BOCA CHICA, DR – You would think that the son of a former first round NHL draft pick would want to follow in his dad’s footsteps with a career playing Canada’s national sport.
But for Junior National Team left-handed pitcher Travis Seabrooke, a career playing America’s favourite pastime is the path he hopes to parlay his athletic talents into one day.
Seabrooke is one of many Junior National Team members that will be waiting to hear their name called June 6-8 at the MLB First Year Player Draft.
“Growing up, I wanted to be a hockey player,” said Seabrooke. “But once I hit my Major Peewee and Minor Bantam seasons (in hockey) I started growing up a little bit more and getting a different feel for things.”
Seabrooke played Triple-A hockey in his hometown of Peterborough, Ontario during the winter months where he enjoyed scoring goals like his father, Glen, a star forward with the hometown Peterborough Petes who went on to become a first round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1985 NHL Draft.
“(Things changed) when I started having success with baseball, I started to see myself not only playing hockey, but baseball being there as well,” explained Seabrooke. “As the years went on and the summer approached, I started getting more excited about baseball season than I was for hockey season.”
Although both hockey and baseball are team sports, Seabrooke was attracted to baseball for the individual aspects that the sport has to offer.
“When I played hockey, I wanted to be the guy to score all the goals, get all the assists and have the puck all the time,” said Seabrooke. “You can do that in hockey, but you have to be a lot more team oriented.
“In baseball and in particular in pitching, you’re the guy in control. Everybody’s watching you and deep down inside that’s the feeling that I really wanted.”
For Seabrooke, the process of playing for the Junior National Team the past two seasons and becoming a big-league prospect began, like most kids, with T-ball and then progressing through the different levels of minor baseball.
“I played for four years in the Peterborough Tigers system before moving over to the Lindsey Lakers for two years.”
It was in Lindsay, under the tutelage of Coach Pete Sanderson that Seabrooke began to really develop as a baseball player to the point where he thought he’d like to see how far he could go with the game.
“From a development standpoint I learned a lot from the two years that I played in Lindsay,” added Seabrooke. “It got to a point where I felt that playing baseball was something that I really wanted to do.”
From Lindsay, Seabrooke moved onto the Whitby Triple-A baseball system where he became teammates for the first time with current Junior National Team members Cal Quantrill, JD Osborne and Toby Handley.
Seabrooke followed Handley and Quantrill to the prestigious Ontario Terriers program where Cal’s father, Paul, a fourteen year MLB veteran became his pitching coach.
“I don’t how many bullpens it took or how many long-toss sessions we had, but Paul really helped me become a pitcher as opposed to someone who just threw a baseball,” explained Seabrooke. “We basically started over – everything I was doing to that point I stopped and we started from scratch.”
The Quantrill’s reside in Port Hope where Paul’s father owns a car dealership. In evenings and on weekends during winter, the dealership turned into a bullpen where Seabrooke along with Cal and some other pitcher’s worked on their craft and learned from their pitching coach.
“We had a great big wooden mound that we would throw off of,” explained Seabrooke. “At that time was my rebuilding stage where over time I gradually became a pitcher.
“Thinking back to all the work I put in with Paul, from a baseball standpoint, he has been the most influential person to get me where I am today.”
After attending Baseball Canada’s Mizuno Camp in September 2011, Seabrooke made his debut with Junior National Team the following March for the teams annual trip to St. Petersburg, Florida.
Seabrooke attended subsequent camps in Orlando and the Dominican Republic, and quickly became a key member of the pitching staff.
“The things I have been able to learn here with the Junior National Team have brought my game to an entirely new level,” he said.
Seabrooke is quick to give credit to the JNT coaching staff for helping him make adjustments necessary to be successful in a completely different level of baseball.
“(Pitching Coach) Chris Reitsma has really helped me with the mental part of the game and little things like fielding my position and some slight mechanical adjustments.
“I feel like the time has gone by so quick since I’ve been in this program – I have learned so much.”
Last August, Seabrooke was one of 20 players selected to represent Canada at the IBAF 18U World Championship in Seoul, Korea where the team came away with the silver medal.
The experience is something that he will never forget.
“Representing Canada was probably the biggest honour I’ve been able to achieve,” he said. “It’s a great feeling knowing that you represent not only your teammates, but all of your friends and family back home, and your entire country.
“In Korea, hearing my anthem played while standing on the foul line made me think of everyone back home and all the teams, players and coaches that I played with which led me to this point – It’s something I will never forget.”
Another world championship looms for Seabrooke and his Canadian teammates later this summer, but not before some significant events in his life occur.
Seabrooke has spent much of the spring staring at radar guns while on the mound as MLB scouts have a keen interest in the potential of the 6’5” southpaw.
“It’s been a fun process,” said Seabrooke who also has a scholarship to Boston College that he will have to consider before signing with a big-league club. “I know a lot of people get caught up in the hype, with draft sheets and all that, but for me the more I try and block it out the better it is for me.”
With all of the attention associated with being a draft prospect, Seabrooke has taken the approach to try and enjoy the experience and not let all the eyes on him affect the way he performs on the mound.
“That’s what you want as an athlete – you want people interested in you,” he said. “I’m proud to say though, that I’ve never once felt that I’m pitching for scouts. I’m pitching to get people out.”
That attitude has carried Seabrooke through the draft process which he feels has allowed him to focus on pitching and trying to win baseball games whether it’s with the National Team or with the Terriers.
“I just want to go out and throw, and if you like me it’s a bonus and if not, I’m OK with that too.”
