Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast

As we continue getting to know the people around the Western Canadian Baseball League this summer, we have a trio of players joining us this week. Sylvan Lake Gulls utilityman Matty Fung is among the league leaders in batting average and stolen bases, Brooks Bombers infielder Ryan Kucy is off to a great start in his collegiate career, and Medicine Hat Mavericks starter Adam Golby is looking to bui...

We take a quick look back at the first week of the Western Canadian Baseball League season and some of the early leaders. Then we sit down with Brooks Bombers head coach Ruddy Estrella, Fort McMurray Giants catcher Jordan Bach, and we conclude Ian Wilson's trek to the Okotoks Dawgs' Media Day with quick updates from Ryan McFarland, Brody Forno and Nash Crowell.

The 2023 Western Canadian Baseball League season is underway. Over the next few months, ten teams in Alberta and Saskatchewan will battle it out, with the goal of raising the Harry Hallis Trophy in mid-August. You can read the West Division preview story here and the East Division preview story here . Here on the podcast each week during the summer, we’re going to switch things up and endeavour to...

For the first time in the program’s history, the University of Calgary Dinos are Canadian College Baseball Conference champions . After posting wins against Thompson Rivers University and Prairie Baseball Academy in the round-robin, they edged the Victoria Golden Tide 7-6 to get themselves into the CCBC final. Given that it’s a double-elimination format, Victoria bounced back with an 11-10 win ove...

It all comes down to this. A championship is on the line this weekend in Lethbridge as the Canadian College Baseball Conference season comes to an end. It feels like the regular season just flew by, but the Alberta teams surely made an impact. Prairie Baseball Academy finished on top with a 21-11 record, with the Edmonton Collegiate Hawks and University of Calgary Dinos finishing third and fourth,...

Blink, and you might just miss it. For any player entering their final year of college eligibility, it feels like it doesn’t take very long to go from raw rookie to standout veteran. Such is the case for Marcus Coderre. The fifth-year University of Calgary Dinos third baseman has become a key piece of the leadership group that has helped turn the program around, to the point where they are now a s...

While we didn’t actually get a chance to meet at the Prairie Baseball Academy annual banquet earlier this year , it was hard not to notice Carter Claerhout. The 6-foot, 235-pound Red Deer product isn’t just a physical presence, but seems to almost always be smiling. And if he knew at the time just how good he’d be this spring, that smile would probably be even bigger. After flirting with .600 for...

We’ve had authors on the show before, but none quite like Lisa Bowes. The well-known broadcaster spent many years at TSN as well as CTV Calgary. A few years ago, she used her journalistic chops to start writing children’s books. The series, entitled “Lucy Tries” and illustrated by James Hearne, follows Lucy on her sports adventures. The first five books saw Lucy try luge, short track, soccer, hock...

Buzz is starting to grow around the newest addition to the Baseball Alberta fleet of offerings. 2023 will be the pilot season for the new Alberta Girls Baseball League . It will feature three associations: the Beaumont Minor Baseball Association, Edson Prospects Baseball and the Rocky and District Baseball Association. All three took part in the Spruce Grove Girl’s Baseball Tournament in 2022, and...

One could argue that Kyle Bloor has seen everything baseball can show you in a really short amount of time. Growing up mainly as a catcher, he got to represent Alberta and Canada on a number of occasions, spending time with various teams between Lethbridge and Calgary. At 16, he randomly ended up having to go through Tommy John surgery, and wasn’t even sure he’d be able to play college baseball un...

If you’ve been to a baseball game in Western Canada over the last 15 or 20 years, especially in Okotoks, you’ve probably seen Jonathan Hodgson around. Growing up in Calgary, he remembers going to Calgary Cannons games, then being gutted when they left in 2002. He immediately attached himself to the new Western Major Baseball League team, the Calgary Dawgs, and in his wheelchair, followed them to O...

It’s been nearly ten years since the Saskatoon Yellow Jackets folded, citing horrible attendance and financial losses. Since then, tires have been kicked and efforts have been made to bring Saskatchewan’s largest city back into the Western Canadian Baseball League, but to no avail. At least - not until Wednesday when the league was finally able to announce that the Saskatoon Entertainment Group ,...

The snow has started to thaw and we’re finally starting to see some local diamonds clearing up for the sweet sounds of the game we love. Among the first teams to hit field will be those in the Canadian College Baseball Conference, including the Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs, University of Calgary Dinos and Edmonton Collegiate Hawks. Opening weekend is this weekend, and to get you set for the seas...

He might not be the biggest player on the field, but pound-for-pound, Ricky Sanchez might have the biggest impact on any baseball team he’s ever been on. The 5-foot-8, 170-pound infielder quickly became a sparkplug with Dawgs Academy after moving to Alberta from Mexico City in high school , following his brother Eddie as well as former Dawg and current Cincinnati Reds infielder Alejo Lopez . His p...

Banquet season continues around our province as communities gather to celebrate the successes of their respective programs. This past weekend, our Ian Wilson traveled south to take in the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball's annual fundraising event. During the course of the evening, he sat down with Reno Lizzi Memorial Award winner Cardel Dick, Wall of Excellence inductee and long-time board president...

Tim Hagerty is a baseball broadcaster with the El Paso Chihuahuas, the triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, having called professional games since 2004. The Massachusetts native is also an author, with freelance work featured in the Sporting News, The Hardball Times and more. Hagerty has also written two baseball books. The first was “ Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball’s Most Of...

The US college baseball season is here! To celebrate, we thought we’d start reaching out to some of those athletes who are looking to make a name for themselves, and we start things off this week with Edmonton’s Brady Kobitowich. He’s one of a handful of Canadian players who are calling Niagara University home this spring, including some familiar names here in Alberta like Okotoks Dawgs product Co...

We love stories of second chances and resilience through tough times. For Jackson Sherren, his story involves more than both of those. The Cornwall, PEI product was recruited to join Dawgs Academy back in 2018. He was expected to head west the following year, but was set back by an ACL tear. He arrived for a short time in 2020, only to be turned around as the world grinded to a halt in the face of...

It is banquet season around the Alberta baseball scene, as teams and organizations look to gather - some for the first time since before the pandemic - and celebrate their successes while also doing a little fundraising. I’ve often mused on social media about an "Alberta Dugout Stories World Tour" to get to see some familiar faces, and we thought this would be a great opportunity to do just that....

The road to the big leagues for Erik Sabrowski hasn’t been an easy one. After an incredible start to his college career at Cloud County , the Edmonton left-hander was a 14th round pick of the San Diego Padres in the 2018 MLB Draft. Almost immediately, he went under the knife for Tommy John Surgery, setting his sights on a return in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic derailed those plans. Sabrows...

They were once roommates at Vauxhall Academy. And now, there’s a chance Adam Macko and Damiano Palmegiani might start the 2023 baseball season on the same team again. After being drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2019, Macko was involved in the high-profile Teoscar Hernandez trade with Toronto, where Palmegiani has been since the Blue Jays drafted him in 2021. Both have high hopes of themselves a...

Greetings and salutations, friends! We hope 2023 has been a home run for you and yours. It’s about that time of the year where we tell you about our plans for the new season of Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast, and we’re excited to share that the first episode of the new year is coming January 26th. We’ve been hard at work lining up guests for the first few weeks, and we have some great ones co...

Few athletes have their names all over the Baseball Alberta awards like Gavin Galenza. In 2015, he was named the 11U ‘AA’ Player of the Year, and followed that up with the 13U ‘AA’ honours in 2016 and the 13U ‘AAA’ in 2017. The Camrose product added another one to his mantle this November by picking up the 2022 18U ‘AAA’ Player of the Year Award , after torching Baseball Alberta Elite League pitch...

It’s been a whirlwind few years for Calgary’s Matt Lloyd. A 15th round pick of the Cincinnati Reds in the 2019 MLB Draft, he spent his first pro summer split between the Rookie League Billings Mustangs and Single-A Dayton Dragons. Listen to his visit with us in 2019 here. 2020 was wiped out by COVID, and he split 2021 between the Red’s Arizona Complex League squad and Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts...

Reign Letkeman’s ascension from a minor ball player in Red Deer to Big Bend College to being drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2015 all felt like it happened in the blink of an eye. In fact, Letkeman admits he started taking the game seriously a lot later than most. But the 6-3, 180-pound right-hander enjoyed the ride, including a three-year stint in the Rays system, before he had to go through a m...