Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast

Episode 118: Lars Davis

The Florida Gators are one of the top-ranked NCAA teams heading into the spring and one of the people leading the charge from the bench is from our province. Lars Davis grew up in Grande Prairie, went to Prairie Baseball Academy and was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2003 and the Colorado Rockies in 2007. That led to an eight-year professional career before he landed with the Gators as their volunteer coach, where he's been since 2014. In this episode, we chat with Davis about his baseball journey, what it means to him to have stayed involved in the game as long as he has, and getting to play with some future stars like new St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado.

Episode 117: Connor Crowson & Ryan Ludwig

Before we took our winter break, the college commitment announcements were coming in fast and furious. We spent a little time getting to know some of those young athletes and we thought we’d continue that heading into the new year. On this week's edition of Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast, we introduce you to Connor Crowson and Ryan Ludwig. Crowson is an Okotoks product who came up through the hometown Dawgs Academy program, starting with being part of the original peewee program and has excelled in appearances at nationals and the T12 tournament in Toronto. Ludwig is an Edmonton native who came up through the Confederation Park Little League program and has been working with former MLBer Mike Johnson and others with Northern Alberta Xtreme. Crowson is heading to Bossier Parish Community College while Ludwig has committed to Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Episode 116: Aidan Huggins & Evan Wilde

It might have been a small sample size, but 2020 was shaping up to be quite a year for many of Alberta’s baseball players who were taking the field in American colleges. Teams were lucky to get in 20 games before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but they were being treated to some fantastic outings by athletes from our province. That led to us combing through the stats reports to come up with our 2020 Alberta All-College Team. We chat with Edmonton's Aidan Huggins (Illinois State) and Airdrie's Evan Wilde (Cloud County) in the latest installment of Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast, as both were selected for our team.

Episode 115: Mindsets and Mental Health with Laura Redgate

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year! Welcome to the new season of #ADSPodcast! In our first episode of the new season, we chat with the newly-minted mental health and mindset coach of Dawgs Academy in Okotoks, Laura Redgate. She owns Baseline Therapy and works with athletes and others in hopes of ending the stigma around mental health in sport. And while we spent a lot of time talking about it from a baseball perspective, this episode can be also be translated to everyday life with things like New Year's resolutions and the COVID-19 pandemic still hanging over our heads.

Special: The Night Before

Baseball Santa stops by to read a new spin on the classic "Twas the Night Before Christmas." From our dugouts to yours, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a home run of a year in 2021!

Episode 114: The 2020 Season Finale

It’s been a year, hasn’t it? Well, 2020 certainly didn’t work out the way anyone would have guessed when January started and we are certainly in that same boat. Right around now, we’re usually doing stories on Baseball Alberta award winners and maybe doing a quick “season in review” with a few of the pros. But none of those things happened. However, Ian and Joe sit down to talk about the year that was, the year to come and the decision to take a few weeks off with the podcast to get caught up on a few things, including what's most important in life.

Episode 113: Jonah Arseneau

We have been lucky enough to share some of the stories of Alberta's baseball players announcing their commitments to post-secondary institutions stateside recently. This one has a bit of a twist, in that on the same day Jonah Arseneau of the Calgary Bucks announced he had verbally committed to Minot State University, he was also named to New Zealand's U18 National Team. So how does a kid from Calgary end up on that squad? He was born there and spent the first nine months of his life in New Zealand before his family moved to Canada, settling in Alberta a few years later. We talked about that journey and more with the 6-foot-2, 165-pound pitcher and outfielder.

Episode 112: Shaun Atamanchuk

August 1, 2019 will be a date forever etched not only on the mind of Shaun Atamanchuk, but also through the scars on his arm. That's the date the Beaumont native went under the knife for Tommy John Surgery. The last year has been a challenging one for the 6-foot-4 right-hander, who took to Instagram to document the journey for not only himself, but for those having to go through the same recovery. We caught up with the Dawgs Academy grad to talk about that, as well as his move to Georgia Gwinnett College, where he will be reunited with former Dawgs coach Allen Cox.

Episode 111: Simon Lusignan & Kaden Zarowny

There have been a number of Alberta-based baseball players making their college commitment announcements recently and so we wanted to catch up with some of those athletes. On this week's edition of the podcast, we caught up with two from Dawgs Academy in Okotoks. Simon Lusignan's story is an interesting one, being from Quebec and having to better his English while also bettering his pitching skills. We talk to him about that, being ranked one of the best players in the country and his commitment to Stetson University. Then we visit with Strathmore's Kaden Zarowny. The catcher-turned-outfielder has skyrocketed up the Dawgs Academy depth charts and recently announced he will be joining a few teammates at Crowder College.

Episode 110: The Best of Times on the Worst of Teams

You know things are bad when the veteran of your team says “hey boss, this team sucks balls.” You also know things are bad when the general manager literally camps out on the field until his team snaps a dreadful losing streak. And you know things are bad when that story specifically not only garners local headlines and news coverage, but goes national and even makes it to the Los Angeles Times and almost to the popular Late Night with David Letterman. But that’s exactly the situation the Medicine Hat Blue Jays found themselves in 1988. We chat with rookie GM Dean Linden about the publicity stunt, but also about how he ended up "getting the keys" to the team and more. And read more on this story on our website.

Episode 109: Jackson Clemett

We first met Vauxhall Academy’s Jackson Clemett in a web story we did following his appearance at the T-12 at Rogers Centre in Toronto just over a year ago. Things haven’t slowed down for the grade 12 student, as in the spring he announced his commitment to the University of Utah. And over the last couple of weeks, he joined fellow Jet Anson McGorman for the Future Stars Series. The Program-15 event has happened each year since 2017, showcasing some of the best high school talent from the US against the World squad. The outfielder soaked in the experience and tried to make his presence felt despite being a late addition to the World team. He made an outstanding grab in centre field, just past the shadow of the Green Monster and got in a few at-bats as well. He’s back home now, in the two-week quarantine, still beaming about the experience.

Episode 108: Joltin' Joe & Marilyn Visit + A Western League Scandal

As the baseball season winds down, we've taken the opportunity to spend more time working on stories from baseball's past in Alberta. We tend to go down rabbit holes and sometimes find interesting stories that go beyond the game. Over the last couple of weeks, we highlighted a trip to Alberta for Hollywood superstar Marilyn Monroe and Yankees legend Joe Dimaggio. We also dove into the controversial end to the 1920 Western Canada League championship series between the Calgary Bronchos and Regina Senators. Ian and Joe talk about the stories and offer some insight into the work that goes into bringing these older stories to life.