Baseball has been a huge part of Melissa's life since she was a six year old playing t-ball. She still remembers alternating between picking grass in left field and reaching in her back pocket for sunflower seeds, hoping the ball might come her way.The magic of those early days on the diamond never faded and baseball has remained a big part of her life to the ripe old age of 27. She's proud to have written off and on for the Canadian Baseball Network for the past 10 years. She currently resides on the east coast in a community with a few more deer than people. She graduated from the journalism program at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2018, and went on to work for the Brandon Sun as a reporter covering the deadly Alonsa tornado and occasionally covering sports. She has worked for SocialEyes Communications since early 2020 as a content creator. Every player, every coach, every broadcaster and every fan has a story, and she's grateful to be able to share those stories of dedication and love for the beautiful sport with Canadian baseball fans through her writing.

Trevor Fitzpatrick was born in Brampton, Ontario. He is currently a a student at the College of Sports Media. Growing up, he spent nine years as a competitive swimmer but was always an avid fan of the Toronto blue Jays, and his favourite player Roy Halladay. After high school, he studied chemistry for two years before realizing it wasn't for him. This led him to pursuing his lifelong passion of baseball and sports through the lens of a journalist.

Mark Whicker retired on Feb. 1 after a newspaper career of 48 years. For the past 35 years he was the sports columnist at the Orange County (CA) Register. He also wrote columns for the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Bulletin, and covered the 76ers and Phillies for the Bulletin. He worked at the Dallas Times-Herald and the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, his hometown paper. A 1973 graduate of the University of North Carolina, he was twice placed on the top 10 list of the Associated Press Sports Editors, was named Sportswriter of the Year twice in North Carolina and once in Pennsylvania, and is a member of the US Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. He is also a recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for boxing commentary. He lives in Long Beach with his wife Robyn, and has a son, Philip, at the University of Colorado.

Patrick Kennedy, who hails from Kingston, Ont., retired in 2017 after a 30-year stint covering news and sports for the Kingston Whig-Standard. He was a catcher on Kingston all-star clubs in midget, junior and later senior teams, as well as the Edmonton Tigers of the Alberta Major Baseball League, where teammates included future Edmonton Oiler defenceman (Dr.) Randy Gregg. Among his numerous strikeouts were two at the hands of future big-league pitchers, then Chatham midget-aged righthander and future Montreal Expo Bill Atkinson (1971) and in 1976 against then-Alaska Goldpanner and future Baltimore Oriole Mike Boddicker.

Kennedy's bi-monthly column appears in the Whig-Standard and other Postmedia publications. He resides in Kingston with wife Lorraine and young son Joe, youngest of the couple's three children and a righthander with big-league dreams.

Born and raised in Alberta, Ian got his first glimpse of professional baseball from the Medicine Hat Blue Jays of the Pioneer League in the 1980s and 1990s.The odd road trip to Calgary opened his world to the Cannons and the Pacific Coast League. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism & Communications from the University of Regina and returned to Alberta, where he worked as a reporter and editor at the Calgary Sun for a decade.Through the years, a love of baseball remained constant. Despite any failings of players or those involved in the game, Ian considers it the perfect sport and one that is above reproach. It requires no clock, just the best that Mother Nature has to offer and willing competitors.These basic ingredients unlock the poetry that W.P. Kinsella revealed to the world – a reminder of all that once was good and can be again. Ian is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Alberta Dugout Stories.

Born and raised on a farm in southern Alberta, Joe played sandlot baseball and made it all the way to coach-pitch before realizing his dreams of making the big leagues would never come to fruition. Instead, he found interest in all sports, specifically hockey and baseball, through collecting cards and watching what coverage he could get on his three-channel television (before his parents got a satellite dish around 2000). After completing high school in Claresholm, he earned a Broadcast Journalism diploma from Lethbridge College in 2005, then set out on a 15-year radio journey that took him to Lloydminster, Medicine Hat, Calgary, back to Medicine Hat and then to Calgary again from 2010 to 2020. It's there where he met his wife, Erin, who also enjoys heading to the ballpark. They also wouldn't mind if their son, Lochlan, develops a love for the game at some point down the road. Now working in media relations, Joe is also the co-founder of Alberta Dugout Stories, contributing as a writer and podcast host.

Pete grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and is the son of Canadian parents. His dad, Tim, played football for the University of Ottawa and for seven years in the CFL, and his mom, Cynthia, played volleyball at Queen's University. Due to his Canadian heritage (and his dad’s influence), Pete is a lifelong Toronto Blue Jays fan.

While baseball is his favorite sport, Pete’s athletic career led him to walk on to Auburn University’s football team in 2016 as a wide receiver. In 2018, after graduating from Auburn with a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering, he extended his football career for a season with the Edmonton Eskimos, the same team who drafted his dad first overall in 1976.

Currently, Pete lives with his wife, Brooke, in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a software developer and is working towards his M.S. in Analytics from Georgia Tech. While he enjoys conducting baseball analytics projects, the quote from Billy Beane in Moneyball resonates with him: “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”

Born in Montreal in 1953, Jacques fell in love with baseball thanks to his grandfather who was an usher at the Delorimier Downs, the home of the Montreal Royals, the triple-A affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers ...

Throughout his career as an accountant at the Montreal Urban Community, Jacques was involved in amateur ball in Quebec, first at the AA level, then within Baseball Quebec’s midget AAA development network and finally with the Quebec elite junior league, occupying many positions in these leagues.

From the end of the 1990s, Jacques began to follow and write about Quebec players in the pro ranks as well as competing in American universities and colleges. In 2021, this is the 22nd consecutive year he has tracked Quebec athletes playing ball in our neighbors to the South.Born in Montreal in 1953, Jacques fell in love with baseball thanks to his grandfather who was an usher at the Delorimier Downs, the home of the Montreal Royals, the triple-A affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers ...

Throughout his career as an accountant at the Montreal Urban Community, Jacques was involved in amateur ball in Quebec, first at the AA level, then within Baseball Quebec’s midget AAA development network and finally with the Quebec elite junior league, occupying many positions in these leagues.

From the end of the 1990s, Jacques began to follow and write about Quebec players in the pro ranks as well as competing in American universities and colleges. In 2021, this is the 22nd consecutive year he has tracked Quebec athletes playing ball in our neighbors to the South.

Scott is retired and does some freelance writing to keep his mind sharp, with moderate success.

He learned a lot about baseball in west end Toronto when he played for legendary amateur coach, Bob Smyth, known as the mentor of Reds’ star Joey Votto. Smyth taught Scott the intricacies of the sport when, during a Midget game, he strolled half way to home from the third base coach’s box , pointed at the ground and yelled, “Bunt it here.” This might have been the same game when Smyth sent him home for showing up at the park in blue jeans shorts and no shoes. It was the 1960s after all.

Scott’s son, Michael, also played for Smyth with the Etobicoke Rangers. Daughter Katherine didn’t play baseball, but still laughs at the stories.

Scott lives in Toronto sometimes, operated a consulting business for clients across North America, earned a Master’s degree in Communication from Charles Sturt University, Australia and teaches part time at a Toronto university. He thanks Bob Elliott for his patience with punctuation and Bob Smyth for his friendship.

Jonathan Hodgson has been a writer for the CBN since 2009, and brings extensive experience in college baseball.

Jonathan was a ‘day one’ member of the Okotoks Dawgs when the club launched their Western Major Baseball League team in 2003.  Having learned the game from a young age with the team, He became play-by-play voice of the Dawgs in 2008, a position he held through 2015.  During those years, Jonathan also wrote the majority of content for the team’s website, and managed the Dawgs social media accounts.

Jonathan became involved with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013, providing written coverage of that summer’s Honda Super Camp in Okotoks for Bluejays.com.  He worked for the Blue Jays again in 2015, when he covered the Calgary stop on the 2015 Winter Tour.

Jonathan currently works for the Victoria HarbourCats of the West Coast League, providing different forms of written work, including feature articles for the team’s website.  He also acts as a consultant to General Manager Jim Swanson, banking on his experience in summer-collegiate baseball to generate ideas to grow the HarbourCats brand.

Jonathan has also had tenures with the Western Major Baseball League, as website lead reporter, and with Vancouver Island Baseball Institute as communications director.

Jonathan calls Okotoks, Alta home.

Allan Simpson was one of three 2011 inductees into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. He was formally enshrined June 18, 2011 in St. Marys, Ont., and joined by former Blue Jays all-star closer Tom Henke and the late George "Dandy" Wood, a Prince Edward Island native who played in almost 1,300 major-league games in the 19th century. Allan, a native of Kelowna, B.C., is the founder of Baseball America, the most influential baseball publication in the business.

Danny was born in Ted Lindsay’s hometown of Renfrew, Ont. but his roots are in nearby Douglas. He played 27 consecutive seasons of top-level amateur baseball in the senior ranks in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Quebec and thrived on organizing events himself, the major one being the highly successful 1983 Canadian senior men’s tournament in Sudbury. He began covering the Montreal Expos in 1988 when he joined the Montreal Daily News. Later, he was the Expos beat writer for the Ottawa Sun and Associated Press. He has written four books on the Expos, including one en francais. Gallagher can be reached here: dannogallagher@rogers.com.

Dan Estey was born in Fredericton, N.B., began playing in the Fredericton Minor Baseball Association and has played for the past 26 years. He’s appeared on the national stage: as a member of Team New Brunswick at the Baseball Canada Cup in 2000 in Stonewall, Man., was with the Fredericton Royals at the 2001 nationals midgets in Stonewall, and was with Fredericton at the 2003 Junior Nationals in Windsor, Ont. Estey played five years at the University of New Brunswick (2001-2005) winning four Atlantic Conference championships and three medals at the Canadian Intercollegiate Association championships (silver in 2001 in Ottawa, bronze in 2002 in Fredericton and gold in 2003 in Montreal. Moving to Ontario in 2006 he now resides in Mississauga. After playing three years for the Niagara Metros (2008-2010) of the Central Ontario Major League, he is currently learning under skipper Greg Cranker with the Erindale Cardinals (2011-present) of the same loop. He enjoys golfing and reading in my down time and run the website for the Central Ontario Major League, follows senior ball around the province of Ontario. This year he wrote about senior related topics and plan on doing more of the same next year in a larger capacity.

Adam Morissette was born and raised in Ottawa, Ont. where sports were always a big part of his life whether it be baseball, hockey or football, including playing two seasons as centre for coach Pat Sheahan with the Queen's University Golden Gaels in Kingston -- Canada's first capital. Morissette has always have been passionate about baseball and has fond memories of attending Montreal Expos games with his father, Mike, and listening to his recollection of watching baseball in Montreal at Jarry Park and stories about Gary Carter, Rusty Staub and Steve Rodgers. Morissette could often be found in a near empty Lynx Stadium watching Joe Siddall, Bert Heffernan, Curtis Pride and Jamie Carroll soaking in a beautiful summer night at the ballpark. He was a member of the provincial championship Orleans Red Sox Little League teams also played with the Ottawa White Sox for the late Lyle Anderson and Todd Burke in OBA Midget and American Legion play and the Capital City Crushers (NCBL), primarily as a catcher. Has also spent time coaching Little League in Orleans and South Ottawa. He wanted to turn his passion into a career and enrolled in Sport Business Management at Algonquin College in Ottawa in 2007. After working for the Ottawa 67's OHL team as the Ticket Coordinator, Morissette jumped at the opportunity to become the Media and Public Relations Coordinator with Baseball Canada in 2010. He loves watching and reading about pro, college or amateur baseball and is a long-time subscriber to Baseball America. Morissette is thrilled about the idea of writing about baseball and is interested in covering any story that his car -- and time -- will allow him to cover. If anyone would like to contact him, he can be reached here with any story ideas or suggestions.

Neil is a retired secondary school mathematics teacher with a life-long passion for the collection and analysis of baseball statistics. A North Bay Ontario resident for almost 50 years, Neil has fuelled his interest by serving as a research consultant with STATS Inc. He was the former chair of the Records Committee of SABR – the Society for American Baseball Research. Neil assisted in the development of the complete statistical database of baseball records that is used by a number of pro and media organizations and formed the basis for the STATS Inc. All-time Major League Handbook. He has contributed innumerable essays and columns to a variety of publications including; the Bill James Baseball Abstract, Grandstand Baseball Annual and Innings, and Canada’s Baseball Newspaper. Neil’s special interest continues to be the maintenance of the records compiled by Canadians in the major league. In 1996, he authored the Canadian Players Encyclopedia, a full statistical record of all current and former major leaguers from Canada.

Devon is the founder of The GM's Perspective. Devon is an author for the Business of Sports Network, which includes the Biz of Baseball, the Biz of Football, the Biz of Basketball and the Biz of Hockey. He is also a contributor to the Canadian Baseball Network. Devon is a Demand Media Studios writer, featured writer on Examiner.com, member of the Yarbarker Network, and is an Associate Member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada. Devon is a former professional baseball player with the River City Rascals and Gateway Grizzlies. He has continued to further his knowledge by completing Sports Management Worldwide's Baseball General Manager Class and interning with The Football outsiders. Currently, Devon is a Branch manager at a financial institution in Southern Ontario, Canada.