Manitoba Baseball HOF announces 2027 class

Baseball Canada head athletic therapist Dave Blatz (Steinbach, Man.) will be inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in 2027. Photo: Dave Blatz

November 3, 2026

Official Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame News Release

On the evening of June 12, 2027, the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame will host its 29th annual induction banquet.

The location for the event will be the Access Events Centre in Morden.

Tickets for the banquet can be purchased through the Hall of Fame’s website, www.mbhof.ca.

Today the Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the names of individuals and teams to be honoured at the June 12 banquet.

INDIVIDUAL INDUCTEES:

DAVID BLATZ (1973 ), STEINBACH

David Blatz was a very good baseball player in the 1990s and early 2000s. He was an all-star second baseman in the Manitoba Junior league and the Winnipeg Senior League. He was with two teams inducted into our Hall of Fame, the Carillon Sultans 1996-2003 and also the Stonewall Blue Jays 2003-08. However, he is being inducted this year mostly because of his superior work as an athletic trainer and therapist. Primarily, he has worked with baseball players and teams, but he has also worked with athletes in volleyball, soccer, rowing, and hockey. He has served with Canada’s Pan-Am baseball teams in 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023. He has also served with the teams in the World Baseball Classic in 2009, 2013, 2017, and 2023. He has worked with Canadian athletes in various sports at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and 2018, at the Summer Olympics in 2008, 2016, and 2020, and at the Winter Olympics in 2010. From 2022 to the present, he has been the Head Athletic Therapist for Team Canada’s Men’s Baseball Team. He has worked as an athletic therapist with the Minnesota Twins, the Seattle Mariners, and the Milwaukee Brewers. He is an expert on the mechanics of throwing and hitting a baseball and on the prevention of injuries when doing these activities.

JOE CARRIERE, (1954- ), WINNIPEG

Joe Carriere was from St. Laurent and started pitching there with tournament teams. He might pitch three or four games of four to six innings each, and he was throwing just as hard at the end of the day as at the beginning. At age 17, he pitched a perfect game against the South End Chiefs. In the same year, in a game against the Kinosota Cougars, he struck out 20 batters. After this game he was known as “Smokin’ Joe.” He soon moved to Winnipeg and played four seasons of Junior ball with the St. Boniface Legionnaires. He was an all-star three times. Later he played Senior ball, mainly with Teulon and Elmwood. He was a key pitcher on Manitoba’s 1973 Canada Summer Games team, winning a silver medal. He played in four Provincial championships, two Western Canadian championships, and two Canadian championships. He was a pitcher from the same era and of the same quality as Doug Freeth and Gerry Falk, both of them Hall of Famers. After retiring as a player, he coached minor ball for a decade, mostly in Lord Selkirk and West Kildonan Community Clubs.

DERRICK DUBELL (1967- ), WINNIPEG

As a youngster, Derrick Dubell was a baseball player. One day he was hitting when legendary umpire Sam Tascona made a call that Dubell did not like. Dubell complained. Tascona replied, in effect, that if you can do better, then you should start umping. Dubell did. He found that when he umpired, he enjoyed the game even more than when he was a player. He went on to become an extraordinary umpire. He has worked at 11 Baseball Canada national championships, and in all but one national tournament he was selected to work a medal game. He has worked in two international tournaments, and in one of them he was behind the plate for the gold medal game. He has been named Umpire of the Year in the Manitoba Junior League, and in 2008 he was named Umpire of the Year by Baseball Canada. He umpired for seventeen seasons in the professional Northern League, and was trusted with All-Star games and championship playoff games. He was Umpire-in-Chief for the Winnipeg Amateur Baseball Association, the Manitoba Junior League, and Senior baseball leagues. He is a Master Course Conductor and has mentored and evaluated hundreds of young umpires. Baseball Manitoba has named its Grassroots Umpire of the Year Award after him.

CURTIS GRIEVE (1972- ), WINNIPEG

Curtis Grieve was an outstanding left-handed pitcher, a good outfielder and a dangerous hitter. He grew up in Lauder, Manitoba and as a youngster was a star with teams from Hartney and the Oil Dome region. In 1987, he was the winning pitcher when Oil Dome won the Western Canadian Bantam (15U) championship. In 1990, he was selected to the Manitoba Youth Team that took the bronze medal in B.C. From 1989 to 2007, he played Senior ball with teams from Deloraine, Virden, Teulon, Winnipeg, Baldur, and Stonewall. In 1991, he was with the Virden Oilers and was not only their top rookie but also their top hitter and team MVP. The next season he was a pickup for the St. Boniface team that went to the Western Canadian Junior Championships. In 1993, he was Manitoba’s Senior Player of the Year for his play with the St. Boniface Junior and Teulon Senior teams. In that same year, he was on Manitoba’s Canada Summer Games Team. In 2002, 2005, and 2006, he was a key member of the Stonewall Blue Jays that won Winnipeg Senior League championships. In one of those years, he was the League’s top pitcher and in another, the League’s batting champion. In 2006 and 2008, he was with Stonewall when they won silver medals at Western Canadian championships. He played university baseball at Mayville State from 1993-1996. Since the early 2000s, he has coached minor ball, high school ball, and provincial teams. He is an instructor at Home Run Sports Training Centre.

NICOLE MADSEN (1970- ), HAMIOTA

For more than twenty years, Nicole Madsen has been a vital part of baseball in Hamiota, in the Midwest region of the province, and in Manitoba in general. She has been a parent, coach, administrator and board member. Early in the 2000s, she became involved with Hamiota Minor Baseball and quickly became the local contact for tournaments, jamborees, regional championships, and provincial championships. She was instrumental in improving the ball park in Hamiota, and she became a fixture on the Midwest Minor Baseball Board of Directors. She served as President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Baseball Manitoba Committee member. In 2017, she was elected as the Vice President of Sport Development for Baseball Manitoba, and she remained in that position until 2023. She was Baseball Manitoba’s Volunteer of the Year in 2012, and was inducted into the Honour Society of Baseball Manitoba in 2024.

PETER PERREAULT (1962- ), RUSSELL

Pete has been an umpire for more than thirty years. His first game came when he was a parent recruited out of the stands. Since then, he has umpired countless games in the local minor baseball association, in the Santa Clara League, in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League, and in the Western Canadian Baseball League. He is famous for stepping in to umpire games at a moment’s notice. He constantly mentors and encourages young umpires. For many years, he was Umpire-in-Chief for both Russell and Midwest Minor Baseball. Baseball Manitoba has recognized his great work by selecting him for the Larry Nichols Umpire Award of Merit in 2015, and by inducting him into the Honour Society in 2024. He has been an umpire at nine Canadian championships. He is an active member of the Baseball Manitoba Umpire Committee and a course conductor. He has a heavy workload for sure. In 2024 alone, he was the Umpire Supervisor at AA, AAA, and Senior Men’s provincial championships, and at the Manitoba Summer Games in Dauphin.

TEAM INDUCTEES:

McAULEY BLAZERS, 1987

In 1987, the McAuley Blazers were as successful as a Manitoba AAA Senior team could be. They finished the year with 29 wins, 12 losses, and one tie. They won the Manitoba Senior Baseball League crown. Then they defeated the Carman Goldeyes of the Redboine League to win the Provincial AAA title. They also won the prestigious July 1st tournament in Birtle. They were led by import pitchers Mark Cisneros and Mark Valesquez, who had a combined record of 15 wins and six losses on the mound, and local pitcher Rob Kollesavich, who went nine and four. Six players batted over .300 for the season. Three people from the team are inducted members of the Hall of Fame.

CRYSTAL CITY BANTAMS/MIDGETS, 1956-57

Crystal City is a small community near the USA border, with a population of about 200. Seventy years ago it had twice as many people, and by adding a player or two from nearby communities such as Clearwater, Pilot Mound, Cartwright, Mather, and Baldur, you could form a very good baseball team that might draw 600 or 700 people to a big game. This is what happened with the Crystal City Bantams (15U) and Midgets (18U) of 1956 and 1957. Crystal City won provincial championships in both years, and with the same group of core players. In 1956, they won the southern Manitoba championship and then beat Virden, the northern champs, two games to one. In 1957, they won their region, then beat out Brandon to take the provincial title. Several players went on to play baseball or fastball for years at high levels.

ST. BONIFACE KNIGHTS MIDGETS, 1977

The St. Boniface Knights Midget team (18U) was formed in 1977 and its most successful season was its first. The team won 32 games and lost 2 over the course of the year. They beat out Charleswood for the City championship. Then, with three pickups from the city, they won won the six-team Provincial championship in an “extra” final game against Souris (the first final game was called for darkness when the score was tied). Then, with two more pickups, they went to an invitational National championship in Provost, Alberta. There were six teams there. The Knights went 4-1 in the round robin and then won 8-7 over Kelowna in the final. Five of the Knights players were named to the tournament all-star team. Later that year, each player and coach was presented with a “City of Winnipeg Outstanding Achievement Medal” by Mayor Robert Steen and City Council. Seven players from this team have been inducted into our Hall of Fame either as individuals or as members of other teams.

HONOURARY LIFE MEMBERS:

JIM MUTCHESON SR., (1925-2017)

Jim Mutcheson Sr. was one of the original Directors of the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame. He remained a Director until 2016. He was also a Member of the local Morden Committee from 1998 to 2016. He was very instrumental in arranging for the Hall of Fame’s museum to be located in Morden. One day he sat down with the Mayor and worked out a lease agreement that has been altered over the years but not changed in its essentials. He was well known in baseball circles as a builder of the sport, especially Little League baseball and, because of his dedication to youth sports, in 1964 he was selected Morden’s Citizen of the Year and was given the Royal Canadian Legion Award for Sport Development. For his efforts, he was inducted into Baseball Manitoba’s Honour Society in 1987, into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2008, and into our Baseball Hall of Fame both as an individual in 1999 and with his family in 2012.

DAVID OLSEN (1951- ), WINNIPEG

Before the COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020s, four individuals in succession were Secretary-Treasurers of the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. One of them was David Olsen. He was a Director for nine years and Secretary-Treasurer for six. As Secretary-Treasurer, he devoted to our organization a lot of his time, as well as his impressive accounting and record-keeping skills. He was reliable and competent, the two attributes necessary to successfully carry out his responsibilities. He remembers driving home to Winnipeg from banquets in Morden, his car full of cash from liquor sales, last-minute ticket purchases, the 50/50 draw, the raffles, and the silent auctions. He knew that if the police ever stopped him, he would have explaining to do. He was inducted into our Hall of Fame in 2003 for many years of service to different baseball organizations, and now he becomes an Honourary Life Member of this one.