Summer college ball coming to Brandon
By Melissa Verge
Canadian Baseball Network
BRANDON, M.B. - Warm summer nights sipping ball park beer and watching topnotch baseball talent are hovering wonderfully on Brandon’s horizon.
The Manitoba city will be home to the newest Expedition league team for collegiate players, come May 2019.
It was an ideal location to expand to, said Steve Wagner, president of the summer college league.
“Brandon is growing, which is very attractive,” Wagner said. “The demographics are [also] great with a lot of young families.”
The team will play at Andrews Field.
There are eight other teams in the league, including the Casper Horse Heads, Hastings Sodbusters, Spearfish Sasquatch, Western Nebraska Pioneers, Hub City Hotshots, Souris Valley Sabre Dogs, Badlands Big Sticks and Pierre Trappers.
The league’s other teams are in South Dakota, two each in North Dakota and Nebraska and one in Wyoming. South Dakota teams are Spearfish, Pierre and Hub City, located in Aberdeen. Based in North Dakota are the Badlands in Dickinson and Souris Valley in Minot. The Nebraska teams are in Hastings and Gering, where Western Nebraska plays. The Wyoming club is in Casper.
The Brandon team - whose nickname has yet to be announced - will be searching for skilled players for its roster.
“[We’ll be looking for] top tier collegiate talent from across North America, including Canadian players,” Wagner said.
They’ll look coast to coast and north and south and who knows maybe they’ll find the next Russ Ford (Brandon), a two-time 20-game winner with the New York Yankees; 3B Corey Koskie (Anola) a post-season regular with the Minnesota Twins, Mel Kerr (Souris, Man), who pinch ran for the 1925 Chicago Cubs and never had the opportunity to bat, plus OF Bud Sketchley (Virden) of the 1942 Chicago White Sox. They are the four major leaguers born in the province.
Or those who played in the minors like C Troy Fortin (Lundar, Man.), RHP Bill Carpenter (Winnipeg, Man.), 1B Hugh Gustafson (Winnipeg, Man.), OF Gerry MacKay (Kenton, Man.) and RHP Donnie Smith (Winnipeg, Man.). And like legends like Fred Dunsmore, Les Edwards, Mike Labossiere, Ian Lowe, Almer McKerlie, Bill (Snake) Siddle and Glennis Scott.
During the next few months leading up to their first season, there’s a lot of work to be done. A front office staff is already working, and one or two more will be hired in the near future, he said.
“These are year-round positions and they’re out in the community all of the time, securing corporate partners and selling tickets,” he said. “We’re setting up social media and the team website as we speak.”
The team name and logo will be derived from suggestions made by people living in the Brandon community, and it will be chosen and designed by Nov. 15.
It will be nice for the youth in the community to have a ball team to look up to, said Brandon mayor Rick Chrest.
“It will help to elevate the exposure of baseball and give young players something to look up to, and hopefully it will inspire more young players into the sport,” Chrest said.
That’s something that president Wagner said, as a league, they try to promote.
“Young kids love to rub elbows with Expedition League players, and these players become role models for many of these younger kids,” he said. “We will definitely drive interest and involvement in youth baseball.”
It will also be great for the community to be able to watch the players on the future Brandon team develop, Chrest said.
“I’m sure some of the players that will be playing for the Brandon team, some of those are likely to end up in the Major Leagues,” he said. “It will be kind of fun to see players that you watched here in Brandon end up in the big leagues. It’s going to be high calibre ball to watch.”
The team will employ two-to-four full time staff, and more than 24 game day staff, as well as 10-to-12 interns. The structure will be similar to a minor league front office, Wagner said, and give families something to look forward to on summer nights - including himself.
The other summer college teams based in Canada are the Kelowna Falcons and the Victoria Harborcats in the West Coast League, the Thunder Bay Border Cats in the Northwoods League, plus the Western Canadian Major League which consists of teams in Alberta -- Medicine Hat Mavericks, Okotoks Dawgs, Edmonton Prospects, Lethbridge Bulls, Fort McMurray Giants and the Brooks Bombers -- and Saskatchewan -- the Weyburn Beavers, Swift Current 57s, Regina Red Sox, Moose Jaw Miller Express, Yorkton Cardinals and the Melville Millionaires.
“I can’t wait for opening day in Brandon next May,” said Wagner. “Andrews Field is going to be an awesome place to be next summer, and for many summers after that.”
