Until this spring, Jacob Zibin had never played a game of baseball on a Prince George diamond.
The footprints of his dad, Derek Zibin, are all over the local ball parks - Rotary, Gyro, Joe Martin, Carrie Jane Gray and College Heights - from the all times he brought his bat and glove down for a game of baseball or softball.
Derek moved to Ontario not long after he graduated from College Heights secondary school. Once he became a parent he turned his garage in Orangeville, northwest of Toronto, into a batting cage, where he taught his sons, Jacob and John, some of the baseball fundamentals he learned as a P.G. boy.
That paid off first for John, the oldest kid in the family, when he won the Ontario mosquito baseball provincial championship when he was nine. Jacob followed suit in 2012, winning the Ontario championship as a seven-year-old with the North York Blues. He came close again last summer in the mosquito (11-and-under) provincial playoffs while with the Mississauga Tigers, but lost in extra innings in the Ontario final to the Oakville A's.
Jacob moved to Prince George with his mom and dad right after baseball season ended last year and it didn't take him long to get back on the provincial radar. Now playing for the Prince George bantam Knights rep team, the 12-year-old shortstop/pitcher found out last week he's earned a spot as one of two underagers on the roster of the 13U B.C. Selects.
"Everyone else on the team is from Victoria or the Lower Mainland and I'm honoured because there are a lot of better guys, like taller guys, and most of them are one year older than me," said Zibin.
"I'm looking forward to going down to the States to play in big tournaments down there."
The 13U Selects are entered in the Triple Crown Tri-Cities Slugfest in Pasco/Richland/Kennewick, Wash., June 17-18. He'll drive to Vancouver on Thursday to meet his new teammates for the first time and spend the weekend practicing with them.
Jacob, a Grade 6 student at Hart Highlands elementary, stands five-foot-seven and is still growing -rapidly. He towers over most 12-year-olds and is closing in on his dad's six-foot-three stature.
"He's just a good all-around athlete, he's very focused on everything he does and very self-motivated," said his mom, Carole Anne Zibin.
Zibin plays shortstop but prefers pitching and he relies on three pitches - fastballs, splitters and a changeup. Last year his fastball was clocked at 63 miles per hour and he hasn't measured it yet this year but he knows it's got more steam behind it now.
Jacob's brother John is 10 years older, and Jacob was too young to remember watching him play ball, but he does have vivid memories of working out on the field with his father, which gave him the jump ahead of most of his peers.
"In the summer, me and my dad practiced a lot, practicing infield and batting and he converted the garage to a batting cage," said Jacob, after he'd worked a PGYBA house league game as home plate umpire Saturday at Joe Martin Field.
Jacob spent a lot of time in the gym this past off-season and less time pitching, trying to heal a nagging injury in his pitching arm he developed at the end of last season.
That seems to have done the trick. His arm feels stronger than ever, he's pitching without pain and he's clubbing the ball well. He's not a power hitter but still managed to hit three ground-rule doubles at the Kamloops tournament. He likes what he's seen so far in the Knights, a team he says is deep in pitching this year with plenty of offence as well.
Derek, now a 50-year-old Prince George high school teacher, gravitated from little league baseball to softball as he got older and became a competitive swimmer with the Prince George Barracudas before he graduated from College Heights secondary in 1984. As a breaststroke specialist he helped the 'Cudas team win the medley relay at the B.C. Summer Games.
Jacob was asking his dad about his youth baseball days and they got talking about playing at Gyro Field, the home field of some of the younger players in the Prince George Youth Baseball Association.
"He said he could never hit one out of the there and I was shocked because that field is smaller than when I played tadpoles (the nine-and-under division)," said Jacob.
"I played (at Gyro) once but didn't hit any out of there, but I've hit two (home runs) here (at Joe Martin Field)."
