CTN Rooting for the Toronto Blue Jays

Tyler Heineman (right) grew up on Radcliffe Ave. and plays for the Blue Jays.
Photo: Instagram

Sorry Dodgers fans, this editor is rooting for the Toronto Blue Jays, when the World Series gets underway in Canada tomorrow, Friday, October 24.

Tyler Heineman, who grew up on Radcliffe, next door to this editor in Pacific Palisades is the back-up catcher for the Blue Jays. His major league statistics through the 2025 season, includes a .240 batting average, four home runs  and 35 runs batted.

Heineman, 5-11, 205 pounds, was a super athlete as a child. Even though he played baseball with the Santa Monica Little League, he also made a traveling hockey team when he was eight.

This editor remembers when dad Steve put up a batting cage for Heineman and his brother Scott (who was also a professional ball player) and hearing nonstop hit balls. At one point, Heineman gave this editor’s son, who was three years younger, an autograph and told him he should save it for when Heineman was in the major leagues. It was still hanging on the bedroom wall when the Palisades Fire destroyed our home.

When Heineman entered Windward High School, he was playing baseball, but he was also a goalie on the Junior Kings.

His father Steve, who passed away in 2024, told him, “You’re good, but if you want to play a sport in college, you should pick.”

“That was about the time kids start growing,” Tyler said in a 2020 interview. His rival goalie on the team had a growth spurt and “covered” more of the goal, which meant Heineman had less playing time. “I was only about 5-6 as a sophomore,” he said.

For Heineman, it was all about playing time, so he decided, “I’m just going to do baseball.”

He started catching in seventh grade because his Windward coach said, “We need a catcher, does anyone want to try it?”

Windward is not considered a major baseball school or has Heineman described the school, “It’s more of an artsy school that has sports.” There, he batted .490 as a sophomore (2007) and .619 as a junior; establishing the Windward School single-season batting average record. He earned first-team All-California Interscholastic Federation Division IV honors when he was a senior (2009) in addition to Delphic League MVP honors.

Heineman did not receive any baseball scholarship offers and enrolled at UCLA. He made the team, but with limited playing time until his junior year. He was named All-Pac 12 Conference and was a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, given annually to college baseball’s best catcher.

The Houston Astros selected Heineman in the eighth round of the 2012 MLB draft. The next 12 years he has spent time with several MLB organizations and going between Major and Minor Leagues – a journeyman career.

On September 16, 2024, Heineman was claimed off waivers by the Jays.  He earned the backup catcher role on the Blue Jays ahead of the 2025 season.

He told this editor once that “Success breeds confidence and confidence breeds success,” and added “Failures cause you to doubt yourself, but in the sports realm, I think of the quote ‘Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.’”

About playing in the major leagues, he said, “It’s how bad you want it. People who are good have talent, but the work ethic is the key thing. I try to soak up as much information as possible and it gets me better and better, each day, week, month. I don’t want anything to deter me from my training.”

Go Tyler! Go Blue Jays!

Tyler Heineman and his wife Elizabeth have two daughters, Emma and Brooke. He is the middle child of Kathy Lingg and the late Steve Heineman. He has an older sister Emily, and a younger brother Scott.