Bautista headlines 2025 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame class
Published
The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is welcoming six new members for their class of 2025.
Former Toronto Blue Jays star slugger Jose Bautista headlines the class alongside long-time MLB left-hander Erik Bedard.
Canadian Junior National Team head coach Greg Hamilton, Women's National Team star Amanda Asay, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League legend Arleene Noga, and former Montreal city councillor Gerry Snyder, who played an important role in bringing MLB baseball to Canada for the first time, make up the six names in the 2025 class.
Both Noga and Snyder earn election from the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame's Veterans Committee, while Asay goes in posthumously.
“We are proud and excited to celebrate the outstanding careers of this year’s inductees in St. Marys this June,” said Jeremy Diamond, chair of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s board of directors in a news release.
“Each of them, in their own distinct way, has had a tremendous impact on the game of baseball in our country.”
The 2025 induction ceremony will take place on Hall of Fame grounds in St. Marys, Ont., on June 7.
Bautista joins the hall as one of the greatest players in Blue Jays history, leading the league in home runs in both 2010 and 2011. The native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic ranks at or near the top in many of the franchise's all-time offensive categories and presided over the team's most successful era since the early 1990s with American League Championship appearances in 2015 and 2016.
Bedard, of Navan, Ont., was a key member of the Baltimore Orioles starting rotation in the mid-2000s and finished as high as fifth in Cy Young voting in 2007. He pitched for six teams over an 11-year big-league career.
Hamilton, from Toronto, has served in prominent leadership roles with Baseball Canada for more than three decades, including Senior National Team pitching coach, National Junior Team head coach, and Senior National Team GM.
A native of Prince George, B.C., Asay joined the Women's National Team in 2005 and won team MVP in 2006 and 2016 as an outstanding two-way player. Before her passing in 2022 at the age of 33, Asay helped lead Canada to five Women's World Cup medals and a silver medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games. She was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame last year.
Noga was born in Ogema, Sask. in 1924 and signed to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) in 1944. Nicknamed 'Iron Lady' for playing more than 300 consecutive games in the AAGPBL, Noga also won nine provincial softball championships.
Snyder, a Montreal native, played a crucial role in securing Canada's first MLB team when the Expos entered the National League in 1969, eight years before the Blue Jays debuted in 1977.
Snyder served as a Montreal city councillor for 25 years and also helped land the 1976 Montreal Olympics.