Import Dominican Republic players like pitcher Emilis Guerrero, infielder Starlin Rodriguez and outfielder Brady Infante played a big role in helping the Barrie Baycats reel off an impressive six straight Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) championship titles.
Now, general and field manager Josh Matlow and the Baycats organization are looking to return the favour and do their part to help out other young baseball players in the Dominican Republic develop their game.
The local baseball club is collecting used equipment to be shipped to the small Caribbean Island where the donations will be a welcome sight for young children, ages 10 to 15, who often don't have the proper equipment.
Perhaps one day down the road one of those players who benefitted from the donated equipment may suit up in a Baycats uniform or even become the next Pedro Martinez or David Ortiz.
"Wouldn't that be amazing? You never know," Matlow told BarrieToday. "It'd be such an honour to say, 'Hey, we started that.'"
Matlow says the club usually sends used equipment back with import Baycats players to give to their local teams, family and friends, but Baycats intern Brayden Trace came up with the idea to open it up more to the community.
"We opened it up to the Simcoe community and minor baseball," said Matlow, a former player with the team. "This way we can touch everyone. Everybody can get involved. We can do it on a bigger scale."
The Baycats are looking for anything baseball-related from hats, jerseys, helmets, gloves, cleats, baseball pants, baseball T-shirts and even Toronto Blue Jays hats and shirts. They also need duffel bags to send the equipment and gear over in.
"It's no-brainer if (the equipment) is just sitting around doing nothing," Matlow said.
And it perhaps provides a good excuse to go out and get that new glove or set of cleats.
"Exactly. That's what we want from the kids, 'Hey mom, dad, I need a new mitt anyway,'" Matlow added with a laugh.
One thing you can be sure of is that the donations will be put to good use.
"A 100 per cent," he said. "We can go out and buy equipment at any point, at least for us. It's not the same in the Dominican. A lot of these players come from nothing. Even our imports, they tell us the stories, show us pictures; it's not that easy to get. Even used equipment, which is in immaculate shape, you can't get that stuff over there.
"Obviously, it's going to be put to good use. Instead of it collecting dust in your garage or your basement, it's going to be actually put to good use and we feel good about that. We're excited about that, to be able to provide, and we have that platform to do so."
The organization approached a few businesses to help them collect the donations from the community, but most said they weren't into collecting used equipment until The Kage Barrie stepped up and offered to provide the facility as a drop-off location.
Matlow says he's thrilled with the early response already.
"It's been such a great, humbling response from the community," he said. "We have probably close to 10 duffel bags of stuff. It just keeps coming in."
Originally, the plan was for the team to go down to the Dominican Republic for spring training and bring the used equipment and gear with them to give to some of the teams and baseball academies back in April, but the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out any hopes of that along with 2020 IBL season.
While Matlow hopes they'll be able to do that in the near future when it's safe to do so, they do plan to hold the equipment drive every year.
He's hoping one day they can do a bit of a documentary of their trip to the Caribbean island.
"I think it would be really cool to bring that back for the Baycats fans to see where they have donated to and where it's going," he said. "There's much more of a story behind it, rather than just saying, 'Hey, fill up this bin we're going to ship it out somewhere they can use it.' They can actually follow the process and we're actually thinking of documenting this and doing a documentary.
"I think it'd be really cool for the community to see."
The community will be able to see themselves just how much the players appreciate it and perhaps it would motivate even more people to step forward with donations.
"I think there will be more of an emotional attachment when people see what it's really going towards and how appreciative these kids are going to be," Matlow said. "These kids are anywhere between the ages of 10 to 15 years old that we're going to be donating to, so they're just on the brink of trying to get signed or noticed. These are the young, up-and-coming players.
"We're excited. I hope they're excited."
Matlow hopes they'll be able to collects as much equipment and gear as possible before Christmas to send it over for the holidays.
"There really shouldn't be a time limit on it, but we would love if people could step forward rather sooner or later so we know what we're working with," he said. "But we're not going to put a time limit on it for now. We're planning on doing this every year anyway."
Any donations of equipment and gear can be dropped off at The Kage Barrie, located at 112 Saunders Rd., Units 7 and 8. Hours of operation are 12 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
The Baycats are also looking to raise money to help with shipping costs and those interested in making a donation can do so by clicking here.
"The community of Barrie I can't thank enough," Matlow said. "I just want to thank the community for getting behind us. Not only for baseball, not only for fundraisers, but the Barrie Baycats. We're very passionate about this.
"This is so baseball relative that we want to make sure that we're able to help as an organization. The fact that people are stepping up and helping, it just says a lot about our community."
