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 look back at Calgary’s involvement with the league and what it took for Parker to bring future stars through Foothills Stadium.
Read More The Pioneers: Calgary CardinalsEric Sim may just be the hero that baseball deserves, even if the sport doesn’t need him any longer.
A self-professed “washed up” catcher and pitcher, Sim has found happiness as a bar manager and in baseball exile at his bat cave, where he still trains like a pro but professes a hate of the game he spent seven minor-league seasons playing.
Both outspoken and entertaining, Sim isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. If his unfiltered talk doesn’t send people to the exits, his unabashed opinions might.
Yet, the same in-your-face expression that turns off many baseball fans is also what makes the former Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) Canadian Rookie of the Year a cult favourite and a voice for the minor league experience.
Read More Sim CityThe Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) has unveiled its rosters for the 2019 All Star Game in Edmonton on Sunday, July 7th.
A full list of the Western and Eastern Division squads can be found here, as can a gallery of some of the players who will be representing their respective teams.
Read More WCBL All Star Teams AnnouncedWhen the Pioneer League looked at expansion in 1975, they began looking at Medicine Hat.
It wouldn’t happen until 1977, but the love affair ended up lasting 25 years.
In the second of our three-part series, we look back at the Medicine Hat A’s and Blue Jays with a man familiar with sports in the city: Bob Ridley.
Read More The Pioneers: Medicine Hat A’sThey say that home is where the heart is.
As it turns out, Ontario’s Ashton Roy is feeling pretty good about his second home here in Alberta.
He moved here in 2015 and talks to us in our latest 7th Inning Stretch about the move, this province and the “Major League” character he channels in the clubhouse.
Read More 7th Inning Stretch: Ashton RoyLong before Sportsnet 960 The Fan radio personalities Pat Steinberg and Will Nault were making waves on the air, they were teenagers in need of summer jobs.
For both of them, their first paycheques came as a result of the innings they put in at Foothills Stadium.
Steinberg was 14 years old when a job fair at the ballpark – which was then called Burns Stadium – landed him a role with the Triple-A Calgary Cannons of the Pacific Coast League (PCL).
Read More Foothills FeedbackFirst baseman McCoy Pearce is doing his part to put the “Bomb” in “Bombers” this season.
Making his way to Brooks by way of Kamloops, Kelowna and – more recently – McPherson College in Kansas, the 6-foot-3 batsman has been a consistent performer at the plate through 22 Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) games, leading the team in runs batted in (RBI) with 24, runs (18), hits (35), and home runs (6).
Pearce was recruited to Brooks by Kyle MacKinnon – the head coach for the Bombers and the hitting coach for the McPherson College Bulldogs – along with several of his college teammates.
Read More 7th Inning Stretch: McCoy PearceSouthern 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 at home for the Lethbridge Expos.
Read More The Pioneers: Lethbridge ExposA lot of players dream of getting called up to The Show.
That call never came for pitcher Joe Sergent, but he was summoned to … a show, of sorts, in 2007.
In typical independent baseball league fashion, it started with the left-handed hurler receiving a phone call from someone who had dialed the wrong number.
Read More Sergent at ArmsNo matter where he pitches – or how he’s throwing – you can always count on Taran Oulton to log a lot of innings.
The Calgary-born lefty, who trained at Prospects Academy in St. Albert, recently wrapped up his senior year at William Woods University (WWU), where he set a new school record for complete games in a season.
Since returning to the Edmonton Prospects of the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) for yet another summer season, Oulton has remained busy.
Read More 7th Inning Stretch: Taran Oulton