ICYMI - Dickson shares memories of Jeter, Walker and Olympics

*Today is former American League all-star and current Baseball Canada president Jason Dickson’s 47th birthday. To commemorate this, we thought we would resurrect this article that was originally published on January 15th of this year.

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January 15, 2020

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Baseball Canada president Jason Dickson was introduced to Derek Jeter’s Cooperstown worthy bat very early in his major league career.

In fact, Jeter, who will be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, was the first batter Dickson faced in his big league debut with the Angels at Yankee Stadium on August 21, 1996.

The then-23-year-old Miramichi, N.B., native was barely warmed up when Jeter, then a 22-year-old rookie himself, deposited his first pitch over the left field wall for a home run.

“In that environment at Yankee Stadium at that time, with that lineup of guys they had . . . Derek Jeter – at the time – was probably the least of my concerns,” recalled Dickson at the press conference prior to Baseball Canada’s National Teams Awards Banquet on Saturday.

“But after you give up the home run, you just keep going, you’ve got to keep going. You’ve got to keep battling. That’s what’s ingrained in you . . . But the more that time has gone on and Derek Jeter has done what he did in his career, it doesn’t sound so bad when you give up your first home run to a Hall of Famer.”

To Dickson’s credit, he settled down to hold the eventual World Series champion New York Yankees scoreless over the next 6 1/3 innings to record his first major league win.

Jeter, however, would continue to be a thorn in Dickson’s side throughout his big league career. The legendary shortstop went 8-for-14 off the Canadian right-hander.

“I don’t think he ever gave away an at bat,” said Dickson, when asked what made Jeter such a tough out. “I don’t think he ever stopped competing on every single pitch. And regardless of what the score was, if you were going to get him out, he was going to make you earn it.”

Over the course of his career, Dickson grew to admire Jeter.

“He played as hard as he possibly could. There were games where he was diving into the stands that he might not need to, but that’s just who he was,” said Dickson. “And quite honestly I’m appreciative that I had the opportunity to play against somebody like that and if young kids ask me about players and who they should be like, Jeter would be at the top of the list.”

Another potential Hall of Famer that Dickson faced and would recommend that young kids emulate is fellow Canadian Larry Walker. Dickson toed the rubber against the Maple Ridge, B.C., native in an interleague series when the Colorado Rockies came to town to face the Angels in September 1997. The Canuck slugger went 1-for-3 against Dickson.

“He hit a home run off me. I think he reminded me of that once,” said Dickson with a smile. “He was a tough out because he covered both sides of the plate. He’d go with it the other way if he needed to and he would pick his spots to really cheat on a fastball in.”

But Dickson’s best memories are of Walker as a person.

“When you get away from the game and you put the stats aside, you really remember the players by the type of person they were and for me, that’s what I remember about Larry Walker,” said Dickson, who would be disappointed if Walker doesn’t receive the call from the Hall on Tuesday.

“I know what his stats were, but that year [1997], Larry came up and talked to me like I’d been in the big leagues for 10 years. I mean, this was a guy who was an established big leaguer and I’m just new. We had the Canadian connection, but he was just so genuine and so unassuming and humble and he made me feel like I was the best guy on the field.”

In his current role as Baseball Canada president, Dickson feels blessed to have Walker serving as a coach on the senior national team.

“We’re so lucky to have him around helping with our younger players,” said Dickson. “He takes time with the younger players because he cares. He’s a proud Canadian. He’s a proud Canadian baseball player and he’s a big part of our Baseball Canada family.”

Dickson, whose big league resume includes a 1997 All-Star game selection, is the head of that “Baseball Canada family.” He just finished his second, two-year term as the organization’s president.

Current Baseball Canada president Jason Dickson (Miramichi, N.B.) (left) with former Baseball Canada president and 2017 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Ray Carter (Nanaimo, B.C.) Photo: Baseball Canada

“I did six years as the vice-president and two, two-year terms as the president and I’m definitely looking to re-up for the next two-year term,” said Dickson. “At that point, that is 12 years, I’m not sure what that means, but I’m definitely a proponent of change and I think after I’ve served a little bit more time if there’s an opportunity for another person to step in and the timing is right that might be the time to make a move.”

During Dickson’s 10 years on the Baseball Canada executive, the men’s and women’s national teams have enjoyed unprecedented success on the field, but while he’s proud of their accomplishments, he’s quick to point out that he doesn’t deserve the credit for that. The work he has done with the organization has been more behind the scenes.

“I think I’m most proud of just continuing to keep the progression going of an organization that has gone from a sport organization and that mindset of thinking as a not-for-profit and getting into that mindset an organization that’s run like a business,” said Dickson. “We have a lot of expectations on us. We support a lot of people and people expect a lot from Baseball Canada and we want to deliver on those things. So it’s important that we’re always making sure that we’re very aware of where we are financially . . . I feel we’re running very efficiently as an organization that way.”

He is also very proud of the marketing efforts of the Baseball Canada staff and their volunteers to promote baseball in Canada.

Being the head of Baseball Canada and pitching to Hall of Famers are two jobs that Dickson probably couldn’t have ever fathomed having when he was a kid. Born in London, Ont., in 1973, Dickson moved to Miramichi, N.B. when he was seven. It was there under the tutelage of coach Greg Morris that he blossomed as a pitcher.

When the talented right-hander reached the midget level, he began hurling for the Chatham Ironmen of the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League, and soon his pitching prowess earned him a tryout with the Canadian National Youth Team that would compete at the World Youth Baseball championships in Brandon, Man., in 1991.

After a strong showing at camp, Dickson was the last player chosen for the team, and he capitalized on his opportunity. With his team trailing the U.S. 4-0 with one out in the second inning in the crucial seventh game of the tournament, Dickson relieved Joe Young and held the Americans to one run over the next 5 2/3 innings. His team rallied behind him for a 10-6 comeback win.

The underdog Canadians proceeded to win the tournament by defeating Chinese-Taipei 5-2 in the final in front of 5,000 boisterous fans at Westbran Stadium in Brandon. It remains the only gold that the Canadian junior team has ever won. For their efforts, the team was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992.

After his breakout performance in Brandon, Dickson attended the National Baseball Institute in Vancouver and was recruited by Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. On the strength of a strong sophomore season, Dickson was selected by the Angels in the sixth round of the 1994 MLB draft. He toiled in the Angels’ system for nearly three seasons, before making his big league debut.

He followed up his debut at Yankee Stadium with four losses to close out the 1996 campaign. But the hardworking Canadian won a rotation spot with the Angels the following spring and his 8-4 record and 3.51 ERA in the first half of the 1997 season earned him a selection to the American League all-star squad.

Dickson was awestruck when he walked into the clubhouse at Jacobs Field in Cleveland and saw his fellow all-stars. Eventually he summoned the courage to strike up conversations with Cal Ripken Jr. and Ivan Rodriguez about hitting, while David Cone and Pat Hentgen were kind enough to lead him through many of the festivities. Dickson didn’t appear in the game, but he – along with his parents, Royce and Anne – soaked in as much of the experience as they could.

In all, Dickson registered 13 wins that season and finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting, behind Nomar Garciaparra and Jose Cruz, Jr. But in tossing more than 200 innings, he could feel his arm tiring towards the end of the campaign. His sophomore season was a struggle, but despite spending time on the disabled list and in the minors, he still managed 10 big league wins.

Doctors later discovered a torn labrum in his shoulder and he underwent two surgeries that shelved him for the 1999 campaign. He returned to make six starts with the Angels in 2000, but his arm never felt the same after the surgery.

Jason Dickson (Miramichi, N.B.) says one of his greatest experiences in baseball was pitching for Canada in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Photo: Baseball Canada

For the next four seasons, the resilient right-hander pitched in the minors for the Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals and in the independent Atlantic League, before suiting up for Canada at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Dickson says he’ll always cherish his Olympic experience.

“It’s hard to even wrap your head around how big that experience was. You’re just part of something that is really, really special,” he said. “And I can still remember the walk around the track in the opening ceremonies and just talking about it now, I can feel the hair standing up on my arm.”

Dickson pitched six innings and recorded a win against Italy in the tournament, helping Canada to a fourth-place finish.

After the Olympics, Dickson returned to New Brunswick and served as the executive director of Baseball New Brunswick, before taking on the same post with Sport New Brunswick in 2008. After a tenure as an administrator with the Mill Cove Nursing Home near Jemseg, N.B., Dickson moved on to his current position as president and executive director of the YMCA in Fredericton.

Dickson is also a devoted husband to his wife, Dana, and a proud father of two teenage daughters, Alex (17) and Ava (15).

So the question is, how does this ambitious executive and father of two teenage daughters fit everything into his busy schedule?

“You know what? I married a really good person. That’s how I do it. It’s my wife,” he said. “She knows my passion for my work at the Y and she knows my passion for baseball because she was around for a lot of my career. She knows how much it means to me. She knows how much I want to give back and when I come to these events [like the National Teams Awards Banquet], she helps me manage that time. She holds down the fort and makes sure the girls are getting to basketball practices and games. I’m really lucky that way. I couldn’t be luckier to have her.”

The same could be said about Dickson — the Canadian baseball community is lucky to have him.