Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast

Episode 139: Cleary Simpson & Tucker Zdunich

One of the big storylines heading into the Western Canadian Baseball League season was about how it would be an "All-Canadian" summer. It was viewed as an opportunity to show off the great talent we have in Canada, especially here in Alberta, as we slowly emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode of the podcast, we chat with a couple of players who are suiting up for teams close to home. Elnora's Cleary Simpson entered the Sylvan Lake Gulls' record book by scoring the team's first-ever run and hit their first-ever home run, while High River's Tucker Zdunich is with Okotoks Dawgs Red after a five-year career with Dawgs Academy. Both are Colby Community College products who are excited about where their baseball journeys have taken them.

Episode 138: Carlin Dick

At 5'8" and 215 pounds, Carlin Dick isn't the most imposing player on the Lethbridge Bulls roster. But fans are definitely taking notice as he's opened up the WCBL season on fire. Through five games, the Vauxhall Academy product was hitting .333 with two doubles, five runs batted in and two stolen bases. The Abbottsford, BC native is also coming off an All-MAAC All-Rookie Team season with Canisius College, where he hit .348 with two home runs and 12 RBIs in 17 games. As the Bulls got ready for their Canada Day home games, the rightfielder took some time to talk about his year so far, which also included a mild case of COVID-19.

Episode 137: Cole Tucker

Cole Tucker figures to be a prominent piece of the Dawgs Red squad during the 2021 Western Canadian Baseball League season. The native of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland is a Dawgs Academy product who went on to play with Southeastern Community College before spending the last couple of years with the Niagara University Purple Eagles. He's coming off a spring where he hit .391 with three home runs and 19 runs batted in, while being named to the All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Second Team. We chatted with the 6'1", 195-pound middle infielder before he made his debut in Okotoks on Tuesday. Big thanks to Angela B Photography for the photos we've used of Cole. Check out her work here on Instagram.

Episode 136: WCBL Season Preview

It will be a season like no other, that can absolutely be certain. First pitch on the 2021 Western Canadian Baseball League season is upon us. Five teams will be taking part: the Edmonton Prospects, Lethbridge Bulls, two squads from the Okotoks Dawgs and the expansion Sylvan Lake Gulls will be hitting the field this summer with dreams of winning the coveted Harry Hallis trophy. And for the first time, the league is going “All Canadian” to showcase the home-grown talent we have in Alberta and across Canada. We check in with ADS co-founder Ian Wilson to preview the upcoming season, as he wrote up a season preview story on our website here.

Episode 135: Ayden Makarus

Ayden Makarus can now add "national champion" to his impressive baseball resume. The Dawgs Academy product was part of the LSU-Eunice squad that captured the NJCAA Division II title over the weekend in an exciting 5-4 extra innings win over Western Oklahoma. Makarus has been an immediate contributor to the Bengals offensively after a successful high school career, including a spot on Baseball Canada's Junior National Team. We talked about it all, plus a few other questions that we didn't get a chance to ask when we first met him on Episode #27 of the podcast.

Episode 134: Play Ball!

It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to look forward to actual baseball on Alberta diamonds. But after the provincial government announced its roadmap to reopening, baseball organizers started formalizing their “return to play” plans. There’s an air of cautious optimism, especially knowing that plans can and likely will, change. So we thought we’d go right to the source this week and chat with a couple of people who have been helping drive those preparations forward. Ryan Bird of Baseball Alberta and Kevin Kvame of the Western Canadian Baseball League join us to talk about their planning and what's to come this summer.

Episode 133: Logan Grant

Every young baseball player starting off his college career dreams of making an impact right out of the gates. But maybe not to the extent Logan Grant achieved with the Bismarck State College Mystics. The freshman catcher/infielder made life difficult for opposing National Junior College Athletic Association pitchers, hitting a fantastic .423 with eight home runs, 58 RBIs and six stolen bases in 37 games. And for being such a young athlete, he’s had an interesting journey to get to where he’s at, including playing at both Vauxhall Academy of Baseball and Dawgs Academy in Okotoks. Grant has had some downtime recently as he was in quarantine after returning home from North Dakota , so we had a chat about his season full of accolades, growing up on the family farm outside Chestermere, and much, much more.

Episode 132: Cohen Achen

It all changed in the blink of an eye for Cohen Achen. The up-and-coming pitcher was on the mound for Big Bend Community College in early-2020 when he was hit in the face by a comebacker. He considers himself lucky that it was in a spot near the eye that didn’t damage the orbital bone, jaw bone or hit his temple. But he definitely had a concussion and a nasty bump that took about three months to heal. It wasn’t just physical either, as he had to get back onto a mound again, even though playing catch sometimes left him a little uneasy. Once he got over it, he flourished.
The 19-year-old came back this spring with Lindsay Wilson College, going 5-0 with a 2.38 ERA in 13 appearances, including seven starts after starting the season in the bullpen. For his efforts, Achen was named an All Mid-South Conference Second-Team All Star and was named the MSC Freshman of the Year. He’s now in quarantine after arriving back home, and chatted with me earlier this week about his baseball journey, his all star campaign, and how his injury actually helped give him a new love for the game.

Episode 131: Chas Wheatley

It hasn’t been an easy road for Chas Wheatley. The Edmonton-area pitcher was off to a flying start in his baseball career, but then an ulnar nerve injury in the summer of 2018 led to surgery. Add in the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s been a long time since he’s been on the field for actual game action. The 6-foot-7 right-hander faced the additional challenge of watching other players his age commit to US colleges and universities, while he had to wait, hoping someone would take a shot at recruiting him. As it turns out, a few schools showed interest, and in December, Wheatley committed to the Division-1 University of Iowa Hawkeyes. It’s been quite the journey, but one he takes in stride. Earlier this week, we chatted with the 19-year-old about the injuries, the comeback, and training with Taylor Burns and the team at Absolute Human Performance.

Episode 130: Heidi Northcott

We open up the episode by paying tribute to long-time and well-respected umpire Mitch Ball, who passed away last weekend after battling COVID-19. Someone who has been on the front lines facing the pandemic on a daily basis is Heidi Northcott. A long-time member of Baseball Alberta and Baseball Canada’s women’s programs as a pitcher, the Rocky Mountain House native is now a Registered Respiratory Therapist at an adult acute care facility in Edmonton. While she learned about pandemics and planning for them while she was going to school at SAIT in Calgary, she didn’t necessarily expect to be thrown into it so quickly after graduating in 2019. We talked about it all a couple of weeks ago during some rare downtime Northcott had and here is that conversation.

Episode 129: Tristan Peters

As the college baseball season continues stateside, we’ve had the pleasure of chatting with some of the Alberta products who have been turning heads. And we’ll continue that theme this week with Tristan Peters. Originally from Winkler, Manitoba, he moved to Alberta in high school to be part of the Dawgs Academy program. The 6-foot, 180-pound outfielder moved on to star at Chandler-Gilbert before hitting the ground running with SIU. Peters has been hitting near .400 all season. As we record this, Peters is at .355 with two home runs, 35 runs batted in and 12 stolen bases in 39 games. Patience has been his MO all year, drawing 31 walks and getting deep into counts, finding the right pitches to drive. We caught up with the sophomore about the transition to Division 1, being a part of the 2019 Okotoks Dawgs championship team, and why he’s a self-professed nerd.

Episode 128: Edmonton Trappers Retrospective

It has been 40 years since Alberta baseball fans were first introduced to the Pacific Coast League. On April 14, 1981, the Edmonton Trappers took to the field on the road against the Portland Beavers. Eight days later, April 22nd, the Trappers made their debut on home turf, taking on the Tacoma Tigers at Renfrew Park. It was quite the journey in making that happen. Efforts to start a new professional baseball league in Western Canada fell through, as did hopes to bring a Pioneer League team to face Calgary, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Edmonton’s Mr. Baseball, Mel Kowalchuk, wouldn’t take no for an answer, and looked into the possibility of Triple-A coming to town. When an expansion team wasn’t feasible, he looked at buying an existing franchise, bringing in Peter Pocklington to help finance a deal for the Ogden Athletics. After some back-and-forth, the deal happened, the team moved and the rest, as they say, is history. We chatted with one of Kowalchuk's friends, Orv Franchuk, and former pitcher Bill Atkinson about that inaugural season.