News

Get to know your PSO (Provincial Sport Office) is back in time for the 2015 season with the aim to provide an informative look at each of the ten Provincial Baseball Organizations throughout Canada. The 2015 baseball season is already underway for some provinces, while others are still counting down the days until they can get on the field. Either way, baseball season is upon us so let’s take a closer look at the organizations that help bring baseball to communities across our country!

Name of PSO: Baseball Newfoundland & Labrador (Baseball NL)
President: Kevin Legge
Executive Director: Ryan Garland
Headquarters: Paradise
Phone #: (709) 576-3401 Ext. 315
Website: baseballnl.com
Twitter: @BaseballNL
Established: 1947 as Newfoundland Amateur Baseball Association
Number of staff members: 1
Number of Board members: 11             
Annual Provincial championship events: 15
Membership: Baseball NL has over 2500 members from over 10 associations (associations include Minor divisions only, Senior/Junior divisions only, and combination associations)
Most notable baseball player(s) to come out of province: Frank Humber - Pitched for Canada at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea. Drafted and played in Los Angeles Dodgers farm system. Myles Vincent – member of 2012 Junior National Team that won silver at IBAF 18U World Cup
Famous non-baseball alumni: A.J. "Ank" Murphy - St. John's native was the first President of Provincial Baseball and later elected as Provincial Government Member before becoming a Minister with the provincial government. Bill Halfyard - St. John's native served as President of the Provincial Association and was also elected and served as President of Baseball Canada.
Pan Am Games Connections: Heather Healey of Paradise was one of 32 players named to the Women’s National Team’s Pan Am Games selection camp roster.

Three areas of focus in 2015:

Toronto Blue Jays Honda Super Camps

Three Blue Jays Honda Super Camps will head to Newfoundland and Labrador in 2015 with St. John’s (July 20-21), Corner Brook (July 24-25) and Grand Falls-Windsor (July 22-23) playing host – the latter welcoming a camp for the first time.

“Adding a third camp is great news for grassroots baseball in our province,” said Executive Director, Ryan Garland.

Umpires at National Championships

Baseball NL will have five umpires involved in some capacity at National Championships in 2015 including supervisors (one each at the 18U in Quebec and Senior Men in New Brunswick) and three umpires (one umpire for the 18U in Quebec and two for the National Pee Wee Atlantic in Nova Scotia)

Changing of the guard

The end of an era occurred within the Baseball NL office in early March as longtime Executive Director Ken Dawe retired from his post after over three decades of service to the organization. For more on ken and his contributions to baseball in the province, please click here.

Ryan Garland takes over as the only staff member for Baseball NL as executive director.