Ready, set, go time for Tournament 12
Now the long wait is over.
No, not for the start of school -- the start of the fourth annual Tournament 12 at the Rogers Centre.
On Thursday, Scout Day Atlantic Maroon takes the field for an hour at 11 am working out before college recruiters and major-league scouts. Next are the Prairies Purple followed by Alberta Red and BC Orange.
And at 3 o’clock Quebec Blue takes the field followed by Futures Navy, Ontario Green and Ontario Black.
The Blue Jays Baseball Academy and Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar have selected a total of 168 players to participate in Tournament 12, presented by New Era. Some of the players selected include: Jason Willow (BC), Clayton Keyes (Alberta), Conor Sparks (Saskatchewan), Victor Cerny (Manitoba), Adam Hall (Ontario), Cooper Davis (Ontario), William Sierra (Quebec), Brett Mercier (New Brunswick), Jaden Griffin (Nova Scotia), Brett Platts (PEI), and Daniel Hogarth (Newfoundland).
Current team rosters are now available at Blue Jays.com or the Canadian Baseball Network.
Tournament 12 is a national baseball tournament designed to showcase the best college-eligible Canadian-born players to both professional scouts and college recruiters. The tournament will take place at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Sept. 14-19. Alomar will act as the tournament commissioner and will receive assistance from his father Sandy Alomar, along with Blue Jays alumni George Bell, Duane Ward, Lloyd Moseby, Devon White, Carlos Delgado and Tanyon Sturtze.
Eight teams of 21 players will represent their regions of Canada and will play a minimum of four games at Rogers Centre with a tournament champion being crowned on Monday, Sept. 19. All players were selected by the Blue Jays Baseball Academy with assistance from the Blue Jays Scouting Department and Baseball Canada.
The 19 tournament games will be umpired by members of the Baseball Canada High Performance Program for Canadian Umpires.
Tickets are now on sale with daily passes starting at $22, and tournament passes priced at $40. Children aged 14 and younger will qualify for a $12 youth ticket. Seating is general admission and tickets are available for purchase at bluejays.com/t12, or by visiting the Blue Jays Box Office at Rogers Centre located at Gate #9.
Jays Care Foundation will make a financial contribution of $100,000 to help remove barriers to participation for players travelling from outside Ontario. These funds will be used to help assist with player travel and accommodations for the tournament.
“With the amount of baseball talent coming out of this country, I am very honoured to help provide Canadian born players with this unique opportunity to show their skills to college recruiters and professional scouts,” said Hall of Famer Alomar.
Tournament 12 alumni include; Josh Naylor (San Diego Padres), Gareth Morgan (Seattle Mariners), Demi Orimoloye (Milwaukee Brewers), Mike Soroka (Atlanta Braves), Andrew Case (Blue Jays), Miles Gordon (Cincinnati Reds), Andrew Yerzy (Arizona Diamondbacks), Charles LeBlanc (Texas Rangers), Jordan Balazovic (Minnesota Twins), Josh Burgmann, (University of Washington), Zach Pop (University of Kentucky), Ben Onyshko (Stetson University), Royce Ando (Michigan State University), Tristan Pompey (University of Kentucky) and Mitch Bigras (Boston College).