CBN Honour Roll
Elisabeth Rositsan
Elisabeth was born in Toronto, and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania. Elisabeth has had a passion for sports since the age of six. Her path in sports started with gymnastics and basketball and quickly elevated to other major sports. She was a member of the Lithuanian National Team of rhythmic gymnastics for seven years and competed at World and European championships. Her interest in baseball peaked when she moved back to Canada in 2018. She became a Toronto Blue Jays follower.
Currently, Elisabeth works as a media preparations coordinator for Rogers Sports and Media. At this job, she oversees most of on-air content that goes throughout all Rogers TV channels. In addition, she works as a radio news host on the weekends at CityNews 680.
She perceives baseball as a therapeutic and mentally engaging sport. Her passion for sports led her to Ryerson University's sport media program where she gained media, radio and writing experience. Throughout her journey in the Sport Media program, she helped broadcast many U-Sport games, edited clips for the CWHL awards, wrote articles for Ryerson’s newspaper, helped coordinate social media for the HotDocs film festival, and co-hosted a radio show Girls Got Game. Elisabeth is extremely honored and grateful to have written and shared her work with the Canadian Baseball Network.
Kelsi Byers
A large part of the success of the Canadian Baseball Network is its connection to baseball fans across Canada. And that comes through social media. Tireless worker Kelsi Byers was responsible for that success for four years.
It could be grandparents wondering about their pride and joy who competed at the nationals, a brother or sister following a brother playing college ball, an uncle checking on a Canadian in the minors or mom and dad checking on "his nibs" at any level. Whether it was amateur ball or Your Toronto Blue Jays, social media director Byers kept people posted. Now, Kevin Glew takes on that task daily.
Kelsi left to form Kelsi Byers Digital + Consulting, a one stop shop for all things digital marketing: branding, website design and build, strategy, training and everything in between. Her approach is that each and every project and business is unique. At Kelsi Byers Digital + Consulting Kelsi focuses on the digital to help elevate your business, while her customers are able to concentrate what the owner knows and loves.
On May 24, Byers wed Jordan Comadena in Pittsburgh. Jordan is the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen catcher. The staff at the Canadian Baseball Network wish Kelsi and Jordan many, many happy years together.
Alexis Brudnicki
Alexis originally hails form London, Ontario, where her first job was as an umpire for rookie ballers in the Eager Beaver Baseball League, where she also got her start playing. Her first job in the industry was with the Toronto Blue Jays, working as a statistician and scoreboard operator while also in sports journalism graduate school at Centennial College after completing her undergrad at Western. She then interned at Baseball America, where she continued contributing for years. Along the way, she also did work for Baseball Canada, FanGraphs, The Hardball Times (where she won a SABR award in 2016), as well as the Canadian Baseball Network. She also worked for the Australian Baseball League and graduated from Major League Baseball’s scout school, before joining the Great Lake Canadians elite amateur program as Director of Baseball Information. Now, she is a reporter/producer for Major League Baseball Advanced Media based in Toronto, and will graduate from the Professional Master of Education program through Queen’s, with a focus in assessment and evaluation.
Nick Ashbourne
After attending McGill University and Centennial College, Nick became an associate editor with Sportsnet and wrote for the Canadian Cycling Magazine. In May of 2015 he became the site editor and lead writer for the Canadian Baseball Network, until he joined Yahoo Canada Sports as the MLB Editor.
Melissa Couto
A history buff especially when it came to former President of the United States Lyndon Baines Johnson Melissa wrote for the Canadian Baseball Network from 2012 to 2015, writing about Daniel Norris and his van a year before everyone else. Now Melissa is a sports reporter-editor at The Canadian Press and has been since June of 2013, working for new sports editor Mike (Walt) Koreen.
Mike Cormack
Now an executive at Sportsnet, Michael wrote about the Canadian Baseball Network Player of the Year honours in 2010-12, while working for Rogers Communications. He was a web producer from 2006 to 2011 editing and publishing content. Since then he has risen quicker than Vladimir Guerrero as an MLB editor; managing editor, for Sportsnet Digital; senior producer, Multi-Platform NHL and managing editor, Sportsnet Digital.
Shi Davidi
Away back in 2010-11 when Shi was in his final two years writing for The Canadian Press he’d write a column for the Canadian Baseball Network. His words were read more than anyone working for the four Toronto papers because his game stories appeared in newspapers coast to coast. In 2011 he was hired to write for Sportsnet and is also an integral part of the TV broadcasts.
Todd Devlin
After attending McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario, Todd became associate editor for the Canadian Baseball Network in 2013-2014. Now you can read him regularly in newspapers and websites like Metro News, Yahoo Health, the Londoner, Western Alumni Gazette, St. Thomas-Times Journal, Victoria News, sportsnet.ca and MLB.com.
April Whitzman
After attending Mount Saint Vincent and Mount Allison universities, April wrote for the Canadian Baseball Network on minor leaguers in 2011-12 and won the right to be a MLB Fan Cave Dweller in New York in 2013. April was a finalist in Manhattan before joining the Toronto Blue Jays as a digital marketing manager late in the 2016 season.
Liam McGuire
After attending St.Thomas University, Liam wrote for the Canadian Baseball Network. Now, he writes for VICE Media, Awful Announcing as well as being the video editor for both The Comeback and Vault Comics.
Chris Toman
One half of the keyboard brotherly duo, Chris wrote about the likes of John Axford, minor leaguer Tim Smith and the Mizuno camp which brought together the best from across Canada at the Rogers Centre. He moved on to write for BlueJays.com. Since 2015 he has been the sports editor at VICE Sports Canada.
Alykhan Ravjiani
After graduating Wilfrid Laurier University and Centennial College, Alykhan was one of the first to write on the Blue Jays No. 1 pick Jeff Hoffman, selected ninth over-all in 2014. Alykhan worked for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors communications department, before joining the Toronto Blue Jays. He wrote for BlueJays.com and is now the social media in-game coordinator for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Chicco Nacion
Chicco Nacion is currently a senior writer with the digital team at CBC Sports. From a young age, sports has been his passion. Growing up, he listened to Jerry Howarth call Jays games and Bob Cole on Hockey Night in Canada. His life revolved around the sporting world then and continues to do so today. As an undergrad at the University of Western Ontario, Chicco began to feed that appetite for sports by blogging and doing play-by-play commentary for Mustangs sports on the campus radio station. It wasn't long before he realized that his true calling was in sports writing. Chicco wanted the honour of sharing the stories of others with the rest of the world and is privileged for the opportunity to do so. As an eight-year-old, Chicco won a contest in the Toronto Sun to meet and ask Vince Carter one question. He asked, "How do you feel being compared to Michael Jordan?" Carter replied, "Every day I step on the court, I try to create my own legend." Those words are something he's carried with him every day as Chicco hopes each story he tells leaves a lasting impression.
Dustin Saracini
Dustin has been in the sports industry for 10-plus years, making various stops across Canada while gaining tremendous experience within the sports landscape. He began in Saskatchewan as a sports reporter for radio and television before moving to Calgary to become the Director of Communications for Canada's biggest summer collegiate team, the Okotoks Dawgs. Following his stint out west, he was hired on as an Editor at theScore and theScore Bet - one of the biggest sports apps in North America - and was there for five incredible years.
Recently, Dustin, now a Senior Sports Analyst, was poached by a United Kingdom-based company, and has been flown over to London frequently as he tries to bring their successful European products into the North American market. He recommends visiting downtown London, the Camden Market, and Piccadilly Circus if you're ever in the city.
Some of the fondest memories he has from his illustrious sports career come from hosting the Canadian Baseball Network Podcast and interviewing some of the brightest Canadian minds in the game today.