Canadian Baseball Network writer Melissa Verge shares this beautiful and moving tribute to her grandpa who passed away on Thursday morning, just three months after his wife.
Read More
Canadian Baseball Network contributor Melissa Verge writes about the trail that Women National Team members Jaida Lee (St. John's, Nfld.), Raine Padgham (Abbotsford, B.C.) and Michelle Roche (Burnaby, B.C.) are blazing on the ball field at the University of British Columbia.
Read More
Vauxhall Academy players Noah McIntosh (Dartmouth, N.S.) and Cedric LeBlanc (Dieppe, N.B.) are ready to represent the Maritimes at the Canadian Futures Showcase that will begin at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday. Canadian Baseball Network writer Melissa Verge recently spoke with the two Maritimers.
Read More
"He was once a baseball loving kid from Sarnia Ont., who was overlooked due to a smaller physique.
Now, Dylan O’Rae is a top prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization, doing what he’s always had to do in a historic 2024 season where he’s stolen 62 bases."
Read More
Canadian Baseball Network writer Melissa Verge caught up with two promising young East Coast catchers who are headed to the Canadian Futures Showcase at Rogers Centre that will begin on September 17.
Read More
“Perseverance and passion took two pre-teens with big dreams from the sandlots in BC, to their current positions as teammates for Canada.
Third baseman Tim Piasentin and left hander Sean Duncan both started their baseball careers 20 minutes away from each other at their respective homes in Coquitlam, BC. They practiced at ball fields together growing up, and played in the Little League World Series for Coquitlam in 2019 side by side.
Now, they’re together on the big stage in Panama with the Junior National Team, hopeful of qualifying for the 2025 World Cup.”
Read More
The Canadian Women’s National Team captured the bronze medal at the Women’s World Cup with a 4-2 win over Mexico on Saturday.
Read More
Sena Catterall (Montreal, Que.) has starred offensively and defensively for the Women’s National Team at the Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay, Ont., and is a big reason the team will play for bronze on Saturday morning. Canadian Baseball Network writer Melissa Verge spoke with Catterall prior to the bronze medal match.
Read More
It was as dramatic, and as perfect for Canadian ball fans as it gets at Port Arthur Stadium in Thunder Bay Wednesday evening.
A grand slam smashed off the bat of Canadian catcher Lucie Anctil clinched a spot in the bronze medal game for the Canucks at the Women’s World Cup. The ball was crushed down the right field line, giving the Canadians a 10-0 walk-off mercy rule victory in the fifth against Venezuela.
Read More
The best in baseball are in Thunder Bay, Ont. this week to play for gold at the Women’s Baseball World Cup. Canada, ranked seventh in the world, will look to upset at the tournament, bringing an experienced roster in international competition to the field. Canadian Baseball Network writer Melissa Verge provides 10 things you need to know about the Canadian squad and the tournament in general before it begins on Sunday.
Read More
“Sacrificing sleep to sling baseballs well into the night is a welcome renouncement for Canadian right hander Noah Bourgeois.
Instead of being cozy under the covers, at 3 a.m. Sunday, Bourgeois will be reporting for pitching duty.
His mission?
Get the win.
The right hander from Surrey, B.C. will be starting the game for the Haysville Aviators in the NBC World Series July 28 at three in the morning. The tournament will see 16 summer collegiate teams from around the U.S. competing for a national championship in Wichita, Kan.”
Read More
“The top baseball players in the world will be in Canada next week to take the field for a World Cup that almost didn’t happen.
For months, the outcome of the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Finals - which gives the best players across the country a purpose, and young girls a tangible goal to strive for - was uncertain due to a lack of funding.
It was a generous $300,000 contribution from Baseball Canada, and many long hours from the staff, that ensured the event was still able to take place in Thunder Bay.”
Read More
“Popcorn flew around Josée Tellier at Olympic Stadium like a snow shower in May.
It was launched back and forth by her restless fourth grade classmates who weren’t paying attention to the Montreal Expos on the field below.
But Tellier was. She had a deep passion for the game even then, a passion that is still evident 38 years later in the way she talks about the game and in her career choice. Baseball is her love, and art is her outlet. She’s been creating baseball art pieces out of her home in Montreal since 2019.
In fact, it’s creating that art that saved her three years ago — specifically, a Yogi Berra baseball card.”
Read More
“Inspiration was everywhere for Jimmy Dionne.
It was in the crowded stadiums, the road-trips to new places, the talent of the Quebec Capitales players that Dionne had front row seats to growing up as son of a Capitales coach.
The life of a pro baseball player surrounded him, and it was a dream he wanted a part of.
The now 6-foot-4 19-year-old would jump into his dad’s vehicle as a four and five-year-old en route to ball fields in Boston and New York. When the Capitales went on the road, his dad, Stephane Dionne coached, and Jimmy, too young to play and too young to coach — took it all in.”
Read More
“The head coach of Missouri State started out as a passionate Canadian kid, playing catch with his dad in the summers and watching the Toronto Blue Jays.
On the baseball fields of Whitby, Ont., Joey Hawkins learned the fundamentals of the game, and a spark was ignited that never went out.”
Read More
Canadian Baseball Network writer Melissa Verge shares her loving tribute to her biggest fan — her grandma.
Read More
Tomorrow in St. Marys, Ont., Ashley Stephenson (Mississauga, Ont.) will become the first Women’s National Team member to be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. We thought we would re-run Melissa Verge’s article from February 6 when it was announced that Stephenson had been elected.
Read More
“Jay Jackson was the same as his teammates growing up in Greenville, South Carolina.
A baseball lover with a big league dream.
But as one of a small number of African Americans to play the game, his journey was different. Throughout his childhood and professional career on the baseball diamond, he’s dealt with injustices his teammates didn’t have to face.
From missed opportunities, to hateful messages ridden with slurs. The path to the top, and even at the top, for the former Blue Jays pitcher who is now in the Minnesota Twins organization, has never been easy.”
Read More
“The friends he surrounded himself with growing up didn’t play baseball, but Ryan Asis drew all the inspiration he needed from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Standing in front of the TV as an eight-year-old, he’d come set like the pitchers, and swing for the fences inside his childhood home.
“I fell in love with it that way,” said Asis (Mississauga, Ont.).
Back then, he was an eight-year-old with a baseball dream, fueled by the golden years of the Blue Jays winning the World Series in 1992 and 1993. If the Jays hadn’t been good, he probably would have retired as a kid in the 90’s, he said, but they were on fire, and became Asis’s motivation.
Thanks to that incredibly talented roster, including manager Cito Gaston, he now has a dream of helping grow the game for other members of his Filipino community. He’ll be taking 40 players with the Philippines Baseball Group to the Blue Jays game against the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday at Rogers Centre as the director of the Canadian chapter.”
Read More
“It’s fitting that the leadoff hitter for Niagara University in the NCAA Baseball Regional Friday is used to being the underdog.
Nick Groves had to fight for success on the baseball diamond growing up in London, Ontario. The centre fielder wasn’t given any genetic handouts, as a small kid who was always undersized.”
Read More