December 14, 2021

By Matt Betts

Canadian Baseball Network

It’s been one of the greatest rallies in Canadian baseball history.

But instead of runs being scored and caps being turned inside out, it’s featured phone calls, the lending of amenities and donations.

When Abbotsford Cardinals general manager Shawn Besse’s phone rang just after 4 p.m. on November 15, it was a concerned Taylor Bratton on the other end. The Cardinals college placement coordinator and owner of 9 Innings Baseball wasn’t calling about the latest college signing or to chat about the offseason.

“He said ‘we have water coming in’, so my first thought was to get the pump out, assuming it was water from the heavy rainfall that occurred that entire weekend,” Besse said. “I went down to the facility right away and the water level was halfway across the facility. With limited time we were able to get some of our stuff to a higher level four feet up. By 4:50 p.m. it was time to leave, not knowing that water would continue to enter the facility and to what degree.”

It did continue to enter and by 9 p.m. that night the water had reached heights of five feet.

“The next day when I went to see for myself, it was unbelievable, as it was a lake not a ballpark. It hit me hard, it was a very emotional moment,” he said. “I still remember playing at Delair Park back in the late 1980’s and being a part of the organization for over a decade, it was very difficult in that moment to see it all under water.”

The word adversity gets thrown around a lot in the world of baseball. How players and coaches react to it, especially in a game of failure, is often indicative of the type of success they will have in the immediate moments after it passes. It’s always hard to know how one will react in the face of adversity, or in this case devastation. It would be easy to sit back and ruminate about how this could happen, why did it happen, and those reactions would be totally justified. But that’s just not the Cardinal way, and like true competitors the players looked for solutions.

“Our players have been resilient throughout these times and are offering help in so many ways, which helps with the helplessness you sometimes feel,” Besse said. “Players have redirected their efforts to helping in the community, helping farmers and families in need with cleaning up.”

These are still athletes remember, with big time baseball aspirations. Along with helping rebuild their community, they’re also trying to build their baseball careers. On that front, it was a familiar foe who stepped up, because some things are so much bigger than baseball.

“Right now, we are training in Langley on Friday and Sunday thanks to the Langley Blaze and Doug Mathieson who contacted me immediately without hesitation offering their facility to us while we get ours back in working order,” Besse said. “Keeping our players on track and in a routine is very important to their well-being and future season as student-athletes.”

In the aftermath a GoFundMe was also set up to assist in the rebuilding of this baseball community. To date, $56,100 has been raised, including $5,000 from Hall of Famer Larry Walker, $2,500 from Stephen Bratton and two anonymous sources, $2,000 from the Okotoks Dawgs, $1,600 from Cadillac Fairview, $1,200 from the Whalley Chiefs, and $1,000 each from the North Delta Baseball Association, Robert Isabella , Laura Bratton, Richard Elstone, INDIG, Inc. BBC, and two anonymous sources.

Add in countless social media posts expressing support and this has become a national rebuilding effort.

“The support has been overwhelming, really, it’s hard to put our gratitude into words. We feel very fortunate to see such an outpouring of support from so many people and organizations,” Besse said. “Our baseball community is such a large family, and it shows in times like this. We are competitors on the field but have each other’s back off the field. Having the support from across the country will allow us to get back up and running soon.”

For a program that has produced notable players like Ryan McGovern, Danny Andreas, Andy Rempel, Josh Brink, Bryan Arthur, Eric Sim, Evan Hildenbrandt, Cade Smith, Carter Loewen, Kurtis Kostuk, Konner Piotto, Micah Bucknam and Jared Mortenson, there’s no doubt they will be back playing and better than ever.

“We want to thank the Premier Baseball League teams for reaching out to offer help and support, Corey Eckstein and the Ontario Blue Jays program, all baseball programs across the country, T.J Burton of the Toronto Blue Jays, Pavco, Catherine Eiswerth-Binnie, Men In Kilts, Abbotsford Canucks, all past, present and future Cardinal families, Larry Walker, and all donors that have supported our student athletes in getting their training facility back up and running. We thank you all.”

If you’d like to make a donation to the Abbotsford Cardinals rebuilding effort visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/abbotsford-cardinals-baseball-facility