It has been business as usual for Baseball Manitoba. Selection camps will soon be underway for the provincial Selects team, Local associations are in the middle of player registrations and the province is preparing to host one of the Baseball Canada National Championships.
As far as registration numbers are concerned, they have been on the rise in Manitoba, especially at the grassroots level.
“The Mosquito and Pee-Wee levels are doing really well. We’ve seen some good increase at those levels and we anticipate an increase again this year,” says Executive Director of Baseball Manitoba, Morgan de Peña.
One of the reasons for the increase has been the implementation of the Rally Cap and Winterball programs in the province. The Rally Cap program has been very popular de Peña says but he admits that there are still some hurdles to overcome.
“It’s tough because of the number of sports that have grown over the last few years. You don’t want to say that we’re in competition with each other, but in a sense we are. That makes it tough on everybody.”
One tough competition will be the Baseball Canada Senior Championship in Brandon from August 21 to 24.
This is not the first time that the city of Brandon has played host to a baseball championship. This will be the fourth time that the city will host the senior nationals, the last time being in 2006. They have also hosted the 1989 Baseball Canada Cup, the 1991 World Junior Baseball Championship and the 1997 Canada Games.
“The organizing committee has been working really hard. They have a good frame of reference having hosted in 2006. They know what works, what doesn’t and they go from there.”
It's just business as usual for Baseball Manitoba.
