By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Okotoks, Alta. _ Robert Service wrote in his poem The Cremation of Sam McGee something like this oh, 116 years ago ...
 
“The Northern Lights have seen some strange sights.

“But the strangest they ever did see, was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge ...

* * *

Some strange things can also happen under the Alberta afternoon sun.

Like Sunday afternoon at Seaman Stadium ... as Sylvan Lake visited the Okotoks Dawgs.

“I’ve never seen that before,” said Dawgs interim manager Lou Pote, drafted in 1990, won a World Series ring with the Anaheim Angels, retired in 2011 and has been coaching ever since.

Once again it fits snugly into the category of going to a ball game and seeing something you have never seen before.

“I’ve never seen that ... ever,” said pitching coach Joe Sergent, a 1999 draft, who pitched five years in the Florida Marlins system reaching the double-A Portland Sea Dogs.

What was so surprising?

Well, hang with us for this is not an easy one to explain ... so we’ll move slowly ... slower than usual:

_ The Dawgs led the Sylvan Lake Gulls 5-3 but Sylvan Lake had the bases drunk with none out in the top of the eighth. The Gulls rally began when Cleary Simpson (Elnora, Alta.) singled to centre off Seth Thompson (Calgary, Alta.). Easton Jones was hit by a pitch and Matty Fung pinch ran. Pinch hitter Chase Rodriguez greeted reliever Dustin Schorie with a single to leave him surrounded by a flock of Gulls.

_ Kevan Diaz flew out to centre fielder Canon Reeder with Simpson tagging and scoring, making it a one-run game. One out.

_ Yet the play was not over. Dawgs catcher Caleb Lumbard (Regina, Sask.) took the late throw attempting to throw out Rodriguez, who had tagged from first. Second baseman Rickey Sanchez (Okotoks, Alta.) applied the tag on the bang-bang play. Umpire Adam Smith’s right arm went up. Gulls coach Matt Hape came out to argue.

_ Then the fun started in the Dawgs dugout as instructions flew. Appeal to second. Fung had not tagged. Make sure Lumbard doesn’t leave the catcher’s box so a balk is not called.

_ Schorie came set, stepped off and threw to shortstop Brendan Luther (Mississauga, Ont.) at second. Up umpire Smith’s arm again. Three out. The old routine 8-2-4-1-6 triple play, Just like in practice. The run was taken off the board so the Dawgs held onto a 5-3 lead, which wound up the eventual score before 4,682 fans.

_ Tyler Milton, a Dawgs 13U coach, who ran another successful all-star game, leaned over from the seats and said “make sure that the run doesn’t count.”

_ Sergent went to plate umpire Tyler Murphy and basically said “take that run off the board.” Like the old days at Greenwood when the inquiry lights would flash and bettors would chant “take that number down.”

Hape argued again with home plate ump Murphy about the run being removed from the right field scoreboard. Had Fung tagged it would have been a one-run game with two out and a man on third.

But did the umps get it right? It wasn’t a force play. Rather it was a timing play. The runner from third scored before the third out was made at second. One pro ump said that the crew got it half right: yes, it was a triple play but the run should not have been disallowed.
   
Schorie said the Dawgs dugout was worried he would appeal to third and in fact he did “check the (nonexistent) at third before throwing to second,” as a team can only appeal to one base on the same play.

After the game someone asked Lumbard what sign he had given for the triple play? He laughed and wiggled three fingers.

“The ball to centre, the centre fielder and their runner were all lined up perfectly in our view,” said Sergent, explaining how everything that the Dawgs dugout needed to see was in the same line of vision. This wasn’t a case of checking the right fielder to see if a runner had not left early from third.

“I’ve never seen that play before,” said third base coach Andy Peterson of Linn-Benton.

For one afternoon the whole Dawgs staff resembled the legendary  Zotique Laframboise, who was always spotted observing fires or car accidents in Hull, Que. during my days writing in Ottawa.

The next day the Ottawa Journal would often quote bystander Zotique who was always quoted as saying:

“Me, I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
* * *
Angel I: We went for diner Sunday night with John Milton of the Dawgs and his wife Corry. Milton and I waited outside the coaches room for Pote to give him a lift to the restaurant.

Pote emerged, said “Just a second,” before re-emerging with a bag over his shoulder.

”What the heck is that?” I asked, looking at the yellow and black machine. “It’s our AED (Automated External Defibrillator). Want me to bring it with us … just in case.”

I shook my head no … I was laughing so hard. I should have answered “I’m already packing my own.”

It was Pote who sprinted to the back of the banquet hall to get the defibrillator when I collapsed on stage at the Dawgs annual banquet on Feb. 2, 2019, That machine basically -- and the Okotoks angels -- saved my life not once but twice (my heart stopped and then I crashed again). Fireman Geoff Brown brought my back a second time.

The machine gives instructions verbally and I’m told I yelled “turn down the darn cell phones,” or something like that.

Two more Angels: Team photographer Angela Burger and trainer Savannah Blakeley performed CPR with the machine Pote retrieved to bring me back the first time.

I took the two angels for lunch Saturday at the Brown Sugar Bake Shop and gave them a yearly gift. Thanks to them I now have two birthdays: turning 74 in September and five in February.

If not for the Okotoks angels I would not have seen my children, wife, or three grandchildren again.

Or be going to Woodstock to see my eldest grandson pitch for New Brunswick in the 13U nationals.

Lou Pote during his days with the Anaheim Angels

* * *
Inside the card: On the card I gave Pote I wrote down his seven saves. He read the saves out loud to the other coaches and made his comment

1999 season
1. A’s.
“My first save.” He retired Ramon Hernandez on a grounder, Eric Chavez on a fly ball and Miguel Tejada on a grounder.

2. A’s.
“One inning save.” He retired Tejada again on a grounder, struck out Mike Macfarlane and allowed a single to Rich Becker, who was thrown out attempting to steal by Matt Walback.

3. Rangers.
“Jarrod Washburn had given up four singles and was leading 1-0 into the ninth at home. He gets the first two outs and Tom Goodwin singles. Joe Maddon brings me in and everyone boos because he took out Washburn working on a shutout. I told guys they were chanting “Looooooou.” Pote threw a pitch to the screen allowing Goodwin to move to second for Ivan Rodriguez. He retired the future Hall of Famer on a ground ball.

2000
4. Mariners.
“That was a three-inning save.” The Angels beat the Mariners 9-3 as Pote finished up allowing a single and striking out a pair.

2001  
5. Rockies.
“Another three-inning save.” Pote took over with an 11-3 lead and that’s the way it finished. He allowed one base runner and struck out two in his 34-pitch outing.

6. Orioles.
“Worked three innings again.” The Angels scored four in the top of the seventh for a 9-4 lead. Pote got them to the clubhouse gibing up three hits and a walk in his scoreless outing.

2019
7. Saving the life of some lunkhead from Ontario. 

* * *

Remember when: A year ago about now Dawgs 2B Elijha Hammill (Oakville, Ont.) made his debut with the Erindale Cardinals. Batting right-handed he hit a pair of two homers at Greg Cranker Field in Mississaauga. Hammill is a switch hitter, a fact few Erindale players knew.

So when he faced a right-hander with the game on the line, he stood in the other batter’s box.

“Oh they were screaming at me, what are you doing?” Hammill recalled during the all-star game.

What did Hammill do from the left side?

“Hit a walk-off homer against Etobicoke Rangers.”

Switch hitter for the Dawgs he is batting .306 with four doubles, two triples a homer and 16 RBIs in his first 21 games.