With the 2013 baseball season right around the corner Baseball.ca will visit with each of the 10 Provincial organizations during a 10 week period. This week we meet with Saskatchewan Baseball Executive Director, Mike Ramage.
People in Saskatchewan are just waiting for the snow to melt, after a long winter, before breaking out the bats, balls and gloves for the wonderful tradition of summer baseball on the prairies.
“We’re still under a heavy blanket of snow as this winter does not seem to want to go away,” said Sask Baseball Executive Director, Mike Ramage.
Once the snow finally does melt and players and coaches take the field, a great summer of baseball is ahead for returning players and coaches, while new players will be experiencing the excitement of the game for the first time.
“Children at the grassroots level can expect to become involved with some excellent programs provided by Baseball Canada such as Rally Cap, My First Pitch and Winterball,” explained Ramage. “The parents will see how these programs have improved from when they would have been involved (in baseball) and will keep their children interested in our great game of baseball for many more years to come.”
Rally Cap has been around for 7 years now and is picking up steam across the nation with more and more associations implementing the program in their development systems.
Saskatchewan Baseball’s Rally Cap program has grown immensely through the years and now has Subway ® on board as a provincial sponsor of the program.
“Saskatchewan Baseball is very pleased that Subway ® has stepped up to the plate to become the title sponsor of our Rally Cap Program,” added Ramage. “This (partnership) will enable us to purchase more Rally Caps and get many more communities involved in Rally Cap.
“We are getting great feedback from our membership on the Rally Cap Program.”
Some exciting baseball events to look forward to are coming to Saskatchewan this summer highlighted by the return of the Toronto Blue Jays Honda Super Camp which makes its way to Saskatoon June 24th-26th. Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar is scheduled to be one of the guest instructors along with his father, Sandy Alomar Sr., while Brian McCrae and Duane Ward will also be on hand as instructors.
For those wishing to sign up, Ramage suggests to do so quickly as the 2012 camp had the second highest participant number in the country.
For registration information, please click HERE.
Although Saskatchewan will not host any of Baseball Canada’s National Championships in 2013, there will be some high profile championships played in the province as Swift Current will host the AA Minor Western Canada Baseball Championships from August 15-18 which includes 13U (Pee Wee), 15U (Bantam) and 18U (Midget) teams from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Regina will also play host to the 21U (Junior) AAA Western Canada Baseball Championship from August 8th-11th where teams from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba will participate.
Something that Ramage is excited about in 2013 is the revival of a provincial Women’s baseball program in 2013.
“Sask Baseball will be working diligently to resurrect our Girls/Women’s Baseball Program once again as it was a few years ago when we had so much success at the 16U (Bantam) Girls Championships,” he explained. “We will start by trying to secure a team to enter the 2013 Senior Women’s Invitational in Granby, QC July 11-14.
To cap things off, five lucky youngsters from Saskatchewan will travel to Fukui, Japan August 18th-26th to attend the World Children’s Baseball Fair and gain an experience of a lifetime as they meet and make friends with children from around the world through the common bond of baseball.
The five lucky individuals include Zander Oudie-Senger, Riley Skarbon, Davis Wright, Brady Deobald and Kyle Froehlich, and will be joined by Sask Baseball President Brian Trollope as chaperone.
To find out more about Sask Baseball, please visit www.saskbaseball.ca
