Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast

The baseball season is getting closer! We're less than a week away until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training. We thought we'd catch up with a pitcher and catcher from Alberta hoping to turn some heads. Vauxhall Academy's Adam Macko enters his first spring training after being drafted by Seattle in 2019, while Dawgs Academy's LaRon Smith is going into his second after being drafted by Minnesota in 2018. We chatted with both about the adjustments they have made in professional baseball and what they expect out of themselves heading into 2020.

Blair Kubicek moved to Lethbridge in 1995 with the goal to help get the Prairie Baseball Academy off the ground. He ended up coaching the team for 15 years while helping grow the game of baseball all over this province. He and five others will be inducted into the academy's new Hall of Fame this coming weekend, and we chatted with "Coach Kubicek" about the long list of accolades he has received (including being an Okotoks Dawgs Hall of Fame inductee in 2014), his advice for others trying to build the game in this province and why behind every good man, there’s a great woman.

Emerson Frostad's journey in baseball took him to places a kid who grows up in a hockey-dominated world could have only dreamed of. From his days with the Calgary Dawgs program before they moved to Okotoks to Lewis-Clark State College to being drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2003 and playing for Baseball Canada at the Olympics and Pan-Am Games, Frostad did it all. Now a corporate lawyer in Calgary and a member of our recently-announced "Alberta's All-Decade Squad", Frostad spoke with us about where he's been, some baseball life advice he cherishes, and his thoughts on former coach Larry Walker being inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Van De Keere name is synonymous with baseball in the Barrhead area, northwest of Edmonton. Keith was a standout pitcher with the Barrhead Blue Jays and was a member of the Canadian National Team before turning his attention to coaching and teaching. He was Baseball Alberta’s Ted Rudd Minor Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2002 and was made a Baseball Alberta Life Member in 2011.
So it’s pretty easy to see why his son, Devery, would pick up a bat and excel at the sport. A star with his hometown teams as a youngster, he went onto Phoenix Junior College and Louisiana-Lafayette before being drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 48th round of the 2007 MLB Draft. After a couple of years with Idaho Falls in the Pioneer League, he went down his own path, traveling the world while playing and coaching.
Now 34, Van De Keere is in Vancouver and has his eyes set on wearing the maple leaf again. We chatted with him earlier this week about where he’s been, where he’s going and some of the lessons he’s learned along the way.

With 2019 in the rearview mirror, Ian and Joe sit down to talk about some of the stories that stick out in their minds from the last year and look ahead to what's in store for 2020. Plus, we have a conversation with Jordan Blundell of the Edmonton Prospects as the team now has some certainty heading into the summer after a few questions were raised about what the City of Edmonton had in mind for RE/MAX Field.

What a year it was for baseball in Alberta. From the all-star performance of Calgary's Mike Soroka to the top-notch talent making names for themselves at the university and college levels to the grassroots game in every community, it was another year to remember. In the final episode of the 2019 season, we chat with Baseball Alberta's Darren Dekinder about the sport, the year that was and what's to come in 2020.

Even before his professional baseball career began, Chris Shaw was no stranger to visiting places unknown. He started following his dream in high school by moving to Alberta to take advantage of an opportunity with Dawgs Academy in Okotoks. He later went on to play for the college Dawgs before being selected three times in the Major League Baseball Draft. He eventually signed with Baltimore and spent several seasons in their farm system before joining Quebec of the Canadian-American Association in 2019. Shaw is back in Calgary training and hoping to gain the attention of another Major League team. We caught up with him recently to talk about his journey, what he's working on now and what's in store for 2020.

We first chatted with Drayton Valley's Shane Dawson about a year ago when he welcomed Toronto Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen to his new Strive Baseball Program in Calgary. Fresh off a stint as pitching coach for Alberta at the 2019 Canadian National Women's Championship in Okotoks, Dawson invited former teammates Ryan Borucki and Anthony Alford to come to Calgary to take in some of the sights and sounds and to coach some of the province's young talent a thing or two about making it to the pros.

Mike Frostad has had a unique vantage point from his perch in the dugout over the years. The Calgary native spent 22 years with the Toronto Blue Jays organization, starting with the Baby Jays in Medicine Hat and eventually six seasons as the big club’s assistant athletic trainer. He has held that same position with the Atlanta Braves over the last two years. The University of Calgary grad has many accolades to his name and still calls Alberta home in the offseason. Recently, Frostad was one of the speakers at Little League Alberta’s Coaching, Training and Leadership Conference in his hometown. During a break between sessions, he sat down with our own Ian Wilson to talk about his journey to the majors, his day-to-day workflows and the other Mike from Calgary.

What a weekend it was in Edmonton as Baseball Alberta held its annual general meeting and convention, which included the year-end awards highlighting the athletes, umpires, volunteers and the many others who make the baseball community in our province all that it is. In this week’s episode, we chat with 16U Girls & Open Women's Award winner Ellie Jespersen, 15U 'AAA' winner Conor Pote and 18U 'AAA' winner Donovan Wallace about the awards and what it mant to them to be recognized at a provincial level.

A couple of major pieces of news came out of the recent Western Canadian Baseball League annual general meeting. One was that Sylvan Lake was getting a franchise for the 2021 season, while the Brooks Bombers would be under a new ownership model. Aqil Samuel joins us to talk about the Central Alberta situation, while Bombers president and Brooks Regional Ballpark Association chairman Jason Thomasen updates his team's transition.

A whirlwind winter at home is in store for Calgary’s Mike Soroka. The Atlanta Braves all-star isn’t just waiting to find out if he will be named the National League’s Rookie of the Year, which he was named a nominee earlier this week. But he has already started touring around this province, speaking at a number of events. He was a guest at Geoff Freeborn's Sidearm Nation camp this past weekend in Calgary, where he was joined by former Medicine Hat and Toronto Blue Jays pitching coach Bruce Walton, who spent this past season with the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.