Baycats' Castaldo gunning for rare IBL Triple Crown

Barrie Baycats infielder Jordan Castaldo has a chance to win the Intercounty Baseball League Triple Crown this season.

July 29, 2019

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Jordan Castaldo admits it's only natural that he thinks about winning the Triple Crown in the Intercounty Baseball league this season but he also says he hasn't taken much time to reflect on it.

With the regular season winding down, the Barrie Baycats infielder is leading in two categories and closing in on another one so it will go down to the wire this week as to who will collect the most RBI.

Castaldo, 30, is the runaway leader in batting average and would appear likely to finish first in homers. He's hitting a monstrous .472, compared to the .382 compiled by teammate Kevin Atkinson. Castaldo has slugged 14 homers, compared to 11 each for Cleveland Brownlee of the London Majors and Sean Reilly of the Guelph Royals, who tagged his 200th career homer over the weekend to become the first player to reach that plateau in league history.

It's only the RBI category that is up in the air for Castaldo: following this past weekend's play, he trailed Atkinson 43-41 with three games remaining.

"I'm not the type of person to bring that stuff up but any competitive man or woman knows that with a Triple Crown, that it's only human nature that you would want to win it,'' Castaldo said in an interview. "If it's meant to happen, it happens. I try not to get too wound up.

"I don't pay too much attention to the stats. Fortunately, I'm so busy at work with the Labourers International Union of North America that I don't worry about it much.''

Castaldo has been outstanding this season to say the least but says he's trying to get rid of a habit that affects his hitting.

"It has something to do with what I am doing with my hands with the bat,'' Castaldo said. "I think I had a pretty slow start last summer and then I figured it out. I've been fighting it the last week or two. It's the way I hold the bat. I'm getting into my fingertips too much.''

The Toronto native spent three years at Connors State College in Oklahoma before going to Arkansas State University for his junior and senior years. He graduated from ASU in 2011 with a degree in business management and eventually played "three seasons and change'' with the IBL's Toronto Maple Leafs. Something happened part-way through the 2014 season and he was traded to Barrie. It's a trade he would rather not talk about.

"I don't really know what to say,'' Castaldo said, when asked why the trade went down. "It was weird. When it came down to it, I really enjoyed going to Barrie.''

Not only has Castaldo been enjoying a banner season individually but he's helping the Baycats stay at the top of the standings as they chase a sixth consecutive league championship. Barrie is out to match the six consecutive titles won by the Brantford Red Sox from 2008-13.

Barrie and the Kitchener Panthers are tied for top spot, both with 23-10 records.

"We try not to get too far ahead of ourselves,'' Castaldo said. "Everybody is coming for us. The pitching in the league has improved year over year. We have to give it our best shot all the time.''