Jim Voutour spent brief time in pros, career in policing

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Playing for SUNY Brockport in western New York, Jim Voutour had his sights set on the pros. And, if the pros didn't work out, business finance, he told The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in April 1987.

"That's the dream for anybody," Voutour told The Democrat and Chronicle then of pro baseball. "But I'm not depending on dropping out and going professional."

Voutour ended up realizing, if briefly, his goal of playing pro baseball. But his post-playing career ended up not being in business finance. It ended up being in law enforcement.

Voutour ultimately became a sheriff's deputy in Niagara County, New York, where he grew up. By 2008, he'd risen through the ranks to run for the top job himself, Niagara County Sheriff. And he won.

Voutour's brief pro career began and ended in 1990, signed by the Tigers as an undrafted free agent out of Brockport.

At Brockport, Voutour hit 20 home runs and nine triples, longtime school records. He also had a career slugging percentage of .595. He made the school's Hall of Fame in 2010.

But his work at small SUNY Brockport wasn't enough to get signed. So he returned to summer ball, playing near home in the Erie-Niagara League. He went 4 for 5 with a home run and 8 RBI in one game, a 29-7 win for Lockport DMI. He homered three times and knocked  in 11 in another DMI rout that month.

Then, in early August, the short-season Niagara Falls Rapids, a Tigers affiliate, held an open tryout. They signed two, one of them Voutour, The Detroit Free Press wrote.

"The baseball community of Niagara Falls is very strong, and the skill level of these two players was too great to overlook," Niagara Falls general  manager Tom Prohaska told The Free Press. "They had an outstanding tryout and impressed both (manager and coach) Juan Lopez and Joe Decker."

Voutour went on to play 20 games that year for Niagara Falls. He got 53 plate appearances, 47 official at bats. He picked up nine hits, one of them a home run, for a .191 average. Those numbers marked the extent of his pro career.

Voutour returned to the Erie-Niagara League for 1991, hitting a two-run home run in a July game.

But he also soon turned his attention to police work. He joined the Jamestown (NY) Police Department and the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office. He then went home to Niagara County and joined the sheriff's office there, according to his Brockport Hall of Fame bio.

He was then elected sheriff  in 2008. He ultimately was elected to three terms before retiring.

"It has been an honor to serve the citizens of Niagara County as their sheriff for 11 years," Voutour said in a statement upon his 2019 retirement, according to WGRZ. "The people of Niagara placed their trust in me for three elections and for that I am truly grateful."

More: The 1990 Niagara Falls Rapids

1990 Minor League Tally 
Players/Coaches Featured:4,535
Made the Majors:1,433-31.6%
Never Made Majors:3,102-68.4%-X
5+ Seasons in the Majors:582
10+ Seasons in the Minors:359

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