Former area baseball star David Cooper is optimistic the Toronto Blue Jays recent strong postseason run will mean more new young players will get into the sport.
Cooper tells BlackburnNews.com the old Windsor teams he played on noticed a difference in quality after the Jays playoff success in the 1990s.
"We'd always beat up on those Toronto teams in the late '70s and into the '80s and as soon as the Jays, in their first playoff run back in '92 and '93 when they won the World Series, you could see the baseball in Toronto on an upswing," says Cooper. "There's no doubt about it that it's a great thing. It gets everybody interested."
The Jays were ousted from the postseason by the Kansas City Royals in Game 6 of the ALCS.
Cooper says youth baseball in Windsor is already in pretty good shape without any boost Jays-mania may bring.
"I think it sputtered six, seven years ago. It went to soccer for a while [but] in the last couple years you're just seeing it [rise] and it helps, there's a great opportunity for kids to go to the states and play if their marks are right," says Cooper.
The Belle River native was recently inducted into the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame for his baseball career and remains in the sport as a coach with St. Clair College.
