Elliott: Lawson can pick it, both at short and with dad's Fender Stratocaster

Ontario Blue Jays INF Brendan Lawson (Toronto, Ont.) was a dominant figure at the Canadian Futures Showcase at Rogers Centre. Photo: Baseball Canada

September 24, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Waaaay back in the old days ... say 1988 and 1989, Dave Stieb would log over 200 innings per season and ball writers from the four Toronto area newspapers flew on team charters.

And we remember Stieb, bringing his guitar on board the charter. 3B Kelly Gruber too, although not as often.

In that two-year span (1988-89), Stieb compiled 33 wins, 11 complete games, six shutouts, 414 innings logged and 100s of “that slider of his is nasty” comments from opposing hitters. They don’t make‘em like that anymore.

Brendan Lawson does not have a Stieb-like slider, but the shortstop has a guitar and a bright future off the showing he had at the Canadian Futures Series as once again the Toronto Blue Jays were solid corporate citizens opening the Rogers Centre doors and roof to the best high schoolers from coast to coast. Plus scouts and coaches.

From all indications, Lawson (Leaside, Ont.) could be lugging his guitar on a team bus or a team plane soon ... if he so desires. The Ontario Blue Jays shortstop already has a scholarship for next fall at the University of Florida. Not many Canadian ball players are invited to be Gators. Lawson is expected to be the top Canadian resident selected in the July 2024 draft.

Some things I know -- “hey coach, your outfielder is a nice polite kid,” or “we could see that play on a TSN top 10 list,” and the dates for 2024 George Strait tour -- but we don’t know what kind of music teenagers play on the guitar nowadays. So we asked ...

Lawson said he plays music by Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Greta Van Fleet. How does a teenager fall in love with rock bands that broke in during the 1960s and the 1970s? GVF hit the charts in 2012.

“My dad, Trevor Lawson, played in bands in high school and is a bit of a collector, so there are always guitars around,” said Brendan.

Father and son share their love of music and guitar. Recently they went to an Eric Clapton concert together. When Trevor was growing up, he said he played in garage bands with friends for fun, then with classmates in law school and colleagues after he started practicing.

Charlie Evermore and Skin & Bones were the names of Trevor’s garage bands and he was a member of then law-themed name bands like the ‘Hung Jury’ and ‘Thin Skulls’ at school. He graduated from McMaster University and Dalhousie University.

“I haven’t played in a band for quite a while, but a guitar is always somewhere in reach in our house and it’s played often,” Trevor said. “Brendan is a natural and picks up new songs by ear. I have seven guitars and a mandolin in my collection.”

Dad’s fave is naturally the first real guitar he bought when he was 15, a black and white Fender Stratocaster Squire.

“I love the sound, the look of it, and I remember how I worked a part-time job to save money to buy it and how great it felt when I went in to pick it out,” said the father.

Now, that guitar is now in Brendan’s room and the one he plays most often, with pop adding, “It means a lot to me to see him getting as much enjoyment out of it as I have - him having an interest and talent that is completely different from baseball.”

* * *

Ah, yes baseball.

Lawson grew up playing at the corner of Eglinton and Bayview, at a ball park known as The Shrine, by OBA Hall of Famer Howie Birnie ... and Howard Talbot Park by others. Now, for those who have never been there it’s roughly 285-to-300 feet down the left-field line and then a hitter has to clear a Screen Monster, which is twice the size of when we first saw it in 1968. Centre field might be 450 feet away. And right field there isn’t a fence, so the distance is ... infinite. You could hit it out of your hand twice maybe and the right fielder could still be camped under it. One former player estimates 10,000 feet to the back of the school.

“If the ball hits that path (from behind the bleachers to the clubhouse) in right, the ball will roll forever, the ball would bounce like coming off a trampoline,” said Brendan. “There were games you played, you hit it pretty good, pretty deep ... and the right fielder would be standing there, easy catch.”

We’ve seen balls like that and usually a wise acre in the dugout will yell “Get back in the ballpark.”

* * *

After joining the Ontario Blue Jays under manager Corey Eckstein (Ancaster, Ont.), Brendan worked with coaches Tim Smith (Toronto, Ont.) and Brandon Dhue (Mississauga, Ont.).

“I’d like to be a pro player, but education is important,” he said.

Brendan and the Ontario Blue Jays had success south of the border both collectively -- winning the BCS Champion 16U Perfect Game Independence Showdown in Sanford, Fla. in 2022 -- and individually.

In 2023, he was named to the Showcase Top Prospect Team at the National Showcase in Phoenix, made the all-tournament team at the WWBA 2024 Grads or 17U National Championship in Marietta, Ga. and earned Preseason Underclass All America All Region first Team honours for the Canada/Puerto Rico region

The year before, he made the All Tournament teams at the 16U PG Independence Showdown in Sanford, the PG 16U BCS National Championship at Fort Myers and the WWBA 2024 Grads or 16U National Championship in Marietta.

He had a short stay in Ottawa last year at the Futures, running the 60-yard dash on Day I and withdrawing from competition. Eligible for the 2023 draft, he re-classified for the 2024 draft.

And he’s been busy: Impressing at the East Coast Pro in Hoover, Ala., the Area Code Games at the University of San Diego, the National Showcase at Chase Field in Phoenix and the All-American game in Seattle, as part of the all-star weekend.

These showcase events are where the best from Maine to California and from Washington State to Florida show to compete against each other in front of pro scouts.

* * *

Next spring Lawson will play for P27 and coach Corey Warner, an academy team that plays out of Lexington S.C., despite the fact he is still eligible to play in the Canadian Premier League. He is too old for the Junior National Team.

P27 has produced three drafted players in INF Logan Wagner, an eighth-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers, OF Alfonsin Rosario, a sixth-rounder of the Chicago Cubs and Danny Flatt, a 14th rounder, selected by the New York Yankees.

* * *

Brendan was recruited to Florida by Gators assistant coach Chuck Jeroloman. If the name sounds familiar it should. His brother Brian Jeroloman was a sixth-round selection in the 2006 draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. He quickly earned the Catcher of the Future tag. And he was promoted to the majors on Aug. 23, 2011, spending the remaining 37 games of the season on the roster.

Yet, he never appeared in a game. It was revealed he had a sprained right wrist although he was never placed on the disabled list. He spent 11 seasons in the minors in the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals and Toronto systems.

Playing with the double-A Harrisburg Senators against the Erie SeaWolves in the 2013 playoffs, Erie runner Brandon Douglas cracked into Jeroloman on a play at the plate. The catcher was hospitalized in Erie with a cut on his chin and was dazed.

Brendan visited Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. on a football weekend and saw the Gators beat the Tennessee Volunteers 29-16 before 90,751 this fall, describing it as a “surreal experience.”

* * *

On Wednesday, the Scout Day at the Futures Game showcase, scouts were anticipating Lawson’s turn to be laser-timed. He chose not to run. He ran a 6.79 60 at the East Coast Pro earlier this summer.

“It’s been a long season,” Brendan said, “plus my legs are a little tight.”

* * *

Brendan played with some solid hitters during his time with the Ontario Blue Jays: like Myles Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.), drafted 39th overall in North America by Oakland A’s scout Matt Higginson (Grimsby, Ont.) and Sam White (Aurora, Ont.) a freshman last spring with the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Naylor, given a $2,202,500 signing bonus, hit .214 with six homers, 18 RBIs and a .669 OPS in 34 games split between the rookie-class Arizona Complex League and class-A Stockton. What did Hall of Famer Chipper Jones hit his first year of rookie-ball in the Braves system? It was .229. Look it up.

White batted .246 with four homers, 23 RBIs and a .792 OPS in 50 games at West Virginia.

And also at many of those showcase event this summer Brendan met and watched CF Dante Nori (Toronto, Ont.) who lives in Northville, Mich. and is the son of former Raptor coach, Micah Nori.

“He’s a spark plug, he disrupts the game,” Brendan said.

The draft is 10 months away -- and while the opinions are not all in from the Rogers Centre scouting crowd it looks like a three-horse race: INF Emilien Pitre (Repentigny Que.) of the Kentucky Wildcats. Nori and Brendan.