Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast

Episode 191: 2022 Canadian Little League Championships

What a week it was in Calgary for the Canadian Little League Championships. Not only was the weather fantastic, but the baseball was second-to-none as teams from around the country vied for the right to represent the maple leaf in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The final was held Friday with Moose Jaw taking on the Little Mountain Baseball All-Stars, competing as Team BC. And with a 9-4 victory, BC has now won 15 of the last 16 Canadian regional championships. Our Ian Wilson was in attendance and managed to catch up with some of the players, coaches and organizers for the event, which received rave reviews from all involved. Hear from players Jaxon Mayervich and Alden Yu. manager Ulysses Yan, and 2022 tournament chair Allan Chatenay on this week's episode.

Episode 190: Tyrelle Chadwick

This week, we take a look back at a great accomplishment by Dawgs Academy’s 18U Black squad. They headed south of the border for a few tournaments over the summer, including the Perfect Game World Series in West Palm Beach, Florida. After going 3-1-1 in the round-robin, the Dawgs didn’t turn back, beating NEB National 4-2 in the final. Dawgs starter Tyrelle Chadwick, who picked up the win in the final with a 3-hit, 3-walk, 5-strikeout in six-plus inning performance, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Pitcher. While he’s only 19, he already has experience in summer college ball with the Dawgs Black WCBL squad in 2021 and then his hometown Kamloops NorthPaws for a few games before coming back to the Academy this summer. An Illinois State recruit, he’s also the son of former Edmonton Trappers and California Angels pitcher and current TRU Wolfpack head coach Ray Chadwick. We caught up with the promising young right-hander to talk about his baseball journey, winning the Perfect Game tournament and what he’d like to one day accomplish. 

Episode 189: Drafted - Gavin Logan

What a year it’s been for Gavin Logan. The Oyen, Alberta product and Dawgs Academy grad took full advantage of being the starting catcher for Oregon State, hitting .281 with three home runs and 36 runs batted in while committing just one error in 45 games as he was named to the All-Pac-12 First Team and All-Pac-12 Tournament Team. While the Beavers fell short of their goal of winning the NCAA national championship, they were a powerful squad and it showed when eight players were selected in the MLB Draft in July. That includes Logan, who was taken in the ninth round, 258th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has received a hero’s welcome in Okotoks, including throwing out a first pitch at a Dawgs game then catching the ceremonial toss from Matt Stairs at the WCBL All-Star Game. I caught up with him at those festivities to talk about his whirlwind last few weeks, as we last connected for Episode 170. Read the story we wrote earlier this year about Logan here and the story of his fellow drafted Albertan, Matt Coutney, here.

Episode 188: WCBL All-Star Game Spectacular

Words probably can’t describe the feeling everyone had Saturday night after witnessing the Western Canadian Baseball League’s All-Star Game festivities in Okotoks. A crowd of 6,000+ people, the players and coaches enjoying every minute of it, some incredible moments of baseball, fireworks at the end, and a million memories made, and it feels like we’re just scratching the surface. Make sure to head to albertadugoutstories.com for the game story and photo gallery that we posted earlier this week. We have plenty more stories to come in the days ahead. Here on the podcast, instead of one guest telling us the story of the day, we have a series of shorter interviews done before and after the game, to help capture the day’s events. Listen in to hear from Matt Wolff of the Brooks Bombers, Braden DeSonia of the Medicine Hat Mavericks, McCoy Pearce and Micah McDowell of the Okotoks Dawgs, Weyburn Beavers slugger Nolan Machibroda, and Sylvan Lake Gulls infielder and All-Star Game MVP Ethan Ho.

Episode 187: Drafted - Matt Coutney

Three days. 30 teams. 20 rounds. 616 baseball prospects chosen in the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft. Among them, 15 Canadians including two from Alberta. Dawgs Academy product and Oregon State catcher Gavin Logan went in the ninth round, 258th overall to the Arizona Diamondbacks, while St. FX Academy product and Old Dominion University first baseman Matt Coutney was taken in the tenth round, 298th overall by the Los Angeles Angels. Congratulations to all for taking the next step in your baseball journey. And congratulations as well to those who will undoubtedly get free agent contracts in the days and weeks ahead, just like Vauxhall Academy grad and UBC slugger Ty Penner did with the Philadelphia Phillies. For this week’s episode of the podcast, we catch up with one of the three recently-signed Albertans. We got to know Coutney on Episode #176, talking about his baseball journey and his stellar season at ODU, where he was one of the nation’s top home-run hitters this season. And he really actually started heating up in April after inserting a contact lens that he had been prescribed but didn’t think would make a big difference. We caught up this week to talk about getting drafted, the process as a whole, and what it meant to him and some of his biggest fans.

Episode 186: Nathan Stark

It’s been a long couple of years without WCBL baseball in a trio of Alberta communities. Over the past few episodes, we’ve chatted with hometown athletes Dax Wandler of the Brooks Bombers and Sean Dunn of the Fort McMurray Giants about coming back this season and the excitement in their respective communities. The third team to return is the Medicine Hat Mavericks and who better to talk about to than Nathan Stark. The Medicine Hat product grew up coming to Mavericks games, and has had the fortune of being with the team since 2017, including their 2018 championship run. While those years were special, this year is even more sweet as he has his brothers, Josh and Zach, on the roster as well. In fact, as we record this episode, they’ve all been on the field at the same time on a couple of occasions. Nathan is the eldest brother who played his high school ball with the McCoy Colts before moving onto Colby Community College, LSU-Shreveport and Doane University. It’s been quite the journey for the 6-foot-3, 171-pound right-hander, who joined us earlier this week to talk all about it.

Episode 185: Sean Dunn

Talk about a homecoming for Sean Dunn. The Fort McMurray product has been chomping at the bit to get back onto the field with his hometown Giants in the Western Canadian Baseball League for a while now, as the pandemic got in the way of their return in 2020 and 2021. The Giants are in a dogfight for a playoff spot in the West Division, hoping to get there for the first time since entering the league in 2016. Dunn remembers those early years, and believes the team has what it takes to turn up the heat in the second half of the season. The 6-3, 185-pound hurler knows a thing or two about winning, as he is fresh off helping Okanagan College capture the Canadian College Baseball Conference title this spring. We talked about all of that earlier this week, as well as what it means to him to give back to his hometown’s baseball community and much more.

Episode 184: Justin King

Justin King might be the king of self-awareness. As a young multi-sport athlete, he admits he realized one day he wasn’t the fastest skater, so he decided to focus on playing baseball. A gifted hitter growing up in Okotoks, King decided to try pitching in his final college season at the University of Louisiana-Monroe in Spring 2021. As his Twitter bio states: “couldn’t hit 95 so now we a pitcher.” While some might have bristled at making that move, he faced it head-on and it has paid off in a big way. In early-June, the 6-1, 215-pound southpaw signed a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he’s already made his way to the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers alongside fellow Dawgs Academy grad Tristan Peters and Canadian Tyler Black. We caught up with King during a recent off-day to talk about what has turned into quite the chapter in his baseball journey and more.

Episode 183: Dax Wandler

It’s been a long road back to the diamond for Dax Wandler. The Brooks Bombers infielder last appeared in the Western Canadian Baseball League in 2019, hitting .242 with a home run and five RBI for his hometown team. He needed surgery following that season, but hit some roadblocks along the way. The 5-10, 160-pound COVID freshman is finally back on the field and hoping to turn a few heads so he can catch on with a collegiate program in the fall. Wandler checked in with us a couple weeks ago to walk us through his baseball journey, the recuperation from his injury and much more.

Episode 182: Fisticuffs at Foothills

The Battle of Alberta might be one of the most heated rivalries in all of pro sports. The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers have hated each other from the very beginning. That rivalry not only transcends hockey, but sports in general as well. When it comes to baseball, any time Alberta’s two largest cities face each other, it’s bound to have fireworks. Never was that more prevalent than on June 13th, 2006. The Northern League’s Calgary Vipers were hosting the Edmonton Cracker-Cats at Foothills Stadium when one of the most infamous brawls in baseball history broke out. Our Ian Wilson has wanted to tell the story for a few years now, and after a lot of hard work and research, published his newest story to mark the anniversary. Cracker-Cats starter Reggie Rivard joins us on the podcast to talk about how it all went down, what he remembers, and how he ended up with the most-severe suspension.

Episode 181: JUCO World Series Champions

There have been plenty of great storylines about Alberta baseball products doing big things in US college programs this spring. One of those has been watching two Dawgs Academy products help Central Arizona College claim the Junior College World Series. Tyrese Johnson hit .340 with a pair of homers, 23 runs batted in and nine stolen bases, while Matt Wilkinson went 5-2 with two saves and a 1.87 ERA to go along with 85 strikeouts in just 53 innings. We caught up with both of them this week to recap their championship season.

Episode 180: Brendan Luther

No rest for the wicked if the wicked’s name is Brendan Luther. The Ontario product who now calls Western Canada home spent the spring at Okanagan College, where he hit .426 with two homers, 26 runs batted in, 48 runs scored and six stolen bases en route to being named a Canadian Collegiate Baseball Conference First-Team All-Star. He then packed his bags as the Coyotes headed to Lethbridge, where he hit .385 with two doubles and two RBI as Okanagan ran the table to claim the CCBC World Series. Why did he pack his bags? Because the 6-1, 190-pound infielder headed straight up to Okotoks to report to the Dawgs for the start of the Western Canadian Baseball League season. It’s a change of scenery for Luther, who spent the past couple of seasons with the Edmonton Prospects. We talked about the expected chirps from that move, his baseball journey and much more in this recent conversation. (Image credit: Brent Calver/OkotoksTODAY)