Saunders humbled by Baseball Canada Wall of Excellence honour

January 17, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

If you added up Michael Saunders’ statistics from international competitions, he’d be near the top of Canada’s all-time leaderboard in most offensive categories.

In the 2007 World Cup, he hit .381 with three home runs.

One year later, at the Beijing Olympics, he batted .286 with two round-trippers.

And his 8-for-11 performance at the 2013 World Baseball Classic earned him pool MVP honours.

With those numbers, it’s easy to understand why Michael Saunders became the 12th member of Baseball Canada’s Wall of Excellence on Saturday. He was honoured at Baseball Canada’s annual Awards Banquet and Fundraiser at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel at Rogers Centre.

“I’m very humbled to have my name up there with the likes of the guys that are already up there,” said Saunders of the honour. “I was talking to my dad the other day and he said, ‘Isn’t it funny where things go after just playing a game of catch in the backyard when you were five years old?’”

Saunders first suited up for Canada with the Junior National Team when he was 15 and he officially retired as a player after competing with the national team in the WBSC Premier12 Tournament in November 2019.

When talking with him, it’s clear he savoured every moment in a Team Canada uniform.

“On paper, we [Canada] may not be the strongest team, but we’re always the team that could beat anybody,” said Saunders, reflecting on his time with the national team. “I think collectively we [as Canadian players] have the same goal in mind – and that’s playing for the team, playing for the country. No one is worried about the name on the back of their jersey.”

Of course, Saunders’ success wasn’t limited to the international stage. He also belted 81 home runs (12th most by a Canadian) in 775 games in a nine-season major league career with the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies.

It’s an impressive resume when you consider he didn’t decide to focus on baseball until he was 15. When he was growing up, his parents encouraged him to play hockey, basketball and volleyball on top of baseball. He believes that playing multiple sports and keeping his options open helped him.

“I think that’s what molds you into becoming what you were meant to be,” said Saunders.

As it turned out, Saunders was “meant to be” a baseball player.

One of his best early memories was competing at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., for his Gordon Head Baseball Association squad in 1999.

“Our team was a bunch of athletes that played baseball,” he said. “I played numerous different sports with those same kids. We grew up playing street hockey on the different cul-de-sacs and the different corners of the street and here we were representing Gordon Head and making it all the way to the Little League World Series.”

It was also the first time anyone ever asked him for his autograph.

“I’ll never forget having a grown man ask for my autograph. I was 12, so I think I printed my name,” recalled Saunders with a chuckle. “I wasn’t sure what to do.”

From there, Saunders was a standout in the local minor ball ranks. He was 15 and representing B.C. at the national tournament when he was first met Greg Hamilton, the head coach of Canada’s Junior National Team.

“Mike didn’t really have a defined position. He was a big gangly, athletic kid. His arm worked and you could dream on him pitching at that time. He played third base and a little first in high school, but I just saw the athleticism,” recalled Hamilton.

The veteran national team coach says at the time Saunders was a really good athlete that was still figuring out baseball.

“But I can tell you that everything worked when I saw him. His arm worked. His swing worked and you could figure out when you looked at his frame that there was going to be a whole lot more there,” said Hamilton. “And his makeup was terrific.”

Saunders says his tenure with the Junior National Team was crucial to his development.

“It really gave me my first true confidence that I could quote unquote play with the big boys from the U.S.,” said Saunders. “Those guys were from down South. They were from Texas, California and Florida and they were playing all year around and we, as Canadians, were playing three months out of the year. But the exposure to that talent level in those international tournaments gave me confidence.”

His performance with the Junior National Team also caught the attention of major league scouts, including Wayne Norton who was responsible for the Mariners selecting Saunders in the 11th round of the 2004 MLB draft.

“I know Wayne pushed hard for me,” said Saunders. “I think he really gave Seattle the confidence to take a chance on me, so he really helped change my life.”

Saunders played outfield in the Mariners system and the 2007 campaign proved to be a breakout year. In 123 games between High-A and double-A, he batted .298 with 15 home runs and 29 stolen bases.

He also batted leadoff for the World Team in the MLB Futures Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco and had two runs and two stolen bases against a U.S. team that featured Clayton Kershaw, Evan Longoria, Jay Bruce, Colby Rasmus and Justin Upton.

“I went to that game not knowing what to expect,” recalled Saunders. “I walked into AT&T Park, and I looked at the lineup and I was hitting leadoff. So, there I was leading off for the World, and we were the visitors, so I was the first batter in that game . . . That was my first experience playing in front of 35,000 people.”

In that same contest, Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) batted fourth for the World team and homered, while Jimmy Van Ostrand (Vancouver, B.C.) took Kershaw deep to help the World Team to a 7-2 win.

After continuing his ascent up the Mariners’ minor league ranks, Saunders played for Canada in the 2008 Olympics before getting his first big league call-up on July 25, 2009. It was a day game, so Saunders reported to the Mariners’ clubhouse early in the morning. When he arrived, the only other player in the clubhouse was Ken Griffey Jr. The legendary outfielder wanted to see what kind of bat Saunders was using.

“I remember showing it to him and he decided what I was swinging wasn’t good enough, so he gave me a bat,” said Saunders. “When I walked in and saw Griffey, that was kind of my surreal moment. It was like, ‘Oh wow, I’m in the big leagues.’”

Saunders would struggle in his first three major league seasons. After the 2011 campaign, he met Mike Bard, a private batting instructor, who broke down and altered his swing. After the adjustments, Saunders socked 19 home runs and stole 21 bases in 139 games for the Mariners in 2012.

He carried that success into the 2013 World Baseball Classic and enjoyed another solid big league season. He followed that up by hitting a career-best .273 in 78 games in an injury-shortened 2014.

That December, he was dealt to the Blue Jays for left-hander J.A. Happ. Unfortunately, he would miss most of the 2015 season with a knee injury, but he returned with a vengeance in 2016.

On June 17 that season, he became the first Canadian player to belt three home runs in a major league game for a Canadian team when he did so against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

“When I was younger, I almost gave up baseball for hockey, so that was as close to a true hat trick that I could ever get,” said Saunders. “There were a lot of Blue Jays fans there and watching them throw the hats on the field after the third home run was a pretty cool moment.”

With the All-Star Game approaching, Saunders was flirting with a .300 batting average and was among the Blue Jays’ leaders in OPS. For his efforts, he was named one of the five candidates for the American League’s All-Star Final Man Vote, with the winner earning the last roster spot in the Midsummer Classic. To help Saunders, the Blue Jays created a “Vote Captain Canada” campaign.

“Leading up to that All-Star Game, I remember the support – not just from Blue Jays fans, but from Canada,” said Saunders. “It was extremely humbling for me to get that type of support and the backing from the organization and the push every day on the big screen.

“I had friends coming out of the woodwork and organizing these voting parties. I just felt loved. That was the biggest thing. Then to actually be voted in and to go there and sit down in my locker and kind of take a panoramic view of the locker room and seeing Hall of Famers and listening to a pre-game speech by David Ortiz. It was pretty surreal.”

Saunders replaced Carlos Beltran in right field in the eighth inning and flied out to third base in his only at bat.

The 6-foot-4 Canuck finished the season with 24 home runs, which is the second-most by a Canadian for a Canadian major league team in a season (behind only Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s home run totals for the Blue Jays in the last three seasons).

Following that season, Saunders signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. After 61 games with the Phillies, he found himself back with the Blue Jays.

He played in triple-A in the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox organizations in 2018 before retiring as a player at the age of 32.

In 2021, he managed the low-A Augusta GreenJackets in the Atlanta Braves’ organization prior to becoming the Braves’ minor league outfielder/baserunning coordinator. He will return to that role for his third year in 2024.

These days, Saunders resides just outside of Denver, Colo., with his wife and three children. He says he’d consider a return to managing in the future.

“I think if the timing was right, yes, but right now, I’ve got three young kids,” said Saunders. “I feel pretty blessed about who I work for and who I work with. They’re very family orientated people and my schedule allows me to be home in the summertime, which I’ve never been able to do in my playing career. So, it’s family first and this schedule allows me to do that.”

It sounds like Baseball Canada’s latest Wall of Excellence member has his priorities straight, which is no surprise to Hamilton.

“Mike is just a tremendous baseball player and a really grounded and outstanding person,” said Hamilton. “He came from Victoria, and I don’t think he ever lost Victoria in his heart. I don’t think he ever lost Canada in his heart as big as he became and he’s just a genuinely good person. You always get excited when you see someone as talented as him. But when you put talent and character together like he does, he’s the type of person we want to honour.”