Posts in Sandlots
Martin, Key, Stephenson, Heisler, Godfrey, Birnie to be inducted into Canadian ball hall on Saturday

Six new members will be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in a ceremony on the Hall of Fame grounds on Saturday.  Former Toronto Blue Jays all-stars Russell Martin (East York, Ont.) and Jimmy Key will be inducted alongside national team infielder and trailblazing coach Ashley Stephenson (Mississauga, Ont.) and national team pitching legend Rod Heisler (Moose Jaw, Sask.). Onetime Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Godfrey, who played a significant role in bringing Major League Baseball to Toronto, and longtime Toronto Leaside baseball executive Howard Birnie will also be honoured. 

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Elliott: Tucker Zdunich returns to Dawgs, ball departs

“There is not a better feeling in the game than winning the final game of the season.

And conversely, there is probably not a worse feeling than losing when you are a victory away from playing in the championship final.

Tucker Zdunich felt the latter after his Reinhardt Eagles dropped the final two games of the AVISTA NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Id. The Eagles won three straight before losing back-to-back games to the Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs. A win in either would have put them in the title game.

No matter now. What was then was then. The page in his diamond book had been turned and he returned home to where he has played the previous 10 years going all the way back to bantam -- the Okotoks Dawgs.”

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Kennedy: Historic Kendal ballpark a timeless, field of dreams

“When this grey-haired baseball has been walked into Harvey Jackson Memorial Park in the sleepy hamlet of Kendal recently - to see my son’s Kingston Thunder U-18 team play in a tournament – it was, to quote Yogi Berra, “like deja-vu all over again.”

I was a member of the 1972 Kingston Lions junior squad when I first played at the quaint old ballyard. Yet once I stepped down the narrow cement steps of the dugout, 52 years washed away in a flood of memories.

The ballpark in Kendal, 170 km west of Kingston in the Municipality of Clarington, is a throwback to yesteryear. It’s steeped in character and pleasant reminders of a time when baseball was king of summer sports in cities such as Kingston and in rural areas everywhere.”

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Elliott: Wrubleski goes deep as Dawgs win streak ends in Lethbridge

“The uniform colour black is in at the Okotoks Dawgs Academy.

There are different teams of different colors but the one all teenagers want to wear is the Vanderbilt Commodores-style black uniforms.

There is a Dawgs Red team, a Dawgs White team, but THE most desired team is Dawgs Black.

So, how to explain the Okotoks Dawgs starting catcher on Friday night against the Lethbridge Bulls at Spitz Stadium?

Jacob Wrubleski played eight years at the Dawgs Academy. Only in his final year did he wear black. He wore red normally or white the other seven years.”

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