Bob Elliott

Steffan Oolup

Most of our contributors would list baseball as their No. 1 passion. For Steffan Oolup it could be a close call. Named after female tennis legend, Steffi Graf when he was born June, 28 1988, plays rugby for Balmy Beach RFC. And he especially enjoys burying Michael (Yik) Yokota deep into the turf during pre-season workouts. Born and raised in Toronto, Oolup currently writes for Local Magazine in The Beaches. After attending Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute, Oolup attended McMaster University. He is now enrolled in Centennial College’s journalism program. Oolup is an avid sports fan following the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and the Jays. He actually worked for the Jays during the summer of 2008. And like many baseball fans his favorite sports memory is Joe Carter’s home run off Mitch Williams to win the 1993 World Series.

Bryan Mcwilliam

Bryan has been a professional journalist for over two years, receiving his start with the sports website Gear Up for Sports. Bryan specializes in sports journalism and also has a background in athletic coaching. He has appeared on ESPN Radio on more then one occasion, The Score 1260 in Syracuse, NY, ToRD TV, Rogers Cable 10 and more to discuss numerous sports such as baseball, football, pro wrestling and roller derby. He has also written about film, entertainment, current events, local life and pretty much anything Toronto.

Bryan played for 23 years, for the Leaside Lancers in high school and the East York Bulldogs during the summer. A catcher with a cannon for an arm he grew up idolizing Johnny Bench and Paul Molitor while learning the game of baseball from local Toronto athletes such as Rob Butler and his father Alexander Mcwilliam, a notorious hitter in the Toronto fast-pitch circuit.

Bryan learned the business of freelance writing at the University of Toronto under journalist Paul Lima and continues to educate himself at George Brown College, while freelancing as a career. You can read Bryan's portfolio online at www.bryanmcwilliam.com or follow him on Twitter @bryanmcwilliam

David Matchett

The Expos played their first game a couple of weeks after David’s sixth birthday and some of his fondest childhood memories are of sitting in the bleachers at Parc Jarry. He inherited his passion for baseball from his Ted Williams-worshiping father and built on this enthusiasm listening to Dave Van Horne and Duke Snider call the games throughout his adolescence. His move from his native Lachine, Quebec to Toronto was perfectly timed to coincide with the Blue Jays’ two World Series Championships and he cheers for his new favourite team now that the ex-Expos are dead to him (curse you Jeffrey Loria!!!). David loved to play baseball as a child and only one thing kept him from making it to the majors: a complete and utter lack of talent. In his early teens he traded his .045 lifetime batting average for an avid interest in the history of the game and he still loves wasting his lunch hours researching the most obscure, trivial items he can find. He has been a member of SABR since the 1990’s and currently serves on the board of the Toronto chapter. David graduated from Concordia University and is a Certified Financial Planner. He lives a short walk from Rogers Centre and supports his baseball habit by managing a team of planners at one of Canada’s largest financial services firms. David can be reached at davidgoexpos@rogers.com

Jonathan Hodgson

Jonathan Hodgson will provide coverage on the Western Major Baseball League. The WMBL is Canada's premier collegiate summer league, for college players from both sides of the border, with teams based in Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Melville, Moose Jaw, Regina, Saskatoon, Swift Current, Weyburn and Yorkton, as well as Hodgson's home team, the Okotoks Dawgs. Jonathan has been with the Dawgs organization since 2003 and team broadcaster since the 2008 season.  In addition to his duties in Okotoks, Jonathan works at the league level.  As the Lead Reporter for WMBL.ca, he is responsible for all content seen on the WMBL website. Hodgson recently graduated from John G. Diefenbaker High School in Calgary, and now has his sights set on college, and a journalism degree.  A true baseball enthusiast, Jonathan has had a passion for the game since a very young age, but it was in 2008 at the Dawgs banquet where a meeting with Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Jerry Howarth fueled his desire for a baseball career. Jonathan can be reached here.

Allan Simpson

Allan Simpson is one of three 2011 inductees into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. He'll be formally enshrined June 18 in St. Marys, Ont., and joined by former Blue Jays all-star closer Tom Henke and the late George "Dandy"Wood, a Prince Edward Island native who played in almost 1,300 major-league games in the 19th century. Allan, a native of Kelowna, B.C., is the founder of Baseball America, the most influential baseball publication in the business. He began the magazine in the garage of his home in White Rock, B.C., in 1980, before moving with it to its current home in Durham, N.C., in 1983. He remained with the magazine as editor-in-chief until 2006, before joining Perfect Game USA, the world's largest baseball event company and independent scouting service. Allan will write a weekly column for the Canadian Baseball Network to coincide with the website's re-launch. He will address a variety of baseball-related topics, especially as they relate to Canada and Canadians. Allan can be reached here.

Adam Morissette

Adam Morissette was born and raised in Ottawa, Ont. where sports were always a big part of his life whether it be baseball, hockey or football, including playing two seasons as centre for coach Pat Sheahan with the Queen's University Golden Gaels in Kingston -- Canada's first capital. Morissette has always have been passionate about baseball and has fond memories of attending Montreal Expos games with his father, Mike, and listening to his recollection of watching baseball in Montreal at Jarry Park and stories about Gary Carter, Rusty Staub and Steve Rodgers. Morissette could often be found in a near empty Lynx Stadium watching Joe Siddall, Bert Heffernan, Curtis Pride and Jamie Carroll soaking in a beautiful summer night at the ballpark. He was a member of the provincial championship Orleans Red Sox Little League teams also played with the Ottawa White Sox for the late Lyle Anderson and Todd Burke in OBA Midget and American Legion play and the Capital City Crushers (NCBL), primarily as a catcher. Has also spent time coaching Little League in Orleans and South Ottawa. He wanted to turn his passion into a career and enrolled in Sport Business Management at Algonquin College in Ottawa in 2007. After working for the Ottawa 67's OHL team as the Ticket Coordinator, Morissette jumped at the opportunity to become the Media and Public Relations Coordinator with Baseball Canada in 2010. He loves watching and reading about pro, college or amateur baseball and is a long-time subscriber to Baseball America. Morissette is thrilled about the idea of writing about baseball and is interested in covering any story that his car -- and time -- will allow him to cover. If anyone would like to contact him, he can be reached here with any story ideas or suggestions.

Neil Munro

Neil is a retired secondary school mathematics teacher with a life-long passion for the collection and analysis of baseball statistics. A North Bay Ontario resident for almost 50 years, Neil has fuelled his interest by serving as a research consultant with STATS Inc. He was the former chair of the Records Committee of SABR – the Society for American Baseball Research. Neil assisted in the development of the complete statistical database of baseball records that is used by a number of pro and media organizations and formed the basis for the STATS Inc. All-time Major League Handbook. He has contributed innumerable essays and columns to a variety of publications including; the Bill James Baseball Abstract, Grandstand Baseball Annual and Innings, and Canada’s Baseball Newspaper. Neil’s special interest continues to be the maintenance of the records compiled by Canadians in the major league. In 1996, he authored the Canadian Players Encyclopedia, a full statistical record of all current and former major leaguers from Canada.

April Whitzman

Growing up in Campbellton, N.B. on the Quebec border, April Whitzman's passion for baseball was passed on from her father, Steve. For years, April had to prove herself on the only ball team available – the men’s – and cheer for the closest team, the Montreal Expos, over a 10-hours drive away or watching French-language broadcasts.

While April always had her sight on playing in the majors, she developed a love for the minors and began writing for nationalsprospects.com after the Expos moved to Washington, April soon became a Toronto Blue Jays fan by proxy.

Her father was a passionate Expo fan -- they would make the 20-hour trip to Canada Day games between the Blue Jays and Expos in either Toronto or Montreal. It must have been my April's competitive nature, but she could never cheer for the same team as her father.

So she became a Blue Jays' fan. Obviously, as much as she miss the Expos, she admits she got the better end of the deal. Eventually April created  JaysProspects.com and became the lead writer and administrator for the site. Through her website she has gone to many Blue Jays affiliates games and has gained the opportunity to meet many prospects who have shared her dream of making it to the majors, but have a faster fastball, a powerful bat, and much stronger defence. (Through she doesn’t like to admit it).

When not writing, April is studying. Presently in her seventh year of university after completing a Bachelors of Arts degree with Honours in English and months away from a Bachelor of Public Relations degree, April hopes that her schooling will help her hit a homerun in the baseball realm and that once again, she can prove herself on a very male-dominated team. Follow April @Alleycat17

Marc Alexander Blais

Born in "La Belle Province" Marc Alexander Blais just knew that, when he heard Jacques Doucet’s (former French broadcaster of the Montreal Expos) voice on the radio the winter was soon to be over. Blais, like many others, cried at the Expos last game in 1994 because he knew, even at 11, that something great was happening, and ending too, as a work stoppage was shutting down the season for the first-place Expos.. He also cried at the Montréalers last game 10 years later because he knew it was over. Years past and allegiances changed, there is nothing like the Expos. Nowadays he can be seen at the “Stade Municipal” in Quebec City rooting for the CanAm League Quebec Capitales. After a two years playing career at the mosquito level where he was a good field, no hit centre fielder he won the championship both times and hung up his spikes. Years later he tried coaching for two years and finished last both times. Now, he knows he can’t play and he can’t teach. He just loves baseball and wants to talk and write about baseball. He will provide coverage for the LBEQ and will keep an eye on Quebec natives playing the game around the globe. In his spare time Marc Alexander works as a desktop publishing specialist and is the proud father of two little girls.  He owns the site mabaseball.ca and can be found on twitter @mablais.

Kevin Glew

Regaled with stories about Mickey Mantle by his father, Ralph, when he was growing up, Kevin Glew developed a keen interest in baseball at a young age in Dorchester, Ont. playing against teams from Vienna, Straffordville, St. Thomas, Stratford, Harrietsville, Belmont, London and Sarnia. His interest blossomed into a full-blown fascination after enduring a bone-chilling wind on the bench seats down the right-field line at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto on Oct. 5, 1985 to witness the Blue Jays secure their first division title. Though Dale Murphy was his favourite player, the teenage Glew played more like a poor man's Spike Owen - another of his childhood heroes whom he later had the opportunity to interview. When he realized he had no shot at a big league career, Glew focussed his efforts on becoming a sportswriter. During his tenure in the journalism program at Carleton University in Ottawa from 1992 to 1996, he watched the Triple-A Ottawa Lynx in their glory years and vividly recalls a young Matt Stairs suiting up for the Lynx.With few jobs in sports journalism available upon graduation, Glew entered the financial services industry. But after eight years of writing about RRSPs, Glew decided it was time to write about RBIs again. Since leaving his position in the financial sector, he has had freelance articles published in Baseball Digest, Baseball America and the London Free Press. He has also contributed to CBC Sports, SLAM! Sports, Rogers Sportsnet and MLB.com. In June 2010, he started a Canadian baseball history blog called Cooperstowners in Canada. You can read his blog here. Glew is also a member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada. He is available for paid writing gigs and can be reached at  kevin.glew@sympatico.ca. Kevin can also be reached here.

Robert Broughton

Bob Broughton grew up as a fan of the Washington Senators. he was initially exposed to college baseball as an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, when the Hokies were taken out of the NCAA Regional by a Mississippi team with Archie Manning on the mound. He re-discovered the game when he started going to British Columbia home games in 2001, and was favourably impressed with the caliber of play. This led to annual trips to the NAIA Baseball National Championship in Lewiston, ID, a nine-hour drive from Vancouver. He has had a long career as computer programmer/web developer, but made a mid-life career change in 2010; he's now a bus driver. He maintains the Courtesy Runner and T-Bird Baseball sites. Robert can be reached here.

Chris Toman

Baseball has been one of the few constants in Chris Toman’s life since childhood. His parents signed him up for T-ball and he never looked back, going on to play rep baseball for various organizations across Toronto for over a decade.

Chris played his high school ball for the Malvern Black Knights, and was later an assistant coach for his former high school team. He continues to help coach for the East York Baseball Association and enjoys watching, studying and dissecting the game at all age levels.

Chris obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario where he majored in Political Science and American Studies. As a dual-citizen of Canada and the United States, Chris has always had an interest in the history and culture of both countries. Chris completed a 12-week internship with ESPN New York 1050 Radio in May of 2011 and is a contributing editor for SportsNetwork.com and the co-founder of slnsports.com. He credits his parents and brother with a lot of the success he’s achieved in his life and has learned immensely from his brother, Dan, who is currently working for ABC Sports Radio and ESPN New York. You can follow Chris on Twitter Chris_Toman

Chris Messina

Chris is currently with Rogers TV in Ottawa. During the summer he calls play-by-play for the Ottawa Fat Cats in the Intercounty Baseball League and writes for JaysProspects.com. During the winter he covers the CCHL as both a host and play-by-play announcer and has had an opportunity to work on a couple of Rogers TV's OHL broadcasts for the Ottawa 67's. His writing career started in 2004 with 'The Charlatan', a Carleton University student newspaper. From there he completed his BA in Political Science in 2006 and then went onto graduate from Humber College's radio broadcasting program. While attending Humber in 2007, he did an internship at the Score Television Network before returning to Ottawa. Upon his return he was a radio producer at 'Team 1200' from 2008-2010. Chris also the called play-by-play for Carleton Ravens basketball on ssncanada.ca from 2008 - 2010. His career highlights including being covering three CIS men's basketball Championships (2006 in Halifax, 2009-10 in Ottawa) and working on the 2010 Eastern Canadian Jr. A Hockey Championship (Fred Page Cup) broadcast in Brockville for TV Cogeco.

Alexis Brudnicki

Baseball has been a part of Alexis' life since her parents took her brother to sign up for Eager Beaver Baseball in London. Alexis wanted to play and asked to sign up, too. Alexis played ball until the boys were all twice her size and then switched to competitive fastball. Her first job was as an umpire for rookies with the EBBA and since then Alexis has completed her education with an undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario and graduate studies in Sports Journalism at Centennial College. Alexis finished her studies with an internship at the highly-respected Baseball America in Durham, N.C., contributing to the magazine, as well as working on off-season book projects and a book BA did with the Baseball Hall of Fame. Since returning home, Alexis has continued to write for BA. Alexis began working for the Toronto Blue Jays as a statistician and board operator during the 2010 season, and continues to work there. Alexis loves writing about anything and everything baseball. Have a story suggestion for Alexis to consider? Contact her here with your ideas.

Ruben Lipszyc

Ruben Lipszyc is a lifelong baseball fan, who is passionate about the game.  He has been very involved in youth baseball, coaching kids since 1989 at every level from Little League all-stars to Bantam AAA teams in Ontario and Alberta, and has led his teams to provincial championships.  He has also served on the board of directors in Little League as well as Baseball Alberta organizations in several capacities including division co-ordinator, umpire-in-chief, VP Marketing and VP Technical Director & Player Development.  He is a Level 2 NCCP certified coach, and although he no longer coaches, he is still actively involved as an NUCP Level 2 certified umpire. An avid Red Sox fan, his efforts to help get Jim Rice into Cooperstown were chronicled in many publications including USA Today and the Toronto Sun, and culminated in Rice's induction into the Hall in 2009. Ruben has traveled around the continent to watch many games and has had the opportunity to meet many players, but his  biggest highlight remains meeting Jim Rice in a pregame reception the day his #14 was retired at Fenway Park. Now living in Calgary and being familiar with many of the different baseball programs and organizations in the province, Lipszyc will occasionally write articles for the Canadian Baseball Network, in particular focusing on those that relate to baseball in Alberta and about Albertans. Ruben can be reached here.

Devon Teeple

Devon is the founder of The GM's Perspective. Devon is an author for the Business of Sports Network, which includes the Biz of Baseball, the Biz of Football, the Biz of Basketball and the Biz of Hockey. He is also a contributor to the Canadian Baseball Network. Devon is a Demand Media Studios writer, featured writer on Examiner.com, member of the Yarbarker Network, and is an Associate Member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada. Devon is a former professional baseball player with the River City Rascals and Gateway Grizzlies. He has continued to further his knowledge by completing Sports Management Worldwide's Baseball General Manager Class and interning with The Football outsiders. Currently, Devon is a Branch manager at a financial institution in Southern Ontario, Canada. You can follow The GM's Perspective on Twitter and Facebook. Devon can be reached here.

Todd Devlin

Todd Devlin is a freelance writer currently based in London, Ontario. He holds an honours degree in Commerce from McMaster University, and a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Western Ontario. Aside from the Canadian Baseball Network, Devlin's work has appeared in The Londoner, the St. Thomas Times-Journal, Victoria News and Western News, as well as the official Minor League Baseball website, the National Lacrosse League website, and the online homes of Ontario University Athletics and Canadian Interuniversity Sport. In February 2010, he worked as a reporter for the Olympic News Service at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, covered Luge, Skeleton and Bobsleigh events at the Whistler Sliding Centre. Prior to freelance writing, Devlin spent one season each in the communications departments of the Triple-A Ottawa Lynx and the Toronto Blue Jays professional clubs. A lifelong baseball fan, Devlin also played the game, topping out at the Canadian University level, where he spent four seasons as a member of the McMaster Marauders. He can still be found on the diamond playing in a senior men's league in the summers. Todd can be reached here.