First-year import Jimmy Jensen has become the third player in Newport Rams history to win the coveted George Heron Medal for the most valuable player in the Baseball Victoria summer league division 1.
Jensen joins David Asp (2004-05) and David White (1990-91) as the only Rams to be awarded MVP in the top-flight competition.
Rams president Ben Portelli said the three medals were a big deal for the club.
“When I looked through the list of winners, there’s not too many clubs that have multiple winners,” he said.
“There’s 12 clubs in division 1 and we have promotion and relegation and 24 have rotated through division 1 in the time that this has been awarded, so to have three winners in the space of 25 years is a big achievement for the club.”
Bringing an import into your organisation comes with obvious risks.
First-hand knowledge of a player’s quality and character might be a little on the vague side. There is also a risk a player simply may not being mentally tuned in and in Melbourne for a holiday.
But Newport did due diligence with Jensen to the best of its ability and uncovered a gem.
“He’s probably one of the most qualified players we’ve had at the club,” Portelli said.
“A thorough professional, he invested himself fully in the club, coached our under-18s. If anyone wanted any tuition at all, he’d go out of his way to help them, whether it was an under-12s kid or one of his teammates.
“He set a fantastic example with his fitness levels and trained as hard as anyone.
Jensen, who represented the victorious Monachs in the All Star game, was utilised in a whole host of ways, both offensively and defensively, for the Rams.
“He was fantastic on the mound, he was great in the field when we put him at shortstop and he was outstanding in the batters box,” Portelli said. “He’s one of the best pitchers in the state and had a very high batting average.”
Most importantly, the Californian bought into the Rams’ culture.
“He flew home last week and wasn’t talking about us as a club and somewhere he played – he actually said he’ll miss his Rams family,” Portelli said. “He certainly made a big impression.”
