What's next for Colin Moro?

Colin Moro has done it all.   From winning championships in the city he grew up in, having the opportunity to play with his childhood favourite team’s jersey on his back, getting a baseball scholarship, to winning Rookie of the Year and all-star awards.  But as spring approaches this player who has always had baseball in his blood is looking for a place to play this season.

Growing up Moro played for his local Little League and Babe Ruth teams in Calgary before going to the Prairie Baseball Academy in Lethbridge in 2003.   After two seasons there he got a scholarship to play baseball for the LSU-Shreveport Pilots where he played until 2007.  During the summers he played in the WMBL, winning a championship with the Calgary Dawgs in 2004 and again with the Okotoks Dawgs in 2007.  These were huge highlights for him, both for winning a championship in his home town as well as the honour to be a part of such a great organization.

In 2008, he started playing professionally, joining his hometown Calgary Vipers and instantly made an impact.  

He won Golden Baseball League (GBL) Rookie of the Year honors, as he led the Vipers to the Championship Series.  It was a great experience for Moro : “I remember how satisfying it was to be the starting centerfielder everyday and to be able to contribute to a championship caliber team”, he said, adding that in the deciding game, “standing on deck with a one run lead in the 8th inning I remember saying to myself that I was willing to do anything to keep the lead for just six more outs”.   Alas, it was not meant to be and “it was absolutely heartbreaking to watch them score the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the 9th”, he lamented.

Successful weekend for Big League Experience in Alberta

Big League Experience (BLE), out of Oliver BC, was in Calgary on the weekend of March 3^rd to run the 2012 Alberta Super Clinic.   BLE have been running these clinics all throughout BC for the last 14 years, and have been coming to Calgary to provide Albertans with their top level coaching since 2004.  It was a very successful weekend for everyone involved, from the instructors and scouts to the participants.

The clinic ran for 2 days and the players who participated benefitted from the opportunity to get instructions from many top tier coaches.  The instructional staff was led by BLE co-owner and director Marty Lehn who is the Milwaukee Brewers scout for Western Canada and whose background includes coaching at the international level for Team Canada at two World Qualifier tournaments, three World Championships, three Olympic Qualifiers, the Pan-Am games as well as at the 2004 Olympics.   Additionally, he has led Team BC to 3 National Championships and was named Canadian Coach of the Year in 1998.   Lehn was joined by Red Sox Canadian Scout Chris Pritchett who was drafted in the 2^nd round by the Angels in 1991 and played with them throughout his MLB career until finishing up with a stint in Philadelphia in 2000. 

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.