Canadian baseball player and scout
Baseball player
James Beswick Ridley (July 9, 1945 – November 28, 2008) was a Canadian professional baseball outfielder, coach, and scout. He played two seasons in Minor League Baseball, then had a lengthy career as a scout. He coached the Canada national baseball team at both the Summer Olympic Games and Pan American Games, and was inducted to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014. Listed at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) and 170 pounds (77 kg), he batted and threw right-handed.
Biography
Ridley played in Minor League Baseball during 1964 and part of 1965, for three teams within the Milwaukee Braves organization.[1] In 1964, he spent time with the Sarasota Rookie League Braves in Florida, and the Greenville Braves of the Western Carolinas League.[1] In 77 games that season, he had a .263 batting average with 25 runs batted in (RBIs).[1] In 1965, he played 32 games for the West Palm Beach Braves of the Florida State League, batting .165 with seven RBIs.[1] Defensively, he appeared in 105 total games, all as an outfielder, with a .957 fielding percentage.[1]
Ridley later played in the Intercounty Baseball League of Southern Ontario from 1972 to 1975.[2] He had a .386 batting average in 1972 with the Toronto Maple Leafs,[3] and was named league MVP in 1974 as player-manager of the Stratford Kraven Knits.[4][5] Stratford won that season's league championship, and Ridley was named manager of the year.[6] He underwent spinal fusion surgery after the 1975 season,[7] and did not resume his playing career.[2] He is considered one of the top 100 players in league history.[2]
Ridley first worked as a scout during the 1973 season, in a part-time role for the Detroit Tigers.[4] He joined the Toronto Blue Jays as a scout in 1976 and stayed with the team for 26 years.[4] He is credited with helping the team sign players such as Paul Spoljaric, Rob Butler, and David Corrente.[4] In 2002, he became a scout for the Minnesota Twins; he helped the team sign Rene Tosoni.[4]
Ridley also coached at multiple levels. He was a coach with the Medicine Hat Blue Jays, a minor-league team in the Pioneer League, for the team's first three seasons, 1978–1980.[4] He later coached the Canadian junior national team during 1983–1988, winning bronze medals at the World Junior Baseball Championship competitions of both 1983 and 1987.[4] He coached the Team Canada entries in baseball at the 1988 Summer Olympics and baseball at the 1991 Pan American Games.[4][8] The team's participation in the 1988 Olympics is remembered for a win over Team USA in Seoul,[9] while at the 1991 Pan Am Games the team had a lengthy brawl with Team Mexico during a game in Havana.[10][11]
In addition to his baseball career, Ridley was also a schoolteacher in Stewarttown, Ontario.[12] He died from cancer in November 2008, aged 63.[4][12] He was survived by a daughter and two sons.[12][13] Ridley twice won the Canadian Baseball Network's scout of the year award: first in 2004, and posthumously in 2009, when the award was renamed in his honor.[14][15][16] In 2014, Ridley was inducted to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.[4] In 2019, he was inducted to the Milton Sports Hall of Fame in Milton, Ontario.[17]
