The Toronto Blue Jays aren't coming to Prince George this year, but there will still be a local connection when the Major League Baseball team begins its series of summer youth camps next week.
Local baseball coach Jim Swanson has been invited to be part of the Blue Jays Honda Super Camp in Kelowna from July 9-11 and Vancouver from July 12-14. He'll be instructing alongside a handful of Jays alumni, many of them from the team's heyday when it won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and '93.
"Obviously spending time with Robbie Alomar, Duane Ward, Lloyd Moseby, the other guys who are going to be there -- I plan to be more attentive than the players," Swanson said.
Other former Jays who are making the trip to BC for the camps are Sandy Alomar, Homer Bush, Rance Mulliniks, John Olerud and Paul Spoljaric.
A handful of Prince George ball players will be among the 150 young players at the Kelowna camp and Swanson said he plans to bring back the messages he picks up from the Jays when he coaches others in Prince George.
Kelowna and Vancouver are the first of 12 camps the Jays will hold from coast to coast over the next two months.
The camps not only raise the Blue Jays' profile across the country, but they also give young players the chance to get hands-on instruction from World Series champions. Swanson said he was amazed last summer by how dedicated the major leaguers were to helping the aspiring ball players.
"These aren't the type of guys who will show up and then go out for a coffee," Swanson said, adding he was particularly impressed with the attention Ward gave to camp participants in Prince George last summer.
Swanson is hoping the Blue Jays will make another visit to Prince George in 2013 in advance of the World Baseball Challenge, but he said the community will likely face stiff challenges from cities like Kamloops and Trail, who may also be bidding to host one of the camps. The presence of the single-A Vancouver Canadians means one of the BC stops will likely be Nat Bailey Stadium every year.
The sites of the 2013 camps aren't expected to be released until next spring.
