February 9, 2024

*The Canadian Baseball Network is a proud partner with Alberta Dugout Stories, which features the outstanding work of Ian Wilson and Joe McFarland. Yesterday, this duo announced that they have launched a new website called Saskatchewan Dugout Stories to shine the spotlight on baseball in a second prairie province. There’s no doubt they will do an excellent job and the site is well worth checking out here.

In the meantime, here’s a message from Ian and Joe about the launch of Saskatchewan Dugout Stories.

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By Joe McFarland and Ian Wilson

Every community in Saskatchewan has a baseball story to tell.

From kids picking up a bat and glove for the first time, to playing the game at different age levels, to rising into the college and even professional ranks, the athletes have stories to tell.

So, too, do the families, coaches, umpires, volunteers and community members who share in the excitement of the game we have all come to love.

In recent years, we have been able to watch the likes of Andrew Albers, Dustin Molleken, Garrett Hawkins and Logan Hoffman chase their dreams of playing big-league ball. Meanwhile, umpires like Stu Scheurwater have officiated some of Major League Baseball’s biggest moments.

The sport also has a rich history in this province. Star-studded teams like the Melville Midget Elks and Indian Head Rockets brought local fans to their feet every time they hit the diamond, while the individual prowess of Terry Puhl, Reggie Cleveland and Mary “Bonnie” Baker have allowed future generations to believe they could make it to the highest levels of baseball.

All of these stories and many more deserve to be told and shared. We want to create a unique place for that to happen.

Welcome to Saskatchewan Dugout Stories.

THE ORIGIN STORY

In March of 2016, the idea for Alberta Dugout Stories was born. Just a social media entity in the beginning, we were quickly bombarded with questions about original storytelling. That July, we launched albertadugoutstories.com with the hope of posting a couple of stories each month.

Interest grew substantially, leading to more opportunities and tales to tell. We added Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast in November 2018. We now post two or three stories each week (when time permits) and our podcast is released weekly.

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Listen a podcast about the origins of Saskatchewan Dugout Stories here.

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Over the last couple of years, we thought about the potential of expanding to other parts of the country, and it became obvious early on that we would head east. Not just sharing a border, baseball in Saskatchewan has numerous ties to Alberta, including the Western Canada League of the late 1900s, the present-day Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL), and many spots in between.

As we visited WCBL stadiums and had conversations with people involved in the province’s scene, a familiar feeling surfaced. That burning desire for original storytelling.

TODAY AND THE FUTURE

During the fall of 2023, we agreed it was time to take the Dugout Stories idea to the next level.

With the help of our friend, Bryce Beresh, we developed a logo to stay true to our identity while also making it unique to Saskatchewan. We prepared our new website and social media pages while circling a date on the calendar that we would make everything “official” for our own unique Opening Day.

That leads us to today, so while we’re here, let’s talk a little bit about the future.

We’re going to start at a measured pace, with a mix of new stories and a few archived stories from Alberta Dugout Stories that we’ve written over the last couple of years that had Saskatchewan ties.

Remember: Dugout Stories is a passion project that we do in our spare time. We both have young families and jobs, so sometimes those take precedence.

That being said, we’ll continue providing the same level of storytelling you’ve become accustomed to seeing in Alberta. We will also keep building connections in Saskatchewan and looking at the potential of adding writers to our roster. As we’ve always done, we will continue to evaluate and evolve our storytelling efforts to best serve you, our followers.

We are very excited about this latest chapter in the Dugout Stories journey. Thank you so much for your support.

Now, PLAY BALL!