McFarland: Remembering Jim Baba

Longtime Baseball Canada executive director Jim Baba (Moose Jaw, Sask.) passed away on September 12. Photo: Baseball Canada

*This article was initially published on Saskatchewan Dugout Stories on September 16, 2025. You can read it here.

September 19, 2025

By Joe McFarland

Saskatchewan Dugout Stories

He was a Canadian baseball giant.

Jim Baba had a profound impact on the game across Canada and around the globe. He was regarded as a well-respected and influential leader who served in a variety of roles including executive director of Baseball Canada from 2000 to 2021.

Baba recently passed away at the age of 69 following a long battle with blood cancer, resulting in a tidal wave of tributes from across the baseball world.

“Jim was more than a leader, he was a mentor, a builder, and a true steward of the game,” said Baseball Canada CEO Jason Dickson.

“He led with integrity, respect, and a tireless commitment to making baseball better at every level. His impact will live on through every program he helped build, every athlete he supported, and every person he inspired.”

Baba is survived by his wife, Penny, children Jamie, Mitch and Melani, and five grandchildren.

BASEBALL IN HIS BLOOD

To say that Baba was “all in” on baseball might be a massive understatement. His father, Farris, was in love with the game and influential in baseball circles across Saskatchewan.

A winner of the Baseball Sask Special Award of Merit, Farris started teaching Jim how to catch, throw and hit as a toddler, getting him into the game at an early age, including switching his birth date from Aug. 6 to July 31 to get him registered.

“I guess the passion wore off on his son,” Baba laughed in a 2021 interview with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

He played the game all through his youth and into his early adulthood, including with the Moose Jaw Devons of the Southern League in Saskatchewan, where he won the circuit’s batting title in 1974 with a .379 batting average.

Baba also suited up in the college ranks with Yakima Valley College in Washington, before coming back home.

PRIDE OF A PROVINCE

Baba’s multitude of roles in sport started in Kindersley, where he spent nine years as the parks and recreation director.

He also coached Team Saskatchewan to a silver medal at the 1989 Canada Summer Games, impressing the organization so much that he was hired on as director of operations.

Over the next 10 years, he worked on coach and player development as well as grassroots growth and capturing the attention of Baseball Canada, who brought him on in 2000 to become the manager of baseball operations and eventually the executive director, where he served until retirement in 2021.

Baba also worked as a guest coach for the men’s national team and went onto serve as head coach from 1993 to 1998 and again in 2003 and 2005.

During Baba’s tenure, Canada took part in two Olympics (2004 and 2008), four World Baseball Classics (2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017), and captured gold medals at the 2011 and 2015 Pan Am Games.

He also oversaw a number of national programs including Rally Cap, Girls Baseball, Winterball and Long-Term Athlete Development.

“Jim was an incredible mentor, a loyal colleague, and an even better friend,” said long-time Baseball Canada head coach Greg Hamilton.

“We coached together, traveled together, and spent more than two decades working side by side … his leadership shaped the direction of Baseball Canada, but more than that, it shaped people. He cared deeply, not just about the game, but the people in it. I’ll miss his calm presence, his wisdom, and his belief in doing things the right way.”

BASEBALL-SHAPED HEART

Baba’s legacy in baseball went beyond our borders as well.

He served as a technical official for the World Baseball Softball Confederation and worked Olympic qualifiers, Pan Am Games, the U18 Baseball World Cup, the Women’s Baseball World Cup and the World Baseball Classic.

WBSC president Riccardo Fraccari says Baba’s work was instrumental in the growth of the game, especially in the advancement of technical officiating.

“Jim Baba was a pillar of our sport,” he said. “His dedication to baseball, his wisdom, and his tireless work in developing the game globally will never be forgotten.”

Inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball of Fame in 2008 and the Moose Jaw and District Sports Hall of Fame in 2019, Baba left an incredible mark on the many he crossed paths with.

“Along with Ray Carter and Greg Hamilton, they became the soul of Baseball Canada,” said legendary baseball writer Bob Elliott on X.

“A good man with a baseball-shaped heart gone. Not forgotten.”

In a thoughtful tribute, Canadian Baseball Network editor Kevin Glew said Baba was always supportive of his work and always willing to chat.

“It’s hard for me to think of anyone who has given more to baseball in Canada than him,” Glew wrote. “Jim was an inspirational guy. I’m better for having known him.”

Also on X, journalist Shi Davidi also wrote about Baba’s legacy.

“For two decades, his fingerprints were all over the sport’s growth in Canada, as he also contributed at the international federation level,” Davidi posted. “He’ll be dearly missed across our baseball community.”

Long-time baseball coach John Milton says Baba was respected on the national and international stages and became the face for Canadian baseball.

“He was a great Saskatchewan guy,” the current Okotoks Dawgs program advisor said via text. “We had a lot of great conversations with him, and anytime that I needed anything, he was always there.”

The game of baseball has come a long way in this country over the past 25 years and Jim Baba was, in many ways, a cornerstone of that evolution.