Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast

Imagine: being in high school, flying across the country to play at THE Major League Baseball stadium in Canada: Rogers Centre. Or for some of us, it’s still Skydome. At any rate, since 2013, the Tournament-12 has been held there, showcasing the best talent in our nation and providing coaching from Blue Jays greats like Roberto Alomar, Lloyd Moseby, Jesse Barfield and George Bell, to name just a f...

The baseball community in our province wouldn't be what it is without the amazing work done by so many. From the players and coaches to the staff members, parents and volunteers, the work doesn't go unnoticed. And in some cases, it leads to a lasting legacy. We chat with St. Albert Minor Baseball Association President Kurtus Millar and long-time Foothills Major Baseball Association member Glen Han...

What a year it has been for Dawgs Academy. After posting a 60-12 record including four major tournament wins, the 18U Black squad was named the third-best 18U travel team in North America by Perfect Game. We chatted with Dawgs Academy GM Tyler Hollick to talk about the team and what's to come in Okotoks. We also chatted with pitchers Andrew Yusypchuk and Matt Wilkinson , as they are among the 150...

On September 12, 2009, the Calgary Vipers became the first team from the city to claim a professional baseball championship. We chat with Medicine Hat-born slugger Drew Miller and current Okotoks Dawgs and Dawgs Academy coach Joe Sergent about that season and some of their memories of their days in the Golden Baseball League.

From elementary and high school to college and university, the kids are back in school. For many Alberta-born athletes, they have headed to their respective schools to get training again for their baseball endeavours. In this episode of #ADSPodcast, we check in with Calgary product Jared Kennedy about graduating this past spring, but he's not straying far from his alma mater. The Vauxhall Academy...

Two Alberta squads had summers to remember as they represented our province and country at their respective Little League World Series events. We chat with Medicine Hat coach Dean Harrison and Lethbridge coach Denny Puszkar about their seasons, going to nationals and then wearing the Maple Leaf.

It will be baseball for a great cause in Sherwood Park over the next few days, as the World's Longest Game will be held in support of Cure Cancer Foundation. We're joined by founder and organizer Brent Saik to talk about what August 22-25 will bring. And Sherwood Park native Tanner Kirwer stops by to talk about his upbringing, being drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017 and advice he has for fe...

It has been a long time coming for the Okotoks Dawgs. After a decade of success but no Western Canadian Baseball League championship to show for it, the club went wire-to-wire as one of the league's best teams before knocking off Edmonton, Lethbridge and Regina to claim the 2019 title. Ian Wilson chats with coach David Robb as well as pitchers Brandon Desjardins and Justin Hammergren and Dawgs Aca...

We have visited with several Western Canadian Baseball League stars over the summer for our 7th Inning Stretch features, but we haven't been able to share those conversations in podcast form much. This is our opportunity to catch up on some of the insight and, frankly, the hilarity of some of those chats. In this episode of #ADSPodcast, we revisit Ian Wilson's sit-downs with Okotoks Dawgs pitcher...

Every January, umpires from across the globe hope to hear their names called for Little League World Series assignments . Over 90 officials will be asked to oversee seven different tournaments. Each of those events features one Canadian umpire and, this year, three of the seven Canadians hail from Alberta. We chatted with two of them prior to their events: Geoff Larsen (Calgary) who will be part o...

Over the last few years, Blue Jays Academy has hosted Super Camps powered by Honda for kids between the ages 9 and 16 across the country. It’s a chance for the young athletes to learn some things from some Blue Jays alumni. This year, there were two stops on the nationwide tour in Alberta, Tuesday-Wednesday in St. Albert and Thursday-Friday in Okotoks. We took in the festivities on Thursday and ch...

This weekend, former Calgary Cannons and Seattle Mariners great Edgar Martinez will take his place amongst baseball's best ever in Cooperstown. The National Baseball Hall of Fame's induction ceremony will take place, where Martinez will be officially inducted along with Roy Halladay, Mariano Rivera and Mike Mussina as well as Harold Baines and Lee Smith. In the new book "Edgar: An Autobiography",...

What a couple of weeks it was in Okotoks for the Baseball Canada Women's Invitational Championships. Mother Nature had a few different pitches up her sleeve, but it didn't dampen the spirits of the competitors. In the end, Ontario claimed the title while Alberta earned bronze. Afterwards, eight Baseball Alberta players were named to the National Women's Team selection camp and five ended up being...

If Russ Parker's middle name isn't "Persistent", maybe he should look at changing it. After having been in discussions about bringing an affiliated team to Calgary for half a decade, he finally succeeded in 1977 with the Cardinals. In our final installment of "The Pioneers", we chat with Parker about joining the Medicine Hat A's and Lethbridge Expos as Alberta's contingent in the Pioneer League.

Mother Nature tried to rain on their parade, but the Western Canadian Baseball League's All-Star Game went off without much of a hitch in Edmonton over the weekend. Our own Ian Wilson was in the capital for the festivities and chatted with Home Run Derby Champion Kaleb Warden of the Lethbridge Bulls as well as special guest Matt Stairs. The former MLB slugger played with the Edmonton Trappers in 1...

Assuming Mother Nature doesn't rain on our parades, a couple of major events are slated for this weekend in our province. Okotoks will be home to the Baseball Canada Women's Invitational Championships from Thursday to Sunday, while the Western Canadian Baseball League will host its first All-Star Game on Sunday in Edmonton. We chatted with Team Alberta coach Drew Boyer about what he expects out of...

Before the 1975 Pioneer League season had even started, officials were sniffing around at possible locations for expansion. Medicine Hat quickly became a front-runner, although a "fiasco" surrounding renovations at Athletic Park threatened to put affiliated baseball's start in the city on ice. But on June 25, 1977, the Medicine Hat A's made their debut . They would only last one year before the ne...

After a three-year stop with the Calgary Vipers, Joe Sergent decided to make a life in the area. Over the last three years, he has been a coach with the Dawgs Academy and Okotoks Dawgs. He shares some of his favourite stories with Ian Wilson in our latest episode. And speaking of Okotoks, the community will host the Baseball Canada Women's National Championships in early July and one of the young...

Southern Alberta's love affair with baseball hit a fever pitch in the 1970's. After years of our own circuits and big league players barnstorming through, relationships were built to bring affiliated baseball to the masses. In the first of our three-part look at the Pioneer League's days in Alberta, we profile the lead-up to the first game for the Lethbridge Expos.

Over the last week, we launched a brand new feature on our website called "7th Inning Stretch". It's a chance for Western Canadian Baseball League fans to get to know some of their favourite players, through chats with our Ian Wilson. Here are the first three he did, in audio form. Fort McMurray's Richard Ortiz , Okotoks' Will Hollis and Edmonton's Taran Oulton join us. And to mark Father's Day th...

The dream for all athletes is to win a championship. In the case of two young baseball players from our province, that dream has been recognized recently, albeit in different ways. Baseball Canada Women's National Team rising star Madison Willan helped guide her St. Albert Slash hockey team to a third-straight Esso Cup title, while Dawgs Academy product Clayton Keyes was a big part of Central Ariz...

Four Albertans were selected in last week's MLB Draft while several others with ties to this province were also picked. We continue our discussions with some of those players in the second of our two-part review. This time around, we chat with Stony Plain's Adam Macko (Seattle) and Lethbridge's Thomas Little (Philadelphia), both of whom honed their skills with Vauxhall Academy. We also chatted wit...

A total of four Albertans were taken in the 2019 MLB Draft as were several players with Alberta connections. In part one of our two-part look at some of those names, we catch up with Vauxhall Baseball Academy alum Josh Burgmann and Dawgs Academy product Matt Lloyd , who were taken by the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds, respectively.

He has been all the rage around Major League Baseball this season. Calgary's Mike Soroka has been achieving great things with the Atlanta Braves, setting records and turning a lot of heads. Ian Wilson and Joe McFarland chat about the phenom's season thus far and are also joined by former coach Brent Cooper. The guys end the show talking about the Western Canadian Baseball League season and what's...

It probably comes as no surprise that there is no shortage of words from two teams involved in one of the Western Canadian Baseball League's biggest rivalries. The head coaches of the Okotoks Dawgs and Edmonton Prospects were pretty thorough in their answers as we previewed the upcoming summer, leading to a longer-than-usual episode to wrap up our look ahead to the season.