Keyes to Success

After two swings at the MLB Draft in 2016 and 2017, Calgary’s Clayton Keyes is hoping a team will throw another pitch his way.

Ranked as the fifth-best draft-eligible Canuck by the Canadian Baseball Network, the Dawgs Academy product is off to a hot start with Central Arizona College.

During a recent rainout, we caught up with him for an Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast interview.

Just A Bit Outside

When it comes to baseball, Steve Hofstetter has more jokes about the sport than Pete Rose has hits. That includes a few quips about Charlie Hustle, as well.

As prolific in the realm of sports comedy as the former Cincinnati Red was at the plate, Hofstetter isn’t the type to rest a bat on his shoulder. Swinging away – whether it’s on stage as a standup comic or as a panelist on MLB Network – has allowed the 39-year-old to amass a huge following.

His YouTube channel has generated over 115 million views and over 400,000 subscribers, and his resume includes bylines for Maxim, ESPN and Sports Illustrated.

During a recent phone interview from California, Hofstetter told Alberta Dugout Stories why he loves baseball, hates the Dodgers, believes in preparing for ceremonial first pitches and he laid out his reasons for calling Roger Clemens a jerk.

1 Thru 9: St. Francis Xavier

If you’re around baseball long enough in the Edmonton area, you will eventually hear about St. FX, or just FX.

That’s the abbreviated form of St. Francis Xavier Baseball Academy, a program that guides student athletes as they pursue their academic and sporting dreams.

Brad Wolansky, the director of the academy, brought his extensive baseball experience to Alberta’s capital with the aim of coaching aspiring major leaguers. He made time for us and our latest installment of “1 Thru 9,” which examines the baseball academies in Alberta.

2019 Projections for Mike Soroka

As pitchers and catchers report for spring training duty in Florida, Calgarian Mike Soroka finds himself on the cusp. On the cusp of what exactly remains unclear, but suffice to say, it’s a big season for the 21-year-old Atlanta Braves right-hander.

Last year at this time, Soroka was chasing the dream of his first start in Major League Baseball (MLB). He achieved that on May 1, 2018 during an impressive victory over Noah Syndergaard and the Mets at New York’s Citi Field.

The 2015 first-round pick of the Braves followed that up with four more starts – posting a 3.51 earned run average (ERA), a 2-1 record and 21 strikeouts over 25.2 innings pitched in the majors – before injuries sidelined him for the remainder of the season.

What will a healthy Soroka do for an encore? If 2018 proved anything to the PBF Redbirds alumni it’s that getting there is only half the battle – staying up with the big club is the other half.

1 Thru 9: Prairie Baseball Academy

One of the longest tenured baseball schools in Alberta is in Lethbridge, where the Prairie Baseball Academy (PBA) teaches student athletes about the sport and about life.

The team name at PBA is the Dawgs, but you’ll also find some bulls in the pack. That’s because several members of the coaching staff at the academy have played and coached for the Lethbridge Bulls of the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL). And if you check the Bulls roster each summer, you’re sure to find some PBA players on the squad.

You can count Ryan MacDonald among those who have close ties to both the Bulls and the Dawgs. Now in his 10th year of coaching at PBA, the Nova Scotian played five years for the Bulls and coached the Lethbridge team to their first WCBL title in 2015.

MacDonald made some time for Alberta Dugout Stories so we could learn a bit more about PBA and the school’s approach to baseball tutelage.

Going To Wark

St. Albert’s Jackson Wark has always dreamed about playing college baseball.

And while he may be one of the top-ranked draft-eligible players from Canada, right now he’s focused on bringing success to his Saint Louis University Billikens.

We chatted with him for a recent episode of Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast and here’s that exchange.

Hall Pass

We look at the 2019 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame induction class.

It includes former Calgary Cannon pitcher Ryan Dempster, long-time Blue Jays GM Gord Ash, former Yankee bench coach Rob Thomson and Trail, B.C. product Jason Bay.

1 Thru 9: Prospects Baseball Academy

After a decade of operation, Prospects Baseball Academy in St. Albert has cultivated some incredible talent.

Those who have attended the academy include Major League Baseball (MLB) draft picks – like Toronto Blue Jays pitching prospect Andrew Case and Erik Sabrowski, a 2018 selection of the San Diego Padres – while others have represented the Prospects in Edmonton as members of the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) team.

Other students – such as Jackson Wark, Kobe Hyland and Taran Oulton – have gone on to play high-end college baseball in the United States and across Canada.

Jordan Blundell, meanwhile, has become the face for the Prospects in both St. Albert and Edmonton. In St. Albert, Blundell works as a hitting instructor and recruiting coordinator at Prospects Baseball Academy, while in Edmonton he was recently named head coach and director of baseball operations by the Prospects.

We caught up with Blundell recently to learn more about the academy.

1 Thru 9: Vimy Ridge Baseball Academy

While many baseball academies have been up and running for several years in Alberta – some for decades – a program in Edmonton is just stepping into the batter’s box for the first time.

Vimy Ridge Baseball Academy started up a few years ago and players will embark on their inaugural season this year.

To find out what’s going on at the school, we spoke with program director Drew Boyer (who is also the head coach of the Midget AAA Edmonton Cardinals squad) as part of our ongoing “1 Thru 9” series, which sees us pose nine questions to academy directors across the province.

Designated Hall of Famer

Good things come to those who wait.

In the case of former Seattle Mariner and Calgary Cannon Edgar Martinez, he’s become accustomed to waiting.

After going undrafted and signing with the Mariners in 1982, the third baseman spent the majority of the next seven years in the minor leagues, including 276 games with the Triple-A Cannons.

The rest of his career was spent with the Mariners, mostly as a designated hitter (DH), where Martinez waited for a World Series berth that never came before retiring at the end of the 2004 season.

When his career Major League Baseball (MLB) numbers – he hit 309 home runs, batted .312 and posted a .418 on-base percentage – were deemed worthy of National Baseball Hall of Fame consideration, Martinez would once again be forced to exercise patience as the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) deliberated his fate.

But, after his 10th and final year on the ballot, the wait is over and it’s good news for the man who simply became known as “Edgar” to Seattle sports fans.

TALES OF BASEBALL