Short Hops is a weekly look at news and information that is of interest to the Canadian baseball community from the pros to the local sandlots!
Brock comes oh-so-close to perfecto – Goderich, Ontario’s Brock Dykxhoorn has enjoyed a great deal of success in his short stint in the Chinese Professional Baseball league (CPBL) in Taiwan helping his Uni-President 7-ELEVEn Lions to a league title in 2020 where he was named “Outstanding Player” in the league championship series. That success has continued into 2021, his second season in the league, where he came oh-so-close to throwing a perfect game on April 14th. After allowing a one-out single in the third inning, Dykxhoorn induced an inning-ending double play before proceeding to retire the next 18 batters he faced to earn a complete-game shutout with 11 strikeouts. The three-time National Teamer improved his record to 3-1 on the season through five starts on the mound with a 2.06 ERA and 0.83 WHIP.
Asham captures prestigious award – Brandon, Manitoba’s Faron Asham added yet another award to his impressive coaching resumé after being named the recipient of the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports & Recreation Council (MASRC) Manitoba Indigenous Male Volunteer of the Decade. Asham won Baseball Canada’s Elite Coach of the Year Award in 2017 after guiding Manitoba to a silver medal earlier that year at the Canada Games in Winnipeg. He was later inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.
Kudos to Baseball Manitoba – Speaking of Manitoba, their Provincial Sport Office (PSO) produced an excellent video for their members this week outlining safe practices both on and off the baseball field for their membership when it comes to playing baseball safely during the Covid-19 pandemic. We proved in 2020 that our PSO’s can safely operate a baseball experience for their members and we’re confident that they can do so again in 2021!
Canada held a special place for Jackie – The baseball world celebrated “Jackie Robinson Day” on April 15 marking 74 years to the day that Robinson broke Baseball's color barrier when he made his historic MLB debut. What many don’t know is that Robinson spent the 1946 season (the season before he made his MLB debut) in Montréal with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. Cooperstowners in Canada founder Kevin Glew and Sportnet’s Shi Davidi both wrote excellent stories detailing Robinson’s time in Montréal and his affection for Canada and how he and his family were treated.
