Vauxhall Jets alum and Going Yard coach Garrett Hawkins (Biggar, Sask.) has been added to the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster. Photo: Padres

November 23, 2025

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Some Canadian baseball news and notes:

Hawkins added to Padres’ 40-man roster

Right-hander Garrett Hawkins (Biggar, Sask.) was added to the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster on Tuesday, ahead of the Rule 5 draft that will take place on December 10.

The move comes after Hawkins was named the Padres’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year in late September. After missing the 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery, Hawkins returned to post an 8-1 record and a 1.43 ERA, while fanning 60 batters in 44 innings, in 32 appearances for the High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Midwest League this season.

Among Midwest League pitchers, the 6-foot-5 righty ranked first in batting average against (.116) and had a string of 34 consecutive scoreless innings with the TinCaps that lasted from April 27 to Aug. 1 when he was promoted to the double-A San Antonio Missions. He would register a 1.69 ERA in 13 relief outings with the Missions to close out the season.

Prior to being selected in the ninth round of the 2021 MLB draft by the Padres, Hawkins honed his skills with Team Saskatchewan, the Vauxhall Jets and the UBC Thunderbirds. In the off-season, Hawkins is a coach at the Going Yard Baseball Academy in Saskatoon.

Hawkins joins fellow Canuck Nick Pivetta (Victoria, B.C.) on the Padres’ roster.

Encarnacion on Hall of Fame ballot

Longtime Toronto Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion has the most home runs (424) and RBIs (1,261) of any former player to debut on this year’s BBWAA National Baseball Hall of Fame writer’s ballot, which was unveiled on Monday.

Encarnacion’s 424 home runs are the 54th most in MLB history. The three-time All-Star also had eight 30-home run seasons and six 100-RBI campaigns. But despite his impressive resume, he’s unlikely to be elected. I’m hoping, however, that his name is checked on at least five percent of the writers’ ballots. This will ensure that he stays on the ballot for future consideration.

Two other ex-Blue Jays also return to the ballot: infielder Omar Vizquel, who received 17.8 percent support last year in his ninth year on the ballot and left-hander Mark Buehrle, whose name was checked on 11.4 percent of ballots last year, in his sixth year of eligibility.

Morneau continues holiday coat drive

Former Minnesota Twins all-star Justin Morneau (New Westminster, B.C.) is once again spearheading a winter coat drive for the Salvation Army. This year, if you make a cash donation of $33 to The Salvation Army Harbor Light (in Minnesota) between November 1 and December 20, they will mail you an 8-by-10 photo signed by Morneau. Click here for more details.

Over the years, Morneau’s coat drive has collected over 40,000 coats from generous donors.

MacKinnon moves to Detroit Tigers’ organization

After one season as an assistant hitting coach for the Kansas City Royals’ class-A Columbia Fireflies, Kyle MacKinnon is leaving to take a minor league hitting coach position with the Detroit Tigers’ organization.

He made the announcement on social media on Wednesday.

MacKinnon (Cheltenham, Ont.) landed with the Royals in 2024 after working as an apprentice coach in the Houston Astros’ organization.

Prior to joining the professional coaching ranks, MacKinnon coached for six seasons at Macpherson College, where he began as a hitting coach in 2016 and served as an associate head coach before becoming the head coach of the program in 2021.

MacKinnon is also a former Brampton Royals and Ontario Blue Jays coach, who cut his teeth catching for the Durham Lords for three seasons, helping to lead them to two conference titles and a pair of National Championship final four berths.

During his seven years with the Ontario Blue Jays, MacKinnon spent time as an assistant coach, hitting coach and as head coach of the 16U team.

He has also coached for the Medicine Hat Mavericks (2016), Fort McMurray Giants (2017) and Brooks Bombers (2018-19) of the Western Canadian Baseball League.

Howarth hired full-time by the Blue Jays 44 years ago

It was 44 years ago today that the Blue Jays hired Jerry Howarth to be Tom Cheek’s full-time partner on the team’s radio broadcasts. Howarth replaced Early Wynn.

Howarth was calling games for the triple-A Salt Lake City Gulls when he first applied for a radio job with the Blue Jays in 1977. The Jays opted to hire Cheek and Wynn, but they told Howarth to stay in touch.

Howarth’s big break came when Gulls’ manager Jimy Williams was hired by the Blue Jays in 1980 and put in a good word for Howarth with the franchise brass. With that endorsement, Howarth was brought in to work three radio broadcasts for the club in 1980 and 20 more in 1981 before he was hired full time.

Howarth proceeded to work 36 seasons in the radio booth for the Blue Jays and become one of the most beloved personalities in franchise history.

Scott Crawford (Georgetown, Ont.) in action at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Happy Birthday to Scott Crawford!

Happy Birthday to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s director of operations, and my very good friend, Scott Crawford!

Most don’t know how much extra work Scott puts in behind the scenes to keep the Canadian ball hall going. One day you might find Scott on the phone with a prospective sponsor or leading a celebrity guest through the museum and the next day you might find him raking one of the Hall’s ball fields, preparing it for a game.

This year represented Scott’s 25th anniversary at the Hall of Fame and the Hall is fortunate to have him. I’m also fortunate to call him a friend.

New Canadian minor league stadium database

SABR member and Canadian baseball historian Gord Brown (Kitchener, Ont.) has put together a comprehensive database of all of the minor league ballparks across Canada that pro baseball has been played in. I can’t imagine how many hours Gord put into this project, but many thanks to him. This will be tremendously useful for baseball researchers for years to come. You can view the database here.

Conlon Collection cards of Canadians

I recently submitted a detailed article about the underrated 1991 to 1995 Conlon Collection series to Beckett Vintage Collector. For this multi-year offering, Megacards collaborated with The Sporting News to produce a set that featured the photos of famed baseball photographer Charles Conlon. Conlon was active from 1904 to 1942, so, of course, this set has its share of cards highlighting immortals like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig and Honus Wagner.

But as a Canadian baseball history buff, the two cards I was most excited to discover were the “rookie cards” of Canadian umpires and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Bob Emslie (Guelph, Ont.) and Ernie Quigley (Newcastle, N.B.) (shown below).

Among the other Canadians that have cards in the series are Jack Graney (St. Thomas, Ont.), Russ Ford (Brandon, Man.) and George Selkirk (Huntsville, Ont.).

Shipanoff messing with photographers on minor league cards?

Greg Gay, of the excellent Night Owl Cards blog, wrote an interesting post last week about Edmonton, Alta. native Dave Shipanoff‘s minor league cards.

I know Shipanoff as a Canadian right-handed pitcher, first in the Blue Jays’ organization, and then for one big league season with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1985 in which he posted a 3.22 ERA in 26 relief appearances.

I knew Shipanoff had rookie cards in the 1986 Donruss and Fleer sets. What I didn’t know until Gay pointed it out was that there’s a trend with Shipanoff’s minor league cards. On many of them, the Canadian hurler has gone out of his way to not look like a pitcher.

Here are some examples:

1983 TCMA Knoxville Blue Jays