Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast

Episode 218: Saskatoon Returns to the WCBL

It’s been nearly ten years since the Saskatoon Yellow Jackets folded, citing horrible attendance and financial losses. Since then, tires have been kicked and efforts have been made to bring Saskatchewan’s largest city back into the Western Canadian Baseball League, but to no avail. At least - not until Wednesday when the league was finally able to announce that the Saskatoon Entertainment Group, which owns and operates the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades and National Lacrosse League’s Saskatchewan Rush, had the perfect plan and proposal, and will be joining the WCBL for the 2024 season. We sit down from SEG's Steve Hildebrand and Tyler Wawryk about the announcement, as well as WCBL president Kevin Kvame, who hints at some more future expansion around the league.

Episode 217: CCBC Preview Spectacular

The snow has started to thaw and we’re finally starting to see some local diamonds clearing up for the sweet sounds of the game we love. Among the first teams to hit field will be those in the Canadian College Baseball Conference, including the Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs, University of Calgary Dinos and Edmonton Collegiate Hawks. Opening weekend is this weekend, and to get you set for the season, we’ve published the league’s preview stories on our website, and we have a jam-packed episode this week as we welcome coaches Todd Hubka, Cam Williams and Jake Lanferman back to talk about the season and the expectations they have for their respective teams.

Episode 216: Ricky Sanchez

He might not be the biggest player on the field, but pound-for-pound, Ricky Sanchez might have the biggest impact on any baseball team he’s ever been on. The 5-foot-8, 170-pound infielder quickly became a sparkplug with Dawgs Academy after moving to Alberta from Mexico City in high school, following his brother Eddie as well as former Dawg and current Cincinnati Reds infielder Alejo Lopez. His performance earned him a spot with the Barton College Cougars, where in 2022, he hit a blistering .442 with nine homers, 90 RBI and 27 stolen bases in 59 games. Sanchez followed that up by hitting .342 with two homers, 39 RBI and 12 stolen bases in 52 games for the WCBL’s Dawgs, helping them win a championship while he was named the league’s MVP. We caught up with Sanchez just before the college season got rolling to talk about what he plans to do for an encore in 2023, committing to Lamar University to continue his post-secondary career, and the importance of family. You can also read our latest story on Sanchez here.

Episode 215: Vauxhall Academy of Baseball Banquet

Banquet season continues around our province as communities gather to celebrate the successes of their respective programs. This past weekend, our Ian Wilson traveled south to take in the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball's annual fundraising event. During the course of the evening, he sat down with Reno Lizzi Memorial Award winner Cardel Dick, Wall of Excellence inductee and long-time board president Todd Ojala, and guest speaker and former Toronto Blue Jays hurler Ricky Romero. To get a full account of the evening, you can read Ian's story here.

Episode 214: ”Tales from the Dugout: 1,001 Humorous, Inspirational & Wild Anecdotes from Minor League Baseball”

Tim Hagerty is a baseball broadcaster with the El Paso Chihuahuas, the triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, having called professional games since 2004. The Massachusetts native is also an author, with freelance work featured in the Sporting News, The Hardball Times and more. Hagerty has also written two baseball books. The first was “Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball’s Most Off-The-Wall Team Names and the Stories Behind Them.” He’s now out with a second book, “Tales From The Dugout: 1,001 Humorous, Inspirational & Wild Anecdotes from Minor League Baseball.” And yes, there are stories from here in Alberta, including Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and, interestingly enough, Bassano. Our Ian Wilson caught up with Hagerty recently to talk about his career, the book and some of the connections to our province.

Episode 213: Brady Kobitowich

The US college baseball season is here! To celebrate, we thought we’d start reaching out to some of those athletes who are looking to make a name for themselves, and we start things off this week with Edmonton’s Brady Kobitowich. He’s one of a handful of Canadian players who are calling Niagara University home this spring, including some familiar names here in Alberta like Okotoks Dawgs product Cole Tucker, Sylvan Lake Gulls hurler Steven Hospital, Airdrie’s Evan Wilde and St. Albert’s Mike Brisson. Kobitowich made the jump to the Purple Eagles from Cloud County, which has a pretty storied history of Canadian and Alberta content of its own. The 6-1, 190-pound Kobitowich is aiming to be the utilityman for coach Rob McCoy, willing to pitch in any situation. We sat down prior to the season to chat all things baseball, a little hockey, and returning to the Edmonton Riverhawks this summer.

Episode 212: Jackson Sherren

We love stories of second chances and resilience through tough times. For Jackson Sherren, his story involves more than both of those. The Cornwall, PEI product was recruited to join Dawgs Academy back in 2018. He was expected to head west the following year, but was set back by an ACL tear. He arrived for a short time in 2020, only to be turned around as the world grinded to a halt in the face of a pandemic. Sherren thought he was good to go that fall, only to tear his ACL a second time. After missing three full years of baseball and dealing with the physical and mental challenges of rehab, the hard-throwing righthander made his triumphant return to Okotoks in 2022, helping the 18U Black team win several tournaments as it was named one of the top programs in North America. It’s one thing to hear the Cole’s Notes as I just gave you, but it’s another to hear it straight from the 18-year-old’s mouth. So here is our candid conversation with Jackson Sherren.

Episode 211: A Night of Celebration at Prairie Baseball Academy

It is banquet season around the Alberta baseball scene, as teams and organizations look to gather - some for the first time since before the pandemic - and celebrate their successes while also doing a little fundraising. I’ve often mused on social media about an "Alberta Dugout Stories World Tour" to get to see some familiar faces, and we thought this would be a great opportunity to do just that. Recently, Prairie Baseball Academy held its annual fundraiser banquet with about 250 people in attendance at the Sandman Signature in Lethbridge. It also featured the induction of three people into the PBA Hall of Fame: Les Colwill, Natasha Buis Deering and Les McTavish. Before they were inducted, head varsity coach Todd Hubka made a major announcement: PBA had received a $500,000 donation from Larry Nolan to help with upgrades to the Dawgs’ facilities at Lloyd Nolan Park. That night, we chatted with Hubka, Buis Deering and McTavish for the podcast.

Episode 210: Erik Sabrowski

The road to the big leagues for Erik Sabrowski hasn’t been an easy one. After an incredible start to his college career at Cloud County, the Edmonton left-hander was a 14th round pick of the San Diego Padres in the 2018 MLB Draft. Almost immediately, he went under the knife for Tommy John Surgery, setting his sights on a return in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic derailed those plans. Sabrowski returned to the field in 2021, posting a 2-0 record and a 1.86 ERA in eight games for the Fort Wayne TinCaps. But he still wasn’t feeling like himself, and ended up going under the knife again for a second Tommy John that October. The hard-throwing lefthander was then taken by the Cleveland Guardians in the Rule-5 Draft that fall, and has since been getting himself back into game shape again. What’s the rehab been like over the last year? How is he feeling right now? And when does the 25-year-old expect to be back on the mound again? That’s just a sampling of the questions we asked him recently in this candid conversation.

Episode 209: A Reunion in Toronto

They were once roommates at Vauxhall Academy. And now, there’s a chance Adam Macko and Damiano Palmegiani might start the 2023 baseball season on the same team again. After being drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2019, Macko was involved in the high-profile Teoscar Hernandez trade with Toronto, where Palmegiani has been since the Blue Jays drafted him in 2021. Both have high hopes of themselves and each other as they look to climb the ladder in the Jays organization. To kick off the 2023 season of the podcast, we bring you conversations with both players, who are coming off solid seasons.

2023 Podcast Season Announcement

Greetings and salutations, friends! We hope 2023 has been a home run for you and yours. It’s about that time of the year where we tell you about our plans for the new season of Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast, and we’re excited to share that the first episode of the new year is coming January 26th. We’ve been hard at work lining up guests for the first few weeks, and we have some great ones coming up. Check out this preview for more!

Episode 208: Gavin Galenza

Few athletes have their names all over the Baseball Alberta awards like Gavin Galenza. In 2015, he was named the 11U ‘AA’ Player of the Year, and followed that up with the 13U ‘AA’ honours in 2016 and the 13U ‘AAA’ in 2017. The Camrose product added another one to his mantle this November by picking up the 2022 18U ‘AAA’ Player of the Year Award, after torching Baseball Alberta Elite League pitching with a .505 batting average with the Red Deer Carstar Braves. He followed that up with a great performance with the silver medal-winning Team Alberta at the Canada Summer Games. Galenza, who moved to Red Deer to join Jason Chatwood at St. Joseph High School Academy, now has his sights set on the next step of his baseball journey with the Colby Community College Trojans, where he already has a semester under his belt. We caught up with the 5-foot-8, 190-pound catcher this week to talk about it all, including getting some baseball life advice from 2022 MLB Draft Pick and Alberta’s own Matt Coutney.