Blue Jays icon set to receive incredible honour

City councillors have added the slugger's name to a municipal registry of people being considered to have a city street named after them. Other names include local Barrie residents and heroes Alan Hopper, Barb Richards, and Nancy Jean.

The registry contains council-approved names and facilitates the process for assigning monikers to new streets and other municipal assets, such as city parks.

The final debate is set to happen on March 5th.

The suggestion to add Bautista was first brought forth by city councillor Sergio Morales who is originally from Bogota, Colombia.

According to Morales, Bautista not only raised baseball's profile in the GTA, but also in Barrie itself, which has seen an influx and enrolments and increased in the game.

While the Ward 9 councillor doesn't have a particular street in mind, he noted it would be something different as most current streets have traditional English names.

A six-time All-Star, Bautista was elevated to the Blue Jays Level of Excellence in 2023, as was recently inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Mary's, Ontario. The ceremony is set to take place in June.