June 5, 2024

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Way back in 1999-2000, Jose Bautista was a two-way man for coach Jeff Johnson’s Chipola College Indians.

Bautista filled the gaps with line drives, showed light-tower power to left and if needed would be used as a closer in the Florida state JUCO championships ... hitting 96 MPH.

And now all these home runs later, all these teams later (eight ... but he is really only associated with one) and all these years later, he is still a two-way man.

There he was on the Rogers Centre turf wearing a black and blue Toronto Blue Jays City Connect jersey looking oh maybe five or six ounces heavier than he did when he was leading the majors in home runs in back-to-back seasons. During batting practice on the weekend, he did more damage than most of the Jays hitters in a never-in-doubt 14-inning win over Bautista’s former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And he was discussing soccer. His team. His soccer club. Like in the days when his locker was between Edwin Encarnacion and Alex Gonzalez and he’d discuss his favorite soccer team FC Barcelona.

The most recently added member to the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence -- he certainly deserved to be there, even if Lloyd Moseby, Tom Henke and Pat Hentgen and their eras were skipped -- bought into Las Vegas Light FC of the United Soccer League.

Bautista became the primary investor in January taking over as chairman and governor of the club.

A crack veteran soccer observer -- well he watches Canada during the Olympics after he read coverage of Laura Armstrong of the Toronto Star, led with a penetrating question.

“How’s the team looking?” I asked.

“We’re getting better,” said Bautista, brought in to model the Jays City Connect uniforms, “we’re 3-2-7.”

“Ah, does that number seven total represent the total of ties?”

“No, it’s losses. But we’re getting better. I really like Edison Azcona, a young guy from the Dominican Republic.”

JC Ngando from Cameroon, on loan from the Vancouver Whitecaps, and Valentin Noël, of France, formerly of Austin FC II are the Lights better players.

Bautista hired Gianleonardo (John) Neglia as the Lights sporting director/general manager. Neglia worked in baseball operations with the Blue Jays from 2008 until 2021.

Now, 3-3-7 they Lights sit 10th in the 12-team league -- 10 points behind first-place New Mexico United -- ahead of FC Tulsa and El Paso Locomotive.

The Lights are averaging 1,437 fans per home game at the 12,500-seat Cashman Field where the Blue Jays met the Oakland A’s opening day in 1996 when the Oakland Coliseum was under construction.