July 10, 2024 | By: Jennifer Stitt in For Love of the Game
They always say that you should never meet your heroes.
I would add “unless your hero is Hazel Mae.”
I’ve idolized Hazel from the time that I was a teenager. Growing up as a young woman obsessed with baseball, she was the most important woman in baseball in Toronto.
As a woman, and a woman of colour no less, I watched her dominate what is traditionally a ‘boys club,’ and do so with both grit and grace. She inspired me to want to be a sportscaster myself at one point, until I changed directions and forged my own career in baseball.
So today, despite the rain, we were INCREDIBLY lucky to have Hazel Mae come to camp!
We did have to rejig things a bit because of the weather, and we’re saddened that unfortunately Hazel was not able to reschedule so that Aurora and Scarborough could join us, but boy were our Vaughan kids lucky.
Meeting Hazel was a dream come true for me personally, but I cannot begin to tell you how many other dreams she made come true today.
Hazel did an in-depth Q&A with our campers, taking time to answer all of their questions in full detail! Here are just a few of the highlights:
Which of the Blue Jays smells the best? Jose Barrios always smells like he just stepped out of an Irish Springs commercial!
Who would she most like to interview? Shohei Ohtani, although she did tell the crowd about her remarkable interview with Barry Bonds and how kind he was.
If she called any Blue Jay right now, who would pick up first? She said it was a close tie between Danny Jansen, John Schneider and Kevin Kiermaier.
Hazel took the time to pose for selfies, give out high fives, autographs, and even took extra time to watch our campers play indoors.
Lastly, before she left, she was even kind enough to switch things up and actually joined us in taking part in a Gatorade dump! Hazel’s usually the one getting drenched (often by Vladdy), so she said that actually being the one in charge made her feel great!
Hazel is running off to Arizona tomorrow with the team, but her husband, sportscaster and former Toronto Blue Jay himself, Kevin Barker, will be joining us tomorrow at our various camps to watch the campers play and offer some real major league feedback.
On behalf of all of us, thank you so much Hazel for making our dreams come true, and for giving our campers a day that they’ll never forget.