Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast
Sports:Baseball
It has been 40 years since Alberta baseball fans were first introduced to the Pacific Coast League. On April 14, 1981, the Edmonton Trappers took to the field on the road against the Portland Beavers. Eight days later, April 22nd, the Trappers made their debut on home turf, taking on the Tacoma Tigers at Renfrew Park. It was quite the journey in making that happen. Efforts to start a new professional baseball league in Western Canada fell through, as did hopes to bring a Pioneer League team to face Calgary, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Edmonton’s Mr. Baseball, Mel Kowalchuk, wouldn’t take no for an answer, and looked into the possibility of Triple-A coming to town. When an expansion team wasn’t feasible, he looked at buying an existing franchise, bringing in Peter Pocklington to help finance a deal for the Ogden Athletics. After some back-and-forth, the deal happened, the team moved and the rest, as they say, is history. We chatted with one of Kowalchuk's friends, Orv Franchuk, and former pitcher Bill Atkinson about that inaugural season.
Episode 240: Okotoks Claims 7th WCBL Championship
Episode 239: Okotoks in ”Best of the Ballparks,” Fort McMurray hosting Nationals & An Ambidextrous Pitcher
Episode 238: Baseball Alberta Champions, Medalists & Hosts
Episode 237: Ty Boudreau, Devin Benavides, Dylan Esquival & Logan Knight
Episode 236: WCBL All-Star Recap Part II
Episode 235: WCBL All-Star Recap Part I
Episode 234: Lou Pote, Torrin Vaselenak & Trent Lawson
Episode 233: Ian Wilson, Logan Grant & Jonah Weisner
Episode 232: Chance Wheatley, Eric Rataczak & Zach Stark
Episode 231: Jason Chatwood, Quinn Tocheniuk & Max Stagg
Episode 230: Mark Goodman, Kalem Haney & Connor Crowson
Episode 229: Matty Fung, Ryan Kucy and Adam Golby
Episode 228: A Few Familiar Faces
Episode 227: Welcome to the WCBL’s Opening Weekend
Episode 226: Dinos Win 2023 CCBC Championship
Episode 225: Jacob Honke
Episode 224: Marcus Coderre
Episode 223: Carter Claerhout
Episode 222: ”Lucy Tries Baseball”
Episode 221: Alberta Girls Baseball League
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