Former Professional Teams in Alberta

The other day I saw a Calgary Cannons card of Ryan Dempster, and that inspired me to write an article on my Red Sox blog about how many Red Sox players used to play in our Province.  In researching that I learned about a lot of teams that used to play here that I was unaware of.   I'm sure most people fondly remember the Cannons or Trappers, or even the Med Hat Blue Jays of the Pioneer League, but there have been many more Minor League and other semi-professional teams that have played in Alberta.  No less than 12 MLB franchises have had minor league affiliates here.  And there have been hundreds of stars who have played here including Alex Rodriguez (left - pictured batting for Calgary) and Hall of Famer Andre Dawson who started his professional career in Lethbridge.

Here are all the teams I found, listed with the name and level of their league and affiliation. If you are aware of other professional teams that have played in our Province, please let me know.

Blue Jays trade analysis - part deux

Yesterday I wrote about the Jays recent trade and warned fans not to have high expectations, based on the results of some other blockbuster deals or big signings. I outlined several examples over the past 10 or so years where teams added major parts in the offseason and didn't get the results they expected.

That's all well and good, but just because some big trades don't pan out, doesn't mean that they all won't.  So today, I'm going to look at the specific players involved in this trade, and analyze how much of an impact they can be expected to provide.

The players the Blue Jays received were Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buerhle, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio.

Blue Jays blockbuster = World Series?

The Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a blockbuster deal and have added 4 all-star players to their roster.  Money aside (Rogers still has a few excess billions), the only cost was  a controversial shortstop (whom will be replaced by one of the premier shortstops in the league), an under-performing pitcher and some prospects.  And although some of these prospects might pan out in future years, it’s not as though any of them were the kind of prospects that your average baseball fan was following in the minors – a la Bryce Harper or Jesus Montero. In fact it wasn’t even the top organizational prospects – but their consensus #2, 5 and 8 guys.

What does any of this have to do with Baseball in Alberta?  Well, if these moves help the Blue Jays win the World Series, the impact will be felt at the local level.  There will be a resurgence in fan interest, like there was in the early 90s, and it will cascade all the way down to cities building more youth baseball diamonds, more revenue for independent teams, more players wanting to play, attracting more qualified coaches north of the border and so on.  So, yes, this trade could have a major impact on the baseball landscape in Alberta, from Little League to the WMBL to semi-professional franchises to potentially attracting minor league teams back to our province.

So… will this trade:

- make Toronto a better team for the immediate future? Absolutely. 

- help the Jays' chances of making the playoffs? Probably

- bring the World Series trophy to Canada soon? Nope!

Look, I'm sorry. Even though I'm a Red Sox fan, I'm involved enough in Canadian baseball to know that the Jays winning will help the baseball industry nation wide, and I'm all for that but I just don't see these moves making that kind of a difference.

There are two ways we can look at this:  Look at individual player's impacts, or look at what history tells us about the fate of teams that made huge acquisitions, bolstering their rosters in hope of attaining that elusive championship.  Today I'm going to start by looking at history for some parallels.  In my next post, I'll analyze this specific trade more closely.

World Series Alberta connections

There are no Canadian players left in the postseason, but there are several members of both the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals who have ties to the Wild Rose Province (aka the Texas of Canada).  With a hat tip to Kevin Glew's Cooperstowners in Canada, here is a list of the participants with links to Alberta:

Texas Rangers:
1st Base Coach Gary Pettis - A centerfielder in his playing days, he spent 1983 in Edmonton, playing for the  Trappers of the PCL, leading the team in runs with 138, before being called up for good with the then-California Angels where he became 5 time Gold Glove winner. (editor's note:  I need to cutdown on run-on sentences!)


3rd Base Coach Andy Hawkins - This former 1st round draft pick had a couple of dubious distinctions, including winning a World Series game - the ONLY San Diego Padre player in their history with a WS win - as well as throwing a no-hitter for the Yankees in 1990, in a game he lost 4-0 - the biggest no-hit loss since the 19th century. After being released by Oakland in 1991, he was signed by Seattle and pitched for the Calgary Cannons in 1992 before shutting it down for good.

St. Louis Cardinals:
Along with having 1st Base Coach, Dave McKay, who was born in Canada, the Cardinals have some players who spent some time in Alberta.

Pitcher Chris Carpenter - This former Blue Jay started his professional csareer playing Rookie Ball for the Medicine Hat Blue Jays in 1994.


Pitcher Kyle Lohse - Like Pettis, he played in the PCL for the Edmonton Trappers, starting 8 games in 2001 before being called up by the Minnesota Twins

With 7 Albertans drafted this year, hopefully in the next few years we will see players born in Alberta participate in the Fall Classic.