Pro athletes rarely play on the teams they rooted for as kids. Growing up in Victoria, that was naturally the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners for Michael Saunders. He knows he has had a charmed existence in playing for both the Blue Jays and Mariners in his MLB career. But now, the man nicknamed the Condor, because of his six-foot-four frame and swooping physical style, has landed in the more unfamiliar terrain of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“The Phillies were one of the first teams to call and they showed interest all during the off-season” said Saunders.
“It’s nice to feel wanted.”
It’s a one-year, $9-million US deal for the former Lambrick Park Secondary basketball and volleyball all-rounder. Ironically, Saunders almost went to the Phillies in a 2009 trade with the Mariners that never happened.
Following his magical first-half of the season for the Blue Jays, Saunders last year got voted into the MLB all-star game with a surge of nationwide balloting at #VoteCaptainCanada. He became the second Victoria athlete to wear the rare and heady Captain Canada label in sport, joining two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash.
But this is a business and the Condor was soon looking for another team after six seasons in Seattle and two in Toronto.
He ends up as a potential boost to the middle of a Phillies lineup that is being retooled.
“I understand what they are doing in Philadelphia,” said Saunders.
“They are in the middle of a rebuild and are looking to win.”
Saunders said he has been with teams in various stages of development, from a rebuild in Seattle, to back-to-back AL Championship Series with a Blue Jays team that had matured.
“I understand what goes on in the [various situations],” he said.
Saunders will likely be switched from mostly playing left field with the Blue Jays and Mariners to right field with the Phillies.
“Right field is actually my most comfortable position,” said the Islander, who played that position in leading Canada to sixth place at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
Being an Olympian, who was also named to the all-WBC team during the 2013 World Baseball Classic, Saunders knows he will be asked about his participation in the 2017 WBC in March.
“It’s always an honour to represent Canada but I have not made a final decision as of yet,” he said.
Cementing his club role with the Phillies represents his livelihood and must be the major consideration. But donning the Maple Leaf has been a career highlight.
“My fondest memories are of representing my country. Any chance you get to wear the word Canada across your chest is not to be taken lightly . . . and I hope I can do it again,” said Saunders.
This is a guy who does not forget his roots. The 2004 B.C. Premier League MVP with the Victoria Mariners was back in town last fall to help out the Mariners with a fundraiser.
Saunders credits Mariners coach Mike Chewpoy for much of his early success, and the two remain close.
“I love any opportunity to give back to Victoria,” said Saunders.
Saunders’ Gordon Head team was Canadian champion and played in the 1999 Little League World Series in Williamsport, as yet another part of Saunder’s past flashed before him. He tweeted his congratulations to old friend Adam Hadwin when the latter became only the eighth golfer in history to break 60 in a PGA Tour event by shooting a round of 59 last week. Now big-league pros, they used to be just a couple of kids playing ball in Gordon Head.
“Adam was a year behind me in baseball but we played together on Victoria travelling teams, including at the Field of Dreams Tournament in Cooperstown, before Adam moved [to Abbotsford],” recalled Saunders.
Now 30 and on a one-year contract in Philadelphia, it’s one season at a time for Saunders. But that allows for taking more of a longer view when looking back, and appreciating the path that got him there.
