Ottawa-born Jordan Nwogu, who plays left field for the University of Michigan Wolverines, is expected to be drafted in June — even though baseball has shortened the drafted to five rounds.

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Okey Nwogu remembers the day his wife, Uche, gave birth to their son Jordan.

Jordan Nwogu was born on Tuesday, March 10, 1999 at the Ottawa General Hospital, which opened it doors in 1845. Dr. Guy d’Anjou delivered the new born at the Smyth Road facility.

Little did the parents know. Little did Dr. d’Anjou know.

Yet, they all may have been welcoming into the world perhaps the best ball player born in the capital since OF Doug Frobel, who played 201 games in the majors, who was born in 1959 or INF Chris Bisson, who reached double-A in the San Diego Padres system and was born in 1989.

The majors are a long way off right now for Nwogu. Or for Mike Trout or Bo Bichette for that matter with everyone in lock down. Yet, Jordan, the 6-foot-3, 235 pounder University of Michigan Wolverines left fielder, is closer than most collegians and high schoolers. The left fielder may look like a blitzing linebacker, but he has power and speed skill sets which translate to baseball.

Despite the shortened season some scouts say Jordan will go in the first four rounds come June. Others say the first three. Others say higher. It is that time of the year. A Baseball America report on Friday said that the draft will be cut to five rounds.

Some scouts we talked to said they can head into the draft room right now. Others wish they had another look at high schoolers, especially in the north. They won’t get one.

Perfect Game has Jordan ranked 81st on its top 400 combined list (high schoolers and collegians) as the second Canadian. He is behind only speedy OF David Calabrese (Maple, Ont.) of the Ontario Blue Jays at No. 72. Baseball America has Jordan ranked 168th on its combined top 300, behind Calabrese (115th) and Trei Cruz (126th), son of former Jays OF Jose Cruz of the Rice Owls.

Could Jordan, born in Ottawa to Nigerian parents, be the this year’s top Canadian drafted? Could he join other top dawgs, who went on to reach the majors like:

RHP Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.), OF Josh Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.), LHP Rob Zastryzny (Edmonton, Alta.), RHP Jameson Taillon, whose parents grew up in Ontario, LHP James Paxton (Ladner, BC), 3B Brett Lawrie (Langley, BC), RHP Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Que.), C Chris Robinson (Dorchester, Ont.), RHP Brooks McNiven (Vernon, BC), LHP Adam Loewen (Surrey, BC), OF Adam Stern (Port Stanley, Ont.), INF Scott Thorman (Cambridge, Ont.), C Justin Morneau (New Westminster, BC), SS Kevin Nicholson (Surrey, BC), RHP Chris Reitsma (Calgary, Alta.), RHP Ryan Dempster (Gibsons, BC) RHP Jason Dickson (Chatham, NB), RHP Paul Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.), RHP Dave Wainhouse (Toronto, Ont.) and LHP Steve Wilson (Victoria, BC).

We welcomed Jordan to our Canadian Baseball Network draft list in February.

* * *

Jodan Nwogu doesn’t remember living in Ottawa. A scout had told us he had lived there for five years before moving to Michigan.

Not quite.

He was born in March and the family moved to Ann Arbour at the end of June.

So Jordan was in Ottawa less than four months. As Jesse Crain’s father once joked after his son was born at Toronto General on July 5, 1981 before heading back to Colorado ... “Four months? Yeah but they were his four formative months for baseball.” Crain pitched 10 years in the majors with the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox.

After going 50-22 in 2019, Michigan met the Vanderbilt Commodores in the best-of-three final at the College World Series in Omaha. In case you didn’t see ESPN coverage Michigan won the first game 7-4 before 25,707. Vandy with OF Coopers Davis (Mississauga, Ont.) rallied with 4-1 and 8-2 wins.

This spring the Big Blue started going 8-7, playing Vandy, Cal Poly, Arizona State, Connecticut, Stanford, California and Pepperdine on an ambitious spring trip (from Feb. 13 to March 8) which saw the team visit Scottsdale, Az., Port St. Lucie, Fla., San Luis Obispo, Palo Alto and Berkeley, Calif.

Then, the NCAA like the NHL, NBA and everyone else hit the stop button.

“It was heartbreaking that we didn’t get to go back to Omaha again this year, the season kind of breaks your heart,” Jordan said. What about the fact the NCAA will grant an extra year of eligibility to seniors in spring sports like baseball?

“Some players have already accepted jobs, deciding to move on with life,” Jordan said.

Volunteer assistant head coach Michael Brdar was the most influential person in Jordan’s baseball life.

“He helped me with my swing, defensively he taught me things I didn’t know,” Jordan said. “He was more than a coach my first two years at Michigan. He was a coach -- but he was also a friend.”

But Brdar wasn’t around Ann Arbour this spring. He had been hired as assistant hitting coordinator for the San Francisco Giants.

Jordan certainly didn’t say it, but we’ve heard players say jokingly after their respected hitting coach leaves: “Sure ... train the guy for two years, break him in and he leaves you.”

Jordan’s best day on a high school diamond: going 6-for-7 against the Hopkins Vikings in a doubleheader as he had four doubles and two home runs.

His most memorable day for Michigan? Well, it could have been the game he ...

Drove in three in a win over Texas Tech in Omaha; or lead-off home runs against Indiana State, Rutgers and Maryland; or a two-out, two-run, game-winning double in a Big Ten Conference elimination game against Illinois; or knocking in four in an 18-8 win over Nebraska in a Big Ten tourney, or 3-for-4 in back-to-back games against Northwestern. They were some of his best from 2019.

But four months? We remember former manager Jim Fregosi saying in ultimate snark mode “Elliott you’ll claim anyone who flies over Canada as Canadian.”

Not so. Jordan was born 13 minutes from Parliament Hill and has his dual citizenship status.

Good enough for me.

* * *

Scout comments on Jordan’s abilities: “He’s a 60-65 runner (on our scale 20-to-80) ... We had him to first base in 4.3 seconds and sometimes his hard swing pulls him away from the base line ... The strength is in the bat ... An impressive, above average runner ... For a large man can really motor.”

“He is about as physical a player as you will see ... He’s high risk, high reward guy ... You are probably looking at .260 average and 25 homers in the major. You’ll come his walks to strikeouts ratio plus power ... Like his walks to strikeouts ratio (63 walks, 96 whiffs).

“He’ll steal 10-15 bases a year in the majors ... Will choke up with two strikes ... Not a lot of projection, what you see if what you get ... And I like it.”

* * *

Okey Nwogu remembers the day he had that “Hey! My son is pretty good!” moment.

Jordan’s high school team, the Pioneer Pioneers were at home against a school from Ypsilanti, Mich. Jordan hit a line drive homer over the left field fence.

“I’m kind of calm, reserved,” said Okey, who didn’t yell “That’s my son!? Yet he did track down Jordan home run ball, as he has many other times.

It took Okey a while before he had a grasp of the game. His background was soccer. And so did Jordan.

“I saw baseball on TV but I couldn’t help my son with the skill set,” Okey said. “Plus, he was playing on a local team, not a regional team. In the previous 10 years only two guys from his high school had gone on to play at Michigan. We knew it was a long shot.”

His junior year Jordan hit 10 home runs. Okey remembers “coaches said things but I didn’t take it seriously: ‘He has talent.’ Sure, sure, sure,”

“Jordan might be good compared to his (high school) peers, but you can’t extrapolate that to a state or national level,” Okey said. “Jordan hit the ball far in little league so we knew he had natural power and he was fast.

“From his hand-eye coordination you could see potential ... but he had not had any formal coaching.”

* * *

Okey Nwogu remembers when he immigrated from Lagos, Nigeria in the fall of 1978 to enroll in the University of Ottawa. He did his under grad there gaining a degree in civil engineering. Okey said he enjoyed school and it didn’t take long for him to make friends.

A tour of the National Research Centre’s labs in third year was a turning point, although he did not know it at the time.

“I was at the back of the group with zero interest,” Okey said.

Later, an Ottawa professor asked him to help out with some experiments at NRC. And that’s when he met a man named Ed Funke. Funke took Okey “under his wing,” and the result was a successful thesis. Besides Funke, Professor Warner at the University Ottawa was an influence.

Next was post-grad work at the University of British Columbia and then he returned to Ottawa and was hired by the National Research Council. They lived in the Alta Vista area off Heron Road. After 20-plus years in the capital -- which created fond memories of the Blue Jays Glory Days with Robbie Alomar and Joe Carter -- Okey, Uche and Jordan headed across the border.

Okey works at the U of Michigan as a research scientist in the department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. His wife, Dr. Uche George-Nwogu is an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Okey remembers Jordan’s high school coach sending a video to recruiters. They were told Jordan had the ability to play beyond high school. In the state rankings he was No. 30 his senior year of high school and before eventually making it into the 20s .... “he made some ripples,” Okey said. The No. 1 ranked player went to Duke but has yet to make waves like Jordan.

Jordan received scholarship offers from Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and , Kalamazoo College. Jordan wasn’t going to any of those schools for baseball. Okey said he was either going to play ball at Michigan or go to an Ivy League school and play football. He also turned down football scholarships to Air Force, Kent State and Eastern Michigan.

“Living there that long I am the one with the Canadian roots,” said Okey, who used to shop in Ottawa at the Rideau Centre, The Bay and Zellers.

* * *

Okey didn’t see Jordan’s first hit at Michigan.

“As a freshmen when they were losing by a lot, Jordan would get into the game,” Okey said. The Wolverines hosted the Bowling Green State Falcons in a doubleheader on March 17.

Okey didn’t go to the game and was quite surprised when a friend phoned him to say “Jordan did X, Y and Z.” The X, Y, Z translated to 2-for-3, with two RBIs in an 8-6 win in the opener and in the 10-7 win in the nitecap, Jordan was 2-for-4, with a home run and four RBIs. Sounds more like A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J.

Neither Okey nor Jordan saw the high school turning point for Jordan came when he went to camp at Michigan. It wasn’t light-tower power, his speed or an off tackle run. Nope. Jordan attended an engineering camp at the U of Michigan as a high school sophomore and earned a scholarship to Ann Arbour. He scored a 1,440 out of 1,600 on his SAT and had a GPA of 3.96 out of 4.0.

Those marks elevated Jordan to “preferred walk-on” status. At fall practice, Okey looked at the outfielders and saw long odds for his son. Yet, Jordan went on to start 35 games in 2018.

“Jordan started as a walk on but he worked hard and made adjustments,” Okey said. “When he got his chance he was ready to show himself.”

Jordan, who has an older brother, Nile, and a younger brother, Kenan, is taking computer science engineering.

“It would be really cool to work in a front office some day,” Jordan said.

The man has baseball in his future whether he wears a uniform or not.

Jordan Nwogu

Season Avg. G-GS AB R H D T HR RBI SLUG OBP OPS SB-SBA

2020 .353 15-15 68 11 24 1 0 2 4 .456 .389 .845 3-7

2019 .321 64-64 246 58 79 14 4 12 46 .557 .435 .992 16-18

2018 .349 46-35 126 28 44 8 1 6 29 .571 .442 1.013 11-14

Honours

2019 (sophomore) _ As a DH ABCA All-America Second Team selection ... ABCA All-Mideast Region First Team selection ... All-Big Ten First Team selection (designated hitter) ... Big Ten Conference Player to Watch (preseason) ... Academic All-Big Ten selection.

2018 (freshman) _ Collegiate Baseball News Freshman All-America selection ... All-Big Ten Second Team Selection ... All-Big Ten Freshman Team Selection ... Two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week.

2017 (high school) _ Rawlings-Perfect Game Honorable Mention All-American Central - All Region 1st Team ... Top-25 baseball player in Michigan by MLive

2016 (high school) _ All-State ... All-Region ... All-District ... All-Conference

2015 (high school) _ All-District, All-Conference

Elliott: Ottawa-born Nwogu one to watch