Richmond native and longtime senior national team member Jimmy Van Ostrand has been named the International Baseball Federation's (IBAF) Senior Athlete of the Year for 2012.
The award was presented to Baseball Canada Director General Jim Baba last week at the IBAF Congress held in Tokyo, Japan.
At the 2012 World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Regensburg, Germany last September, Van Ostrand led the tournament with four home runs and hit .538 in three tournament games. His 10 RBI, 20 total bases and 2.138 OPS were far and away tops in the tournament.
The McMath secondary graduate has always answered the bell for Canada. He's been a mainstay on various national teams since 2007 and is looked upon as a leader both on and off the field. At the 2011 Pan Am Games, with Canada trailing the United States 1-0, his two-run double in the sixth inning put Canada in front as they went on to win the gold medal.
The 28 year-old was honoured at Baseball Canada's National Teams Awards Banquet and Fundraiser last January with the Senior National Team MVP Award and he recently represented Canada at the 2013 World Baseball Classic in Arizona.
Van Ostrand is currently a member of the Washington Nationals Triple-A affiliate, the Syracuse Chiefs where is batting .478 with a team-leading four doubles.
