players, do better things, and then you have a better chance of developing big league players. We go as they go. If they do well, it helps us for sure.”

In 2015, Toronto reached the post season for the first time since winning the 1993 World Series, clinching the American League East title.

The Blue Jays beat Texas in the American League Division Series, but ran into a buzz saw in the Kansas City Royals — who won the American League pennant for the first time since 1985.

“We just recently signed a national sponsorship with Dairy Queen of Canada,” Dickson said. “That is a big one. That is just the tip of the iceberg as momentum grows.

“We have a partnership with the Jays, who are owned by Rogers, which is a one of the huge communications companies here in Canada. It’s just starting to grow for us. It’s exciting times to be involved with Baseball Canada.”

It has been a busy several weeks for Dickson, who also assumed the reins as CEO of the Fredericton YMCA in on July 1.

He will be splitting time between his Baseball Canada duties and the YMCA.

“I am trying to figure out what I am doing and trying to remember everybody’s name,” he said. “I am back to doing the things I love, working with kids. Fredericton is a nice tight-knit community where everybody knows everybody. That is still the fit for me. That is probably why Miami was a good fit for me. I love that part of it.”

Dickson said the last time he stopped by NEO and Miami was during his playing days with the Angels.

“I was driving back to New Brunswick with my girlfriend — now my wife,” he said. “There were a lot of good memories. I had a good time there. I still talk to a lot of the guys I played with there.”

Jim Ellis is managing editor of the Miami News-Record. He can be reached by phone at 918-542-5533, ext. 3052, or by email at jellis@miaminewsrecord.com. Follow him on Twitter @mnrsportsguy.

Dickson's travels: from Miami to the big chair in Ottawa