A Season to Remember… or not

Tales from the Doug-Out: May 11th, 2020

Somehow Mother’s Day this past weekend was a little different than many years in the past. Not surprising, with COVID-19 of course it did. For a lot of reasons it really had a lot more meaning to it. Most people seem to have grown closer to their families. Some of them have no choice being as they’re together almost 24/7. Our own son Jordan and daughter Jena and the eight grandkids didn’t get to hug their gramma this year like they normally would. They made do with video chat, which I’m sure you’ll all thinking is not the same.

The other thing that seemed different for myself, was the fact that for many years on Mothers Day I would be on the road with the Elk Point Sox. We would be playing baseball somewhere and I would be with the team. Some years we would be actually playing at our own home diamond hosting so I would be home for supper.

Baseball, in the past, started the beginning of May and it’s seemed like on the second weekend in May, Mother’s Day that’s where I would be. At the ball diamond. Call my mom in Ontario to wish a happy Mothers Day from the ball diamond. Call or text my wife Donna and do the same.

On Fathers Day, the third Sunday in June I would be at the ball diamond too, as far as that goes. But, of course Fathers Day is supposed to be for us men to do something that makes you happy. To be honest if I was at the ball diamond I was at my happy place.

This year I was really looking forward to spend time watching and helping out with our own grandkids ball teams. The two left handed girls from Bonnyville, 8 year old Farrah and 7 year old Vienna would be in rookie or mite ball and have been talking about playing ball all this past winter. I take them out to our batting cage when they come for a visit and do batting practice with them. Usually they can last for about an hour and then we go for a treat. Their older brother 14 year old Phoenix is in bantam baseball and played with the Bonnyville Braves house league team. I traveled with him a lot last year and really enjoyed the games. A few times I even helped out in the dug out. We always found a Dairy Queen or a MacDonald’s after the game for ice cream. His team won the tier two Lakeland League championship last June.

Our son Jordan in Camrose was named head coach of their AA Mosquitoes provincial team and his son Bode was going to start playing his first year of player pitch. I was really excited for them and for sure would have went to some, if not all, of their provincial round robin games.

For the first time in many years Elk Point would have had a AA Midget Provincial team. Head Coach Tyler Warawa has been coaching the same boys for the last six years and now they are old enough to be playing on the Bassett Field. Last year coaches Corey McLean and Dean Rogal formed a single A provincial team in late June that won a gold medal at the provincials in Chestermere. Some of the boys on that team that were still of age would join with Tyler’s group.

But it’s not going to happen this year. It’s official now. The Baseball Alberta season was axed last Friday. The board of Baseball Alberta which I am part of really had no choice but to call off the season.

Baseball Alberta’s decision on the 2020 season

Baseball Alberta’s Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to cancel ALL in-person Baseball Alberta sanctioned events and activities until September 1, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the current Provincial Health orders and restrictions in place, such as social distancing, gathering limits and limitations on non-essential travel along with numerous municipal closures, we deemed this to be the best course of action to ensure the safety of our membership. The health and safety of our athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers and fans were our main priorities in arriving at this difficult decision.

“Although this decision will be disappointing to baseball families across Alberta, we felt it was important to provide guidance to our members in these uncertain times. With the warmer weather upon us, we would like nothing more than to be out playing baseball, however the reality is that at this time it is not safe to do so. We must respect the orders and restrictions that have been put in place in our province by our Chief Medical Officer of Health and her team” said Baseball Alberta Vice President Jon Oko.

This is a very fluid situation and is subject to change as new information becomes available. Baseball Alberta is currently developing return-to-train protocols to allow for the resumption of in-person baseball activities once it is deemed safe to do so.

 

K.A. Campbell quote of the week. ” Before deciding to retire, stay home for a week and watch the daytime TV shows.’ – Bill Copeland