Langdon: Five-minute call ends Marco's pro umpiring career
“Chris Marco is one of the most decorated umpires in minor league professional baseball in recent years.
He is also embarking on a career change.
The Hamilton, Ont. resident, 33 years old and an 11-year veteran of umpiring in professional baseball, learned his contract would not be extended during a five-minute telephone call with two Major League Baseball (MLB) Umpire Supervisors last fall. He says he was “confused and upset” at the time, but the way his 2024 season ended had left him with a sense of foreboding.”
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Langdon: Call him Howie (Hall of Fame bound) Birnie
“Howard Birnie’s induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame next month is believed to be the first such honour for a snack bar attendant.
Known as Howie to his many diamond friends and associates, Birnie has spent innumerable hours over almost countless years serving cold drinks, doling out penny and nickel candy and making change in the small, red-brick snack bar sandwiched between the first base grandstand and the bottom of a high hill at Talbot Park, home of the Leaside Baseball Association (LBA) in east end Toronto.
He spent a similar amount of time dragging and watering the infield, pounding the sand around the mound and home plate, anchoring the bases and chalking the foul lines at the venerable sandlot often called “The Shrine” by some in the Toronto baseball community.”
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Langdon: Erindale Cardinals … 42 summers with Cranks ... and counting
“Greg Cranker has a very large family. Most of its members are not relatives.
Cranker, 66 and widely known as “Cranks,” is the long-time coach, administrator, groundskeeper and “father figure” of the Erindale Cardinals community in Mississauga, Ont.
He can appear to be gruff and straightforward at times, quiet and reserved, comfortable in the background at other times and fun-loving and respectful of baseball and ball players all the time. But it is his actions, more than his words, that create a positive example for his players to follow on the field and off.”
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ICYMI - Langdon: Joey Votto recalls roots, offers tips for kids
With Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) signing a minor league contract with his hometown Toronto Blue Jays, we thought we’d resurrect this story Scott Langdon wrote about Votto and the slugger’s Toronto baseball roots from December 15, 2020.
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Langdon: Monarchs’ baseball passion glows through dark times
Canadian Baseball Network writer Scott Langdon shares the story of the remarkably resilient and successful Nova Scotia Monarchs, a baseball organization in the Halifax Regional Municipality for players ranging in age from 45 to 83.
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Langdon: A half century of Sunday mornings in Etobicoke
Tom McInnis, David Lee and some friends from elementary and high school decided to play a little pick-up baseball one Sunday morning in 1972. Fifty consecutive years later, with no organized league, no uniforms nor umpires, their games have become a little-known baseball institution in the west Toronto suburb of Etobicoke. Canadian Baseball Network writer Scott Langdon has the story.
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Loss a big win for 18U national championship tournament MVP
“The Mississauga Tigers High Performance Program won the Baseball Canada 18U national championship at Fort McMurray, Alta., recently.
Tournament MVP, Seth Hedges, faced a far weightier challenge just to be on the Tigers’ team.
When Hedges, 18, of Ingersoll in southwestern Ontario, first showed up for a workout with Sean Travers, the Tigers’ director of player development, in 2020, the teenager weighed just over 300 pounds.
“We did 45 minutes of fielding, followed by 45 minutes of hitting. That was the plan anyway. But Seth was exhausted after three swings. We stopped,” Travers said during a recent telephone interview.”
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First girls’ baseball academy offers school, sport and opportunity
North America’s first baseball academy for girls is planning to double enrolment next year and sees opportunities for growth and opportunity in the years ahead.
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UBC's Heppner brothers make a point from Point Roberts, Wash.
Former Delta Blue Jays Sean Heppner (Delta, BC), of the British Columbia Thunderbirds, and his younger brother Ryan Heppner, have waged a tougher battle against COVID-19 than most Canadians. Canadian Baseball Network writer Scott Langdon shares their story.
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Joey Votto recalls roots, offers tips for kids
“He took phantom swings with a bat in his bedroom, hit wiffle balls into a blanket in the garage and threw lacrosse balls against a wall for hours, all because Joey Votto had what he calls “the big dream” to be a professional baseball player.”
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Chris Walsh’s pro ball journey on hold for now
It has been a long journey for Caledon, Ont., native Chris Walsh, 34, to realize his professional baseball dream. He was getting ready for his second season as the athletic therapist for the Peoria Chiefs, the St Louis Cardinals’ affiliate in the class A Midwest League, when the season was put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic.
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What do you miss about baseball? -- Part Two
Canadian Baseball Network writer Scott Langdon talked with some of his friends and family members about what they miss most about baseball in this second part of his two-part series.
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What do you miss about baseball?
Canadian Baseball Network writer Scott Langdon shares some of his childhood baseball memories and writes about what he misses most about baseball (which, like most of us, is pretty much everything).
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Different sports, different balls, both made in China
Canadian Baseball Network contributor Scott Langdon writes that baseball and tennis have similar mechanical movements and transferable skills, but the balls at the core of each game are among the most obvious differences in the two sports. He examines how each of the balls are made.
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Baseball and tennis more alike than we think
Canadian Baseball Network writer Scott Langdon talks to experts about the similarities between baseball and tennis.
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Canadian Grieve selected to umpire at the Olympics
Canada’s men’s national baseball team is facing a tough task to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, but one Canadian is sure to be on the field for the six-team tournament that begins July 29. Toronto’s Trevor Grieve, 42, will be the lone Canadian umpire during the tournament having been selected by the World Baseball Softball Confederation .
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The merger of “corporate speak” and baseball
Canadian Baseball Network writer Scott Langdon discusses the merger of “corporate speak” and baseball with Canadian National Women’s general manager Andre Lachance.
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Record number of Canadian pro umpires
Ian Lamplugh umpired his last MLB game almost two decades ago, but he still remembers spring training as the best time of the year for a professional umpire. Canada’s current record crop of nine professional baseball umpires agrees with him, but much has changed with the passage of time.
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Canada’s pro, amateur umpires are bonding
Amateur umpire Bobby Pepall had a question about tracking outs as a base umpire. He reached out to Canada’s growing roster of professional baseball umpires for an answer. This is one example of an “umpires’ bond” being formed following the creation of the Canadian Baseball Umpire Camps (CBUC) last year.
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A Canadian umpire’s Dominican Winter League adventure
Brampton, Ont., native Chris Graham was one of four umpires chosen to officiate the final game of the Dominican Winter League. It was just the latest gig in his 11-year professional umpiring odyssey.
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