Baseball in Fort Wayne

Fort Wayne saw him for all of two games in 2007. But Mitch Canham arrived with a track record that proves he’s capable of putting on a display.

Before his brief stint with the Wizards, he earned many accolades. The 23-year-old Canham, was a Louisville Slugger third-team All-American. He was named to the College World Series All-Star team. He was an All-Pacific-10 Conference selection and one of just 10 semifinalists for the Johnny Bench Award as the nation’s top collegiate catcher. Oh yeah, and he was a College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-American.

Today, he was named the winner of The The Daily Herald’s (Everett, WA) 2007 “Man of the Year in Sports” award.

As a member of the Oregon State University baseball team, Canham played in 65 of the team’s 67 games. He paced the team with a .326 average and tied for the team lead with 10 home runs. He had 59 runs batted in and boasted a slugging percentage of .524.

Then he capped the year by becoming a first-round draft choice of the San Diego Padres (going 59th overall). With the Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League, he batted .293 with two home runs, 18 runs batted in and drew 11 walks over 28 games before joining the Wizards.

He’s currently with the team in Spring Training, but perhaps we’ll get a longer look at the prospect at the Castle this summer.

[tags]Mitch Canham, Daily Herald, Man of the Year in Sports, First Round Draft Picks, Sand Diego Padres, Fort Wayne Wizards, Spring Training[/tags]