Joyn the Club

No pressure.

We just want you to replace Hall-of-Fame first baseman Rod Carew.

This was the looming expectation for Wally Joyner as he went about his business in 1985.

In The Cards: 1990 Calgary Cannons

It was the summer of 1990 and life was good for Calgary baseball fans.

If you went to Foothills Stadium to take in a Triple-A game that season, the odds were good that you’d get to see shortstop Omar Vizquel pick a ball out of the infield dirt and fire it over to first baseman Tino Martinez to record an out.

If you were really lucky, you might show up on one of the nights that outfielder Jay Buhner suited up for the Cannons that year.

For those who collected baseball cards, the sports collectibles business was booming.

Trappers Unlocked

The rain pouring down on what was then called Telus Field in Edmonton acted as a perfect metaphor.

Despite the downpour, more than 9,000 fans bundled up to shed tears and say goodbye to their beloved Edmonton Trappers on final time on Sept. 2, 2004.

R.B.I. Baseball: All-Alberta Team

For baseball fans and gamers of a certain vintage, Nintendo changed what it meant to enjoy the sport in a groundbreaking way.

With the 1987 release of R.B.I. Baseball, arcade goers and home video game players were able to interact with America’s pastime on a different level.

And, lo and behold, some Alberta baseball stars were part of the fun …

The Pat Came Back

Pat Casey may have thought he was done with the game of baseball, but the sport had different plans for him.

On a number of occasions, when baseball looked like it offered only dead ends, the Oregon product discovered there was more for him.

The result was a fulfilling career and the realization of a dream he never had.

In The Cards: 2000 Calgary Cannons

The Cannons were in their second year of serving the parent Florida Marlins and their final few seasons of existence as a minor-league team.

An appearance in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) championship series in 1998 – their third franchise loss in the finals – was barely visible in the rearview mirror.

There were, however, bright spots on the 2000 roster, as we discover in this edition of In The Cards …

Hyers Learning

In order to claim a World Series championship, you have to make the right hires.

For the Texas Rangers – who coaxed manager Bruce Bochy out of retirement with impressive results – that included luring Tim Hyers to the Major League Baseball (MLB) organization.

The NeverEnding Torey

He has all the ingredients of a great manager.

And Torey Lovullo – the long-time skipper of the Arizona Diamondbacks – picked up a lengthy grocery list of those ingredients through his minor-league travels, which included stops in Alberta.

Mound Surgeon

He’s a man known much more for the surgery that’s named after him than his stellar pitching career.

But Edmonton baseball fans got to know Tommy John – the person – a bit during his time with the Triple-A team in Alberta’s capital city.

In The Cards: 1993 Calgary Cannons

As far as rosters go, the 1993 edition of Calgary’s Triple-A squad was not the best that the Cannons had to offer the Stampede city.

However, they did offer up a new look with some pinstripes.

Take a look back at the roster and the uniforms in our latest In The Cards.