Eight Canadians saw action in the Major Leagues yesterday. Here’s how they fared: Position Players 1. Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau (New Westminster, B.C.) was 2-for-4 with a double and 1 run scored in a 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Angels in 11 innings. 2. Kansas City Royals designated hitter Matt Stairs (Fredericton, N.B.) was 1-for-4 with a double, 1 RBI and 3 strikeouts in a 6-4 loss to the Oakland Athletics. 3. Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Jason Bay (Trail, B.C.) was 1-for-5 with 1 strikeout in a 14-3 win over Milwaukee Brewers. 4. Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Russell Martin (Chelsea, Qué.) was 0-for-3 with 1 RBI in a 12-5 win over the Atlanta Braves. 5. Peter Orr (Newmarket, Ont.) was 0-for-1 after flying out for Braves pitcher Oscar Villarreal in the seventh inning of a 12-5 loss to the Dodgers. Pitchers 1. Chicago Cubs closer Ryan Dempster (Sechelt, B.C.) earned his ninth save of the year, preserving a 7-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds. The line on Dempster: 1.1 innings pitched, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 earned runs, 3 strikeouts, 21 pitches-13 strikes, 5 batters faced. 2. Philadelphia Phillies reliever Rheal Cormier (Moncton, N.B.) earned his fifth hold of the season after an 11-2 win over the Washington Nationals. The line on Cormier: 1.0 innings pitched, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 15 pitches-9 strikes, 3 batters faced. 3. Twins reliever Jesse Crain (Toronto, Ont.) was tagged with his third loss of the season (0-3) after a 4-3 loss to the Angels in 11 innings. The line on Crain: 2.0 innings pitched, 3 hits, 1 run, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 26 pitches-19 strikes, 9 batters faced. Today’s games featuring teams with Canadian players (Bolded teams): American LeagueKansas City Royals @ Oakland AthleticsTampa Bay Devil Rays @ Baltimore OriolesMinnesota Twins @ Anaheim Angels National LeagueMilwaukee Brewers @ Pittsburgh PiratesWashington Nationals @ Philadelphia PhilliesLos Angeles Dodgers @ Atlanta BravesCincinnati Reds @ Chicago CubsColorado Rockies @ San Diego Padres
Baseball Canada’s National Junior Team prospects drew 13 walks en route to a 5-4 win over the Anaheim Angels, Sunday, improving their record to 2-2 on their 2006 Dominican Republic Tour. Showing tremendous discipline and patience, the Canadians were able to manufacture their five runs with only four hits and without the help of any errors by the Angels. The walk-fest started in the third inning as three consecutive free passes to David Narodowski (Vancouver, B.C.), Tyson Gillies (Langley, B.C.) and Chase Larsson (Vancouver, B.C.) juiced the bases for Brett Lawrie (Langley, B.C.) who smacked a two-run single to left field for a 2-1 Canadian lead. The Angels then tied things up with a rare inside the park homerun in the bottom half of the inning, 2-2. The bizarre plays continued to fall in favour of the Angels in the top of the fifth. Jordan Wideman (Mississauga, Ont.), Matt McCarney (Kanata, Ont.), Narodowski and Gillies were each walked one after another to give Canada a 3-2 edge and put them in position to open the flood gates as Larsson stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs. But Larsson hit a sharp grounder to the Angels shortstop who promptly tagged Narodowski as he broke for third base, stepped to his left to force Gillies out at second and fired 90 feet to first base, his throw beating Larsson to the bag for a triple play. The triple play allowed the Angels to stay in the game, but they continued to be haunted by walks. Narodowski drew his third walk of the day with the bases loaded in the seventh and, one inning later, Lawrie Tripled then scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Shayne Willson (Surrey, B.C.) for a 5-2 lead. The Angels scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth behind a double, a single and a Canadian error, but were unable to complete the comeback as closer Leslie Williams (Scarborough, Ont.) earned the save with a hitless ninth inning. Ryan Jenson also threw two no-hit innings (5th and 6th) for Canada, striking out a pair of Angels along the way. Starter Michael Goemans (Guelph, Ont.) threw the first four innings giving up one earned run behind three hits while striking out a pair. Left-hander Jean-Francois Ricard (Saint Eustache, Qué.) struck out four batters in two innings of relief, while giving up only two hits. Lawrie led the Canadians at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Narodowski finished with three walks, one run scored and an RBI, while Gillies drew two walks, scored one run and drove in another. Steve Anderson (Markham, Ont.) and Gilligan each picked up a hit, Gilligan adding a stolen base. Canada’s next game comes against the Cleveland Indians, Monday, in Boca Chica, D.R. Game time is scheduled for 11 a.m. EST. Canada’s schedule May 25 – Canada 9 Seattle 6May 26 – Canada 3 Seattle 8May 27 – Canada 3 Minnesota 6May 28 – Canada 5 Anaheim 4 May 29 – Canada vs. Cleveland Indians; 11 a.m. EST - Boca Chica, D.R.May 30 – Canada vs. Toronto Blue Jays; 11 a.m. EST - Hato Mayor, D.R.May 31 – Canada vs. Philadelphia Phillies; 11 a.m. EST - Guanuma, D.R.
Canada’s National Junior Team prospects were on the wrong side of a great pitching performance, Saturday, dropping a 6-3 decision to the Minnesota Twins in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. Twins pitchers allowed only two hits en route to dropping Canada’s juniors to 1-2 on their 2006 Dominican Tour. The Canadians, though, were gritty and persistent. After Minnesota took a 4-0 lead into the sixth inning, the scrappy Canadians found ways to get to the Twins. Matt McCarney (Kanata, Ont.) drew a walk to lead-off the inning. Minnesota then misplayed a bunt by David Narodowski (Vancouver, B.C.) and walked Jordan Wideman (Mississauga, Ont.) to load the bases. A fielder choice allowed McCarney to put Canada on the board and Narodowski alertly broke for home on a wild pitch. Without a single hit, Canada had scored two runs and cut the lead in half, 4-2. With the score 5-2 in the eighth, Canada once again loaded the bases behind a single from Ricky Alvernaz (White Rock, B.C.) a fielder’s choice to McCarney and a walk to Jeff Skelhorne-Gross (Mississauga, Ont.). Alvernaz was able to score on another wild pitch to, once again, cut the lead to two, but Canada would get no closer. The Twins added another insurance marker in the eighth to make it 6-3. Canada’s pitching staff did their best to keep its team close. Starter Pierre Miville-Deschesne (Candiac, Qué.) threw three innings allowing three hits, one earned run and striking out four. Colin Buckborough (Niagara Falls, Ont.) gave up one run behind one hit, five walks, one wild pitch and a strikeout. David Francis (Mississauga, Ont.) shut the Twins out in one inning of work, striking out two batters while giving up one hit. Most of the damage came off of Justin Robinson (Langley, B.C.) who threw three innings from the fourth to the sixth. Robinson gave up four earned runs behind 7 hits, 0 walks and 1 strikeout. Brett Lawrie (Langley, B.C.) and Alvernaz were the only Canadians to collect hits. Kyle Gilligan (Toronto, Ont.), who also had a stolen base and an RBI, Shayne Willson (Surrey, B.C.), McCarney, Wideman and Skelhorne-Gross all drew walks. Alvernaz, McCarney and Narodowski were the run scorers. Canada’s next game comes against the Anaheim Angels, Sunday, in San Pedro de Macoris, D.R. Game time is scheduled for 11 a.m. EST. Canada’s schedule May 25 – Canada 9 Seattle 6May 26 – Canada 3 Seattle 8May 27 – Canada 3 Minnesota 6May 28 – Canada vs. Anaheim Angels; 11 a.m. EST - San Pedro de Macoris, D.R. May 29 – Canada vs. Cleveland Indians; 11 a.m. EST - Boca Chica, D.R.May 30 – Canada vs. Toronto Blue Jays; 11 a.m. EST - Hato Mayor, D.R.May 31 – Canada vs. Philadelphia Phillies; 11 a.m. EST - Guanuma, D.R.
The Seattle Mariners avoided being swept by Canada's National Junior Team prospects, Friday, with an 8-3 win in the final game of a two-game set in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic. Seattle put the game away with a three-run seventh inning sparked by an error, three walks a double and a single that cashed in the Mariners' eighth and final run of the game. Canada, meanwhile had difficulty finding its form after exhange runs with seattle in the opening frame. Tyson Gillies (Langley, B.C) led of the first inning by drawing a walk, stole second and eventually scored from third after a single from the bat of Brett Lawrie (Langley, B.C.). Seattle slowly built its lead, scoring one run in the third inning and two runs in the fifth before a solo homerun in the sixth made it 5-0 for the Mariners, setting up the three-run seventh inning that sealed the victory. Canada's best bid to get back in the game came in the top half of the seventh inning when Chris Dennis (Windsor, Ont.) hit a two-run homerun to right centre to cut the Mariners lead to 5-3. Shayne Willson (Surrey, B.C.) was the only Canadian to collect more than one hit, going 2-for-4 while Dennis went 1-for-3 with a walk, one run scored and two RBI to lead Canada's offence. Lawrie was 1-for-3 with an RBI, Mark Ellis (Maple Ridge, B.C.) was 1-for-3 with a run scored and Gillies walked and scored a run to chip in. Chase Larsson (Vancouver, B.C.), Ricky Alvernaz (White Rock, B.C.) and David Narodowski (Vancouver, B.C.) also collected hits. Starter Sheldon McDonald (Spruce Grove, Alta.) was tagged with the loss despite throwing three solid innings, giving up only one earned run behind six hits while striking out three. Mehdi Djebbar (Montréal, Qué.) and Cameron Gray (Toronto, Ont.) gave up three runs each, while Cory Hall (Regina, Sask.) gave up only one hit in three innings of work. Canada now sets its sights to the Minnesota Twins for an 11 a.m. EST matchup, Saturday, in Boca Chica, D.R. Canada's schedule May 25 – Canada 9 Seattle 6May 26 – Canada 3 Seattle 8May 27 – Canada vs. Minnesota Twins; 11 a.m. EST - Boca Chica, D.R.May 28 – Canada vs. Anaheim Angles; 11 a.m. EST - San Pedro de Macoris, D.R.May 29 – Canada vs. Cleveland Indians; 11 a.m. EST - Boca Chica, D.R.May 30 – Canada vs. Toronto Blue Jays; 11 a.m. EST - Hato Mayor, D.R.May 31 – Canada vs. Philadelphia Phillies; 11 a.m. EST - Guanuma, D.R.
After squandering a six-run lead in the opening game of its 2006 Dominican Republic Tour, Thursday in Villa Mella, Baseball Canada’s National Junior Team prospects posted a three-run 10th inning to top the Seattle Mariners 9-6. Chase Larsson (Vancouver, B.C.) singled-in the winning run after Kyle Gilligan (Toronto, Ont.), Chris Dennis (Windsor, Ont.) and Tyson Gillies (Langley, B.C.) were all walked to lead off the top of the 10th inning. A sacrifice fly from Brett Lawrie (Langley, B.C.) and a base hit by Shayne Willson (Surrey, B.C.) provided the two insurance markers. Mark Ellis (Maple Ridge, B.C.) crushed the ball for a towering two-run homerun in the fifth inning to put Canada in front 6-0 before the Mariners began to slowly chip away at the lead with a marker in the bottom half of the inning and another in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-2. Up four runs and only three outs away from a convincing victory, 6’7” right-hander Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Québec) struggled with his control, giving up four earned runs behind no hits, three walks and three wild pitches in 1.2 innings of work to send it to extra innings. Aumont accounted for three of the 14 strikeouts posted by Canadian pitchers. Reliever David Francis (Mississauga, Ont.) shut down the Mariners for the final 1.1 innings, striking out four while walking two without allowing a hit to earn the win. Before handing the ball to Aumont in the eighth inning, Matt Jebb (Toronto, Ont.) struck out a pair of Mariners and gave up two runs behind two hits and two walks. Canadian starting pitcher Drew Parker (Surrey, B.C.) set the tone for Canada striking out a game-high five Mariners while throwing four strong no-hit innings without a walk. Canada opened up the scoring in the first on a bases-loaded walk to Ellis, scoring Larsson. Larsson then scored again in the third inning all the way from second base on a fielding error by the Mariners for a 2-0 lead. Steve Anderson (Markham, Ont.) led off the fourth inning with a solo homerun to right-centre field to make it 3-0 before Canada’s three run fifth. Larsson was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and one RBI and Ellis was 1-for-4 with 1 run scored and 3 RBI to lead the Canadian offence. Willson and Anderson both chipped in by going 1-for-4 with one run scored and one RBI each. Lawrie went 1-for-2 with 1 RBI while Gillies scored a pair of runs. Canada will complete a two-game set against the Mariners in Villa Mella, Friday, at 11:00 a.m. EST. Canada’s Schedule May 25 Canada 9 Seattle Mariners 6May 26 Canada vs. Seattle Mariners 11 a.m. EST Villa Mella, D.R.May 27 Canada vs. Minnesota Twins 11 a.m. EST Boca Chica, D.R.May 28 Canada vs. Anaheim Angels 11 a.m. EST San Pedro de Macoris, D.R.May 29 Canada vs. Cleveland Indians 11 a.m. EST Boca Chica, D.R.May 30 Canada vs. Cleveland Indians 11 a.m. EST Boca Chica, D.R.May 31 Canada vs. Toronto Blue Jays 11 a.m. EST Hato Mayor, D.R.June 1 Canada vs. Philadelphia Phillies 11 a.m. EST Guanuma, D.R.
Baltimore Orioles left-handed pitcher and five-time Baseball Canada national team member Adam Loewen (Surrey, B.C.) made his major league debut, last night, picking up a hold in a 14-4 win over the Seattle Mariners. The 6’5”, 230-pound 22-year-old was expected to split time between the Double-A Bowie Bay Sox and Triple-A Ottawa Lynx this year, but was called up to Orioles after fellow pitching prospect Hayden Penn underwent an emergency appendectomy, Monday. With little time to prepare on only three days rest after having thrown six-innings with one hit for an Eastern League win over the Trenton Thunder, Loewen was sent 4490 kilometres from Bowie Maryland, on the Eastern seaboard to Seattle Washington on the West coast to face the heart of the Mariners’ batting order (Richie Sexson, Carl Everett and Adrian Beltre) in only the third relief appearance of his entire professional career. Loewen froze Sexson on a called third strike before walking Everett, hitting Beltre and giving up an RBI-single to Kenji Johjima. Loewen got in 13 pitches and picked up a hold before being replaced by Todd Williams with one out in the bottom of the sixth. With the second-worst team ERA in the major leagues and five pitchers from its 40-man roster currently on the disabled list, the Orioles may keep Loewen with the parent club and work him into the starting rotation. “I haven’t been told anything, so I’m just going to play it by ear right now,” Loewen told MLB.com reporter Spencer Fordin before last night’s game. “Obviously, I’m totally excited to be here. I can’t wait to get on the field and contribute as much as I can.” Before being promoted to the majors, Loewen boasted a 4-2 record with a 2.72 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 49.2 innings of work this season. In the first Double-A game of his career, Loewen threw an eight-inning one hitter and struck out 12 without a walk against the Reading Phillies on April 21. Eight Days later, he gave up only four hits in seven innings in a no decision against the Portland Sea Dogs. On May 9, Loewen struck out 11 in only six innings for a win over the New Britain Rock Cats. Loewen also led Team Canada to an 8-6 upset of the Americans at the World Baseball Classic’s U.S. EH! Game by throwing 3.2 shutout innings and allowing only three hits while walking three. He is also the highest-ever draft pick in Canadian history, being selected fourth overall by the Orioles in the 2002 MLB entry draft. Loewen joins catcher Russell Martin (Chelsea, Qué.) as the only Canadian rookies currently in the majors. Martin is off to a hot start, batting .309 with 10 RBI, 10 runs scored, a pair of doubles and one homerun in 16 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
OTTAWA – Baseball Canada announced, today, the names of the 28 National Junior Team prospects that will compete for Canada on its 2006 Dominican Republic Tour. The national junior team is slated to play eight games against Major League Baseball instructional clubs in five Dominican cities from May 24 to June 2. A total of 410 Major League Baseball players have hailed from the Caribbean nation, which may be small in size but big on baseball. On May 24, the team will first set foot on Dominican soil in the capital city of Santo Domingo, which has produced more major leaguers (92) than any other city in the country, including sluggers David Ortiz, Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and Adrian Beltre as well as former Blue Jays Juan Guzman and Alfredo Griffin. Upon leaving Las Americas International Airport, the team will head eastward for a one-hour drive along the southern coast of the Dominican to Juan Dolio, where it will set-up base for the week-long tour. With little time to settle in, the prospects’ opening two-game set against the Seattle Mariners begins the next day on the edge of Santo Domingo in a community called Villa Mella, starting point for seven big leaguers and where Pedro Martinez, Neifi Perez, Cecilio Guante and former Blue Jay Sandy Martinez honed their skill as youngsters. Three of their next four games will be played in Boca Chica. Twenty minutes west of the team’s home base in Juan Dolio, Boca Chica is not only known for its serene white sand beach sheltered by a massive reef in a cove off the Caribbean Sea, but also as a sports haven which produced major leaguer Andres Thomas, a right-handed hitting shortstop for the Atlanta Braves from 1985 to 1990. Boca Chica will host the Canadians against the Minnesota Twins May 25 and against the Cleveland Indians on May 27 and 28. Sandwiched between two games in Boca Chica is Canada’s lone game in the Dominican Republic’s second major baseball breeding ground. On May 26, just 15 minutes west of Juan Dolio, Canada will face the Anaheim Angels in the city of San Pedro de Macoris, which produced 69 major leaguers including Jose Offerman, Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano, Robinson Cano and two former Blue Jays; Tony Fernandez and Manny Lee. On the final day in May, the Canadian contingent will head one hour inland to play the Toronto Blue Jays in Hato Mayor, the former home of six future big league players, including the ageless Julio Franco and the third youngest player in the National League in 1993, Roberto Mejia, who played four seasons with the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals until 1997. Canada will then wrap up its Dominican tour with a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 1 in Guanuma, the only city to be visited on the tour void of a major league player. Twenty to 23 players will be selected from the Dominican tour to move on to the fourth and final stage of the selection process for National Junior Team that will compete at the World Junior AAA Championships in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, September 17-27. From September 9-16, Team Canada will hold a weeklong training camp and exhibition series against the Cuban National Junior Team to determine its final 18-man roster for the World Championships. Roster - 2006 National Junior Team Dominican Tour
Edmonton Cracker-Cats infielder and eight-time Baseball Canada national team member Stubby Clapp (Windsor, Ont.) has accepted an offer to act as a player/coach for the Edmonton club. Clapp, now 36 years old, says accepting the offer isn’t necessarily a sign he’s ready to put his playing days behind him just yet. “Personally I’m not thinking about it, but I obviously won’t be able to play forever,” he said, adding he will likely remain involved in baseball when his playing days are over. “I think I’d be a fool if I wouldn’t have anything to do with baseball after I’m done playing - especially when it comes to Baseball Canada. It would break my heart if I couldn’t give back to them because they’ve been the whole basis of my career.” Cracker-Cats Director of Baseball and Field Manager Terry Bevington says that although Clapp’s title has changed, his role with the team won’t be much different than last year’s – Clapp’s first year with the club. “The main thing is that Stubby definitely has the leadership abilities and attributes,” said Bevington. “He’s just a natural fit so he doesn’t need to do anything differently.” Bevington says this was also a way to reward Clapp before the Northern League outlaws player/coaches next year. Under current Northern League practice, the coaching salary portion of a player/coach’s earnings does not apply to the league’s salary cap. “We have a legitimate guy that someday will likely be a manager, so he fits into that player/ coach mold,” he said. “We’re not going to overload him with organizational stuff, because that’s not the way it works. At some point in time he’ll be able to step in somewhere and become a manager without having to have been a player coach. Regardless, Clapp says he’ll make most of his opportunity. “I’m going to get to see what happens behind the scenes a little more, see how decisions are made and gain a little bit more knowledge from that perspective,” he says. “I feel like I’m going back to school all over again.” Clapp has played 10 professional seasons. The Windsor, Ontario native has been a household name in Canada since driving home the winning run in an upset of the American powerhouse in an 11-inning round-robin thriller at the 1999 Pan-Am Games. Most recently he was named to the all-star team and voted the best defensive player at the 2005 CONCEBE Baseball Regional Olympic Qualifier. In a 15-5 win over Panama that helped Canada secure a berth at the Americas Olympic Qualifier in Cuba this August. A former major leaguer with the St. Louis Cardinals, Clapp also helped Canada win the 1991 World Youth Championship gold medal. Clapp hit .286 with 29 doubles, 5 homeruns, 42 RBI and 14 stolen bases in 87 games for the Cracker-Cats in 2005.
In the sixth of 10 provincial association profiles, Baseball Canada speaks with Baseball Québec President Gilles Taillon about the upcoming 2006 season. BASEBALL CANADA (BCAN) – In no particular order, what five initiatives are you looking forward to the most as you are in the midst of kicking off the 2006 baseball season? 1. Rally Cap Program (GT – Gilles Taillon) – We strongly believe in the Rally Cap program. Consequently, we have hired two Kinesiology interns who will be responsible for training Rally Cap coaches in addition to helping local associations on site. We visited each of our regions in March and April in order to present the program to the various associations and the response we received was very positive. People understand that this program has been created as an answer to our need to make the game appealing to kids aged 4 to 7 years old. They realize that traditional practice methods aren’t necessarily beneficial for this age group, but the Rally Cap program is. 2. Regional Training Centres. GT – In 2005 we presented the Québec government with a new Plan of Excellence for 2005-2009. A major component of this plan is the creating of regional training centres. This year we will be identifying the proper organizations who will take on the task of setting up these centres. Ultimately, a Regional Training Centre will bring together a Sport-Etude program, a AAA midget team and various baseball schools, ensuring baseball can be practiced year round. In addition, thanks to these centres, we hope to create more professional opportunities for our coaches. 3. Introduction of new classification structure GT – In 2006 we modified the way we classify our teams, dropping the number of classes from 4 to 3 – AA, A and B. This answers our need to create a better competitive system by reducing the displacement of players and bringing baseball closer to the local associations. We believe that this new structure will bring players a certain sense of belonging to their community and their local baseball association in addition to having more fun. This new classification structure will also cut down on traveling, which was an issue that parents thought needed to be addressed. 4. Girls Baseball GT – Girls baseball continues to carry more and more importance. In 2006 we will host our first provincial Bantam Girls championship, which is an indication that we have reached a major goal because we have a sufficient number of athletes and teams in various regions to carry the championship out. In addition, in 2006 we will see the creation of a senior girls’ league. Four teams comprised of players from different regions of the province will make up the league, which will play its games in a mini-tournament format on the weekends. 5. Winterball GT - The Winterball program has been a tremendous success in Québec. This program allows us to be active in the school environment in terms of promoting active living. Last March, we kicked off a mailing campaign targeting all elementary schools in Québec in order to create awareness about the Winterball program. The response we receive surpassed any of our expectations as over 20 schools got back to us within two weeks of the start of the campaign and things haven’t slowed down since. That wrap’s up this weeks edition of Play Ball 2006! Check back next week when Baseball Canada sits down with a representative from Baseball New Brunswick . Schedule:May 15: Play Ball 2006! Baseball New BrunswickMay 22: Play Ball 2006! Baseball Nova ScotiaMay 29: Play Ball 2006! P.E.I. Amateur Baseball AssociationJune 5: Play Ball 2006! Baseball Newfoundland
In the fifth of 10 provincial association profiles, Baseball Canada speaks with Baseball Ontario President Don McKnight about the upcoming 2006 season. BASEBALL CANADA (BCAN) – In no particular order, what five initiatives are you looking forward to the most as you are in the midst of kicking off the 2006 baseball season? 1. Strategic Planning DON MCKNIGHT (DM) – 1. This really has to do with the way baseball is governed in Ontario and how our executive operates. Right now we have a 14-member executive – six elected directors, two vice presidents, one president, a past president and four appointed directors. The way we more or less want to change that is that we would have 4 or 5 members on the executive and have the rest of our directors broken up into sub-committees. All of these sub-committee directors would take care of more specific areas and would, in turn, provide reports to the directors. That way they would be able to hold their own meetings rather than having to hold an entire board meeting to discuss certain issues. One member from that sub-committee would then be able to come to an executive meeting to provide a report. We’ve met once before on this and it was a very productive weekend. We got a lot out of it. 2. Winterball Program DM – We’re really trying to push the Winterball program. We have around 350 schools enrolled in the program right now, which is fairly significant and we’ve hardly touched on the Greater Toronto Area. We’ve had some difficulty getting into the schools in the GTA so that’s going to be one of our initiatives this year. Baseball has been growing in areas like Mississauga, but the story isn’t the same in the core of Toronto so that’s what we’d like to concentrate on in the next year. BCAN – When Baseball Ontario first drew up the plans for the Winterball Program, did you have any idea that it would blossom into what it is today? DM - We certainly hoped that it would. The first year we ran this program, we ran it for 100 schools in outlying areas and we saw a 15 to 20 per cent increase in registration in those areas the following spring. We were able to track those numbers and really show that the program does increase the awareness of baseball. See http://www.baseball.ca/eng_doc.cfm?DocID=69&Related=13 to learn more about Baseball Canada’s Winterball Program. 3. Rally Cap Program DM – Our past-president and Baseball Canada board member Randy Pickle has done a great job heading the program in Ontario. We ordered 5,000 hats and they were all gone rather quickly. When we were at Baseball Canada’s annual general meeting in Regina in November we were asked how many hats we wanted to order. We really low-balled that number, I guess, because when the orders started coming in we ran out very quickly. Now that we know what kind of response we’re getting for this program, next year we’ll be quicker off the mark for the people who weren’t able to get any hats this time around. People just really like these hats. Even though it’s a program that’s run for the younger age groups there are a lot of older people that are looking in asking how they can get their hands on these hats because they like the Baseball Canada logo. See http://www.baseball.ca/eng_doc.cfm?DocID=212&Related=13 for more information about Baseball Canada’s Rally Cap Program. 4. New NCCP Initiation Coach Program DM – Our director of coach and player development at Baseball Ontario, Wayne Parro, is doing a really good job of education people about this program, and that’s not easy because any time you introduce change to something there’s bound to be some resistance. Beforehand the biggest complaint we would get is that people just didn’t want to go out to all of these clinics. This year we’re able to considerably cut down the amount of time coaches have to spend at clinics because they can do the rest of the stuff at home – and we’ve been able to do that at a reduced cost. The program has really taken off. The coaching clinics that follow the on-line portion of the program have been over-attended and we’ve even had to reschedule some because we had too many clinics being scheduled on the same day. Our trainers and evaluators for the new program are stretched kind of thin at the moment, but that will change as more people will become qualified over the next couple of years. Everything is going remarkably well and we have a very positive outlook for the future of the program. See http://www.baseball.ca/eng_news_story.cfm?NewsID=811 for more information about the new NCCP program. 5. Province-wide League Collaboration DM – When we’re trying to run programs like Winterball and Rally Cap among others we really try to meet with the people involved at the grassroots level. One of our initiatives is to try to get all the house leagues more in line with the rest of the Ontario Baseball Association. We’re not trying to take over anything by any means, but we’d like to provide as much help as we can at the grassroots level, even financially. That being said, I think there’s even more grant money out there that would be available to us if we were all together on certain issues. We’re really trying to be more supportive of house leagues because that’s where everything begins. If we can get stronger house leagues, all of the other leagues will flourish as well. That wrap’s up this weeks edition of Play Ball 2006! Check back next week when Baseball Canada sits down with Baseball Québec president Gilles Taillon. Schedule:May 8: Play Ball 2006! Baseball QuébecMay 15: Play Ball 2006! Baseball New BrunswickMay 22: Play Ball 2006! Baseball Nova ScotiaMay 29: Play Ball 2006! P.E.I. Amateur Baseball AssociationJune 5: Play Ball 2006! Baseball Newfoundland
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