An untapped resource for baseball talent is now under the watchful eye of a former Nanaimo Pirate and B.C. Premier Baseball League all-star.
Mike Griffin has signed a two-year contract with Major League Baseball to join its coaching staff in charge of under 20-year-old player development in China and the Asian region.
Griffin, 25, started at MLB Development Centre headquarters in Wuxi, China Jan. 18. China is seen by MLB as the next emerging hotbed of baseball talent and the league has been working in the Asian region for several years.
Griffin had earlier contact with MLB personnel on different occasions as a volunteer head coach for the Cambodian baseball team in the South Asian Games in 2007 in Thailand, and in 2008 to assist as a MLB envoy to promote baseball and hold youth training camps in China just prior to the first ever major league exhibition baseball game.
He also spent five years in the Czech Republic playing and coaching A league baseball.
“An opportunity to join MLB was one I couldn’t pass up,” he said. “My European experience has been invaluable in that I had the opportunities as an A league player, an A league coach, baseball academy and youth camp instructor and administrator, and public relations liaison.”
Griffin started his baseball career working through the Nanaimo Minor Baseball system, was an all-star third baseman for the Pirates, played for the Canadian Junior National team and earned baseball scholarships to the University of Hawaii and to the College of Southern Idaho.
