(London, Ontario) – Fanshawe Athletics announced today that Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer and former Major League Baseball pitcher, Jeff Francis will join the Fanshawe Falcons Baseball program as a Pitching Consultant.
Francis played for the UBC Thunderbirds at the University of British Columbia before being selected 9th overall in the 2002 MLB draft by the Colorado Rockies. On September 5, 2004, Francis secured his first career victory while throwing five scoreless innings in a 5-2 win over the Sandiego Padres. During the season, Francis was also named Baseball America's and USA Today's Minor League Player of the Year, attributing to his elite stat line of a 16-3 record, 2.21 ERA, and 196 strikeouts.
In 2007, Francis led the Rockies in his first postseason appearance to a triumph over the Philadelphia Phillies. This victory would go down in history as Francis would be the first Canadian starting pitcher to win an MLB postseason game. He finished the season with 17 wins and 165 strikeouts.
Before retiring in December 2015, Francis was awarded a gold medal while representing Team Canada at the 2015 Pan American Games. To defeat the highly favoured American team, Francis pitched an exceptional eight innings in the gold medal game. He was later inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in June 2022.
Fanshawe's Baseball Head Coach, Brian Harvey, stated, " Any time you can get an MLB and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher like Jeff on your staff as a consultant, obviously it's a huge boost to the program. His experience alone is invaluable, and I look forward to seeing him share that with the players and the team. He is a great teacher and role model and I know the pitchers on our team will learn so much from him. His technical knowledge about the pitcher position is unbelievable. Above and beyond all of that, Jeff is a great person, and we are very lucky to have him."