Blue Jays Super Camp coming to Alberta

For the second year in a row, the Toronto Blue Jays are partnering with Baseball Canada to give young players a chance to participate in camps with former MLB all star players.  This year they have expanded their tour from 7 cities to 13, adding Edmonton as a stop along with Calgary.  This camp is open to players aged 10 to 16.  The instructors in the Alberta camps are scheduled to be  Sandy Alomar, Homer Bush, Lloyd Moseby, Rance Mulliniks & Duane Ward.


The cross-country camps start off at Telus Field in Edmonton on July 2nd - 4th, and continue at Foothills Stadium in Calgary July 5th - 7th.  To register and for more information, click on this link to the Blue Jays site.

And parents... this is a great time to share some Canadian baseball history with your young ones.  With the Blue Jays looking like they are ready to challenge to be a playoff contender again, why not relive the glory of the first time the World Series flag flew in Canada, and the dramatic Joe Carter World Series clinching walk-off homerun by getting highlights of both World Series on the DVD below:

Albertans named to Junior National Team

Congratulations to Mike Belliveau, Wyle Cunningham and Logan Seifrit on being named to the 2012 Spring Training Roster for Canada's Junior National Team (JNT).  Along with pitching coach, Chris Reitsma, these athletes will be representing Alberta on the team, in a series of exhibition games in Florida from March 6th to 13th and again from April 14th to 21st.

The Junior National Team will also  be travelling to the Dominican Republic in late May, and in the summer and fall will compete in the World Junior Championships.

For Seifrit, a pitcher from Spruce Grove, this will be his second opportunity to play with the team, as he was also on last year's spring training roster, and travelled with the team to Cuba and the Dominican.  This will be a new experience for Belliveau, a catcher from Calgary, and Cunningham, a lefthanded Red Deer pitcher.  The full roster can be seen here.

We wish the best of luck to the Alberta participants, as well as the rest of the team.

Revolutionary Approach to Pitching Velocity

Every once in a while I post something that will help young players in our Province (or elsewhere really... but I don't know that anybody else is reading this!) improve their game.  I've previously posted information on the "WANNA BE A BETTER BALLPLAYER" site which is a great resource for high schoolers wanting to learn more about the college recruiting process and what scouts look for.  I have also recently added a page of resources to help improve your game.  I'm hoping that as more local ballplayers take advantage of these resources, we will see more Albertans drafted in future years, and go on to have successful MLB careers.
Today I am going to discuss a product which was shared with me by a fellow member of the Baseball Blogger's Alliance who endorses this and I fully trust.  Before getting into details, and my "sales pitch", let me assure you that you can try it risk free for 60 days AND if it doesn't add 5-10 MPH to your fastball after going through the 16 week program you can get all your money back.   Purchasing this will usually cost you $480, but through my connection with the creator if you purchase it using this link, for a limited time you only have to pay $97.   That's right - for about the same cost of taking a girl out to a nice dinner, and with a much better guarantee of getting the desired results you can learn how to throw harder, dominate hitters and get noticed by scouts.

Memorial fund set up for baseball players

By now everyone has heard about the tragedy that took the lives of Mitch Maclean, Tanner Crawell and Tabitha Stepple.  When I first heard about the murder-suicide, my initial reaction was "Shit. Wonder what led to that?" And I assumed it was some kind of domestic family dispute, and didn't think about it much more.  Then a few hours later when I saw on twitter that these were young baseball players who were alumni of Vauxhall, and had played for PBA and the Lethbridge Bulls, my reaction changed to "OH! SHIT!" and my heart sank.  Hey - I'm not a perfect human being.  I know I shouldn't have felt any differently.  A life is a life.  But somehow I felt closer to these young men.  I could relate to their hopes and dreams.  I could only imagine how their families felt. It hit me a lot harder than a random anonymous murder.  The baseball family is a fairly close knit group.   I might have umpired games these boys played in.  I might have cheered for (or against) them from the stands.  In baseball, fans say derogatory remarks about players or teams ("Yankees Suck!"),  teams battle against each other, coaches argue with umpires, umpires eject players, but in the end there are no hard feelings. We all love the game and there is a mutual respect among all the participants.  

But this post isn't about me and my feelings.  It's about helping to spread the word on how we can help out.  A memorial fund has been set up for these baseball players.  To donate, please visit any Bank of Nova Scotia Branch and tell them you are donating to the "Tanner Craswell and Mitch McLean Memorial Fund" or account number 00059 0157317.   From the comfort of your couch you can also send an email money transfer to tcmmmemorialfund@gmail.com.  (Please note the spelling. It's the boys initials TC and MM followed by Memorial Fund).   For more information please take a look at the Prairie Baseball Academy, the Lethbridge Bulls  or the Vauxhall Baseball Academy websites

A trust fund has also been opened for Tabitha Stepple.  Please contact the Northside Scotia Bank in Lethbridge for details.

A trust fund has also been set up for the lone survivor of this senseless massacre, Shanya Conway, who is currently recovering.  You can donate through the TD Canada Trust bank.
Branch #80679
Account#6480005

Hope all my readers have a safe holiday season.

Tim Raines to speak at U of C baseball event

Tim Raines has been announced as the keynote speaker for the 2012 fundraising dinner for the University of Calgary Dinos baseball and fastball clubs. The event will take place on Thursday February 2nd at the Red & White Club at McMahon Stadium.  Tim Raines was one of the most exciting players to ever play in Canada, being a 7 time all-star for the Montreal Expos.

This annual event has seen such stars as Fergie Jenkins, Jack Morris and Bill Buckner in previous years (on the left, with yours truly), and is always an entertaining event.

This is your opportunity to listen to and have a chance to meet a likely future Hall of Famer.

For more details and to order tickets go to the University of Calgary's Recreation page.