“Budding baseball talent will cross paths with all that the Western Canadian Baseball League has to offer in southern Alberta next year.

The meeting of the WCBL and the top young ball players from across Canada will take place thanks to The Road to Okotoks, a national championship tournament set to happen at the Seaman Stadium Complex from July 14-19 in 2026.

The Baseball Canada event will feature 16 amateur academy teams - with rosters of players who are 19 years old or younger - competing against each other for the right to hoist the Morneau Cup, a trophy named after Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Justin Morneau.”

“He’s a Canadian baseball legend and a former National League batting champ, but Justin Morneau did a double take when he was asked to be the face of an exciting new national championship tournament.

Greg Hamilton – Baseball Canada’s director of national teams and head coach of the Junior National Team – approached the two-time Silver Slugger Award winner to see if he would lend his name to the top prize being handed out at The Road to Okotoks event.

“My first thought is, did Larry Walker turn it down?” said Morneau in downplaying his own impressive career and giving a nod to fellow British Columbian Walker, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020.”