By IAN WILSON

Believe the hype.

A new Baseball Canada national championship that is being hosted by the Okotoks Dawgs is getting plenty of attention from Major League Baseball (MLB) players from across the country.

The Road to Okotoks will see 16 elite academy teams compete for the Morneau Cup, which is named after Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer and former American League MVP Justin Morneau. The prestigious prize will be awarded at Seaman Stadium in Okotoks in mid-July of 2026 to the top team of amateur baseball players who are 19 years old or younger.

Several current and former MLB players have taken notice of the event and shared their thoughts on what it might mean for Canadian baseball.

“To have an opportunity to play on a national level, it means the world to you when you’re a kid,” said Russell Martin in a Baseball Canada social media video.

“I think it’s just a wonderful opportunity to kind of showcase your skills against the best competition we have in the country.”

The catcher suited up in 1,693 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays, before he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.

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Fellow Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Matt Stairs also spoke glowingly of the national championship.

“It’s something that you just live for, really, as a high school player. To have the opportunity to come and have the top sixteen teams from Newfoundland to British Columbia, to come in and having a chance to play in front of a tonne of scouts, bragging rights, representing your academy and come in and play in some big games in big situations,” said Stairs, who played 19 MLB seasons for 13 teams and is now a coach at Dawgs Academy.

“I think what it really does is it tests your ability and your talent, compared to other players who are in other academies, and then of course the opportunity to play in front of a tonne of people and scouts, for me that’s the biggest thing.”

Several players lamented the fact the Morneau Cup wasn’t up for grabs when they were in high school.

“It’s something I wish I had when I was coming up,” said Calgarian Michael Soroka, who is now a starting pitcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It’s going to be really special to watch that this summer.”

Michael Saunders – who was an outfielder in 775 games with the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies – also couldn’t help but feel like he missed out on a great tournament.

“If I could go back in time and did it all over again I would’ve killed to have this opportunity,” said Saunders, a native of Victoria, B.C.

Starting pitcher James Paxton, who went 73-41 with a 3.77 earned run average (ERA) in his 11 MLB seasons, called The Road to Okotoks “a great opportunity” for young players “to show their talents on a big stage.”

After making his MLB debut with the Athletics in 2025 and making highlight-reel catches as a centre fielder, Denzel Calrke also expressed excitement about the new national championship, calling it “something to take pride in.”

Baseball Canada President Jason Dickson, a right-handed pitcher who logged 73 MLB games with the Anaheim Angels from 1996 to 2000, described The Road to Okotoks as “a bold new chapter for amateur baseball” in Canada.

“The Road to Okotoks brings together what we feel is the best of private baseball, travel baseball,” said Dickson.

“They finally get to go head-to-head … everyone talking about having the best program and being the best, and players wanting to get into that best-on-best environment, we’ve got it now.”

The man with his name on the title-winning hardware is also eager to see the event unfold this summer.

“To get them together and have a true best-on-best competition, national championship in Canada, I was honoured to be asked and to be able to jump on board,” said Morneau.

The former first baseman, who suited up in 1,545 MLB games over 14 seasons, made it clear that the emphasis at The Road to Okotoks will be on team play over individual performance.

“When you get to Okotoks, the only goal, the only thing that matters is that you put the egos aside and the only thing that really matters is, how can I be there for my teammates? How can I help us win this game right now without any thought of, what did I just hit on the radar gun? What was my exit velocity on that hit?” he said.

“There will be some competitiveness there. There will be some camaraderie as well, so I think that’s kind of the goal of the whole thing is how do we get the best players in the country, how do we get them together and how do we put them in an environment that’s not a showcase, that’s not about the players themselves? It’s about the team. It’s about the kids you train with all winter or you come together with in the spring and you spend a tonne of time with and then all of a sudden you go on this journey and you get into these qualifiers and you make it a true anybody can beat anybody and you have to play each other.”

Seaman Stadium will serve as the primary venue for the championship, which is set to take place from July 14-19.

Competition will officially get underway in May and June with three regional qualifiers that are hosted by top Canadian academy programs. The qualifiers will determine the 16 teams that advance to the national championship in Okotoks.

The Langley Blaze and White Rock Tritons will host qualifying games in British Columbia, while Vauxhall Academy of Baseball and Prairie Baseball Academy will welcome teams to Lethbridge.

Ontario qualifiers will be hosted by the Mississauga Tigers High Performance Program, the Ontario Blue Jays, the Ontario Nationals and the Ontario Terriers.

For more information, visit The Road to Okotoks website.