As part of Baseball Canada’s year in review, we are counting down the Top 12 Stories of 2012. Many great stories have occurred over the course of the year and today we take a look at #7.
The 2011 season was special for Baseball Canada as the Senior Men’s team won bronze at the IBAF Baseball World Cup in Panama and later earned a stunning upset over the United Sates to claim the gold medal at the Pan Am Games in Mexico last October.
Also making some noise in 2011 was the Junior National Team who won the silver medal at the COPABE (Confederacy Pan American Baseball) 18U World Qualifier in Colombia.
These accomplishments did not go unnoticed as in September 2012, it was announced that Baseball Canada had been recognized as COPABE Federation of the Year.
The award will be officially presented to Baseball Canada’s Director General Jim Baba this weekend at COPABE meetings in the Dominican Republic.
The gold medal at the Pan Am Games was the best result that the Senior National Team has had in a major international baseball competition and best result since the Junior National Team won gold at the 1991 World Junior Championships.
COPABE also announced in September that Andrew Albers (North Battleford, SK) was named Athlete of the Year for 2011.
Albers was key contributor on the mound for the Senior National Team in both starting and relief roles.
Albers started the World Cup opener against Puerto Rico and threw 5 shutout innings to pick-up the victory. He followed that up with five combined innings of shutout relief in wins over Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands where he gave up only two hits.
When Canada faced a must win situation against South Korea with a medal round spot on the line, Albers came through with another five inning shutout performance to earn the win.
At the Pan Am Games Albers continued to dazzle in relief as he threw three solid innings as Canada opened the tournament with a win against Puerto Rico.
After a loss to Cuba, Canada defeated Venezuela and host Mexico in the semi-finals which booked a date with the United States in Gold Medal game.
Manager Ernie Whitt handed Albers the ball and after surrendering a run in the bottom of the first he shutdown the US and struck out eight batters en route to earning the win in the gold medal game.
Top 12 Stories of 2012
12. Les Smeyers becomes 20,000th coach
11. Baseball Canada adopts Challenger Baseball
10. Eight umpires at International Events
9. 23 Canadians in MLB in 2012
8. Ontario repeats as Baseball Canada Cup champs
7. Baseball Canada named COPABE Federation of the Year for 2011
6. To be revealed Dec. 10
