The Maple Leaf jersey seems to suit Jesse Hodges of Victoria just fine. The infielder has a gold medal from the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games and silver medal from the 2012 world junior championship in South Korea. Now the Tokyo Olympics beckon the 26-year-old graduate of Lambrick Park Secondary and the Victoria Mariners of the B.C. Premier Baseball League.
Hodges and former Victoria HarbourCats pitcher Will McAffer were named to the 91原创 team for the Americas鈥� Olympic qualifying tournament May 31 to June 5 in Palm Beach and St. Lucie, Florida.
Hodges has the prototype build of a third-baseman of the modern era, at six-foot-one and 212 pounds, with batting ability. He was signed by the Chicago Cubs and played seven seasons in their system, reaching Double-A with the Tennessee Smokies. The Islander had a .239 batting average and .924 fielding percentage in 579 games in affiliated pro baseball in the Cubs鈥� chain. Hodges played independent pro ball last season in Quebec.
Hodges鈥� lineage in Victoria baseball goes back two generations. Dad Steve Hodges was a former minor pro in the Atlanta Braves鈥� system, grand-uncle Berlyn Hodges was also a pro and grandfather Lowell Hodges was well known in Island baseball.
McAffer is a six-foot-two righty from West 91原创, a selection of the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2018 MLB draft, who went 6-2 for the HarbourCats of the collegiate summer West Coast League in 2016 with a downright stingy 1.99 ERA. McAffer is now in Single-A with the Blue Jays-affiliate 91原创 91原创s.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really excited for Will [McAffer]. He is a power thrower who broke our netting, protecting the Royal Athletic Park grandstand behind home plate, with a 94 mile-an-hour fastball that got past the catcher,鈥� said HarbourCats GM Jim Swanson.
鈥淚t cost us $7,000 to fix the netting, and not only that, but the person the ball hit in the stomach after going through the netting was me.鈥�
Canada is in Group B and opens the Olympic qualifier against Colombia on May 31 and plays Cuba on June 1 and Venezuela on June 2. In Group A are the U.S., Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico. The top two countries in each group advance to the final round of the tournament. The winner of the eight-nation qualifier advances to the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. The second- and third-place teams from the Americas qualifier will advance to the World Baseball last-chance qualifier in Mexico in late June where the sixth and final berth into the Tokyo Olympics will be on the line. Veteran Canada head coach and former Blue Jays catcher Ernie Whitt has selected a 25-player roster that includes former major leaguers Andrew Albers, John Axford, Chris Leroux, Scott Mathieson, Dustin Molleken and Scott Richmond.
鈥淲e have a lot of experience on this roster, players that are familiar with international baseball and know what tournament baseball is all about,鈥� Whitt said in a statement.
鈥淥ur team realizes what鈥檚 at stake at this event so we鈥檙e highly motivated to compete for ourselves, our teammates and most of all, for Canada.鈥�
Baseball was not included in the 2012 London or 2016 Rio Olympics. Former MLB player Michael Saunders of Victoria had eight hits, two homers, four RBIs and five runs scored in seven games to pace Canada to sixth place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Pitcher Chris Mears of Victoria and slugger Jeff Guiel of Nanaimo helped carry Canada to the semifinals of the 2004 Athens Olympics before losing late in a dramatic heartbreaker to Cuba and then to Japan in the bronze-medal game.