RSN Alberta - Watch Party Schedule Released

The Acting Lieutenant-Governor of Red Sox Nation Alberta has planned monthly watch parties for local Red Sox fans.  I have posted a copy on a page on the right for easy reference.

April RSN watch party

There is one scheduled each month until September, and hopefully we will have reason to add one in October as well.  

Talent ID camps rescheduled

The talent ID camps previously posted for 16/17 year olds for Canada Cup, and for 13-15 for the Alberta Zone Championship and Western Canada Summer Games that had been postponed have now been rescheduled:

Medicine Hat - Sunday, May 1st - 4:00pm - Athletic Field

Lethbridge - Monday, May 2nd - 5:30pm - Spitz Stadium

Albertans lead Junior National Team to win

Jake Hansen of Fort MacLeod threw 3 shutout innings, while Jordan Procyshen of Calgary and Brendan Hendriks of Cochrane helped the offence as the Junior National Team defeated the Washington Nationals 
extended spring team 7-4.


The team has 2 games left, tomorrow and Friday against the Tigers and Astros before returning home on the weekend.  They will then be back in action from May 18th to May 26th in the Dominican Summer League.

Wanna be a better ballplayer?

This blog serves many purposes, among them a place for young baseball players in the Province to go to learn about the different options they have.    On that note, I was recently contacted by the creator of a blog that is geared specifically for ball players wanting to learn about the next level.  That blog is a great resource for players wanting to know about the college recruitment process and has some excellent tips on what scouts look for.  The majority of the content is interviews with big league players and top college coaches. There is a lot of info that will help aspiring ballplayers get better. The college coaches talk about what they look for when scouting HS players and other things they can do to stand out.   There is also a  "Recruiting Corner" section for high school players to learn more about the college baseball recruiting process.  Whether you are a coach, a parent, or a player, I strongly encourage you to head over and check it out and help your player/son/self get any advantage he can to make it to the next level.

Should Daisuke or Should He Go

I should have asked this question before the Blue Jays came to town. I had predicted the Sox would break out of their funk, but didn't foresee the positive effect it would have on Mr. Matsuzaka.

I was going to add a poll here, but I know what the results would say. I strongly suspect that the results would have been different a week ago.

I have always been a big believer in Dice-K, and even coming into this season still thought he was the 3rd best pitcher on this staff, and if not a true ace, certainly a very strong #2. Lester and Beckett are proven aces, we know what Lackey can do, and it's just Buchholz that I'm concerned about. Clay had a great season in 2010, but his results were largely due to what statisticians with PhDs in advanced statistical analysis refer to as "luck". I said at the start of the season that Dice would have a better season than Buchholz, and hope he does due to him continuing to pitch like he has the last couple of starts rather than Clay underperforming.

Jose Canseco

I posted yesterday on my Red Sox blog that Jose Canseco was going to be player manager for an NABL team that will be playing in Edmonton and Calgary.   In retrospect it probably made more sense to post that on this blog.   Whatever.   Read the details here.

The Boston Jed Sox

Flashback to the last playoff Series the Red Sox won.  The year was 2008. We were defending World Series champions, and facing the California , I mean Anaheim, I mean  Los Angeles Anaheim Angels of Anaheim which is near Los Angeles in California Angels or whatever they call themselves.   In the bottom of the 9th inning in a series clinching game which was tied, we had Canadian Jason Bay on second base, and Jed Lowrie at bat with 2 outs.   He hit a ground ball that went between 1st and 2nd and drove in Jason Bay (he's Canadian, eh) with the Series winning run.
This was a nice moment for the young 24 year old.  It was his first year in the majors where he had hit a mediocre .258 with little power, and played a passable shortstop and decent third base in the 69 games he started.  But he was never going to be confused for Ted Williams at the plate, or an in their prime Nomar or Lowell defensively on the left side of the infield.


After an injury plagued 2009 season in which he only batted .147 and a 2010 season that only started in late July after a bout with mononucleosis, nobody would blame you if you thought that the playoff series walk-off hit would be the highlight of his career.

Thank you, Toronto!

As I mentioned earlier, good things happen when we play the Blue Jays.  Not only are we now on a 3 game winning streak (after having only 2 wins in the first 11 games), but some individual players have broken out too.  Most importantly, was Dice-K going from being on the edge of Sayonara, to looking like a Cy Young candidate with his 7 IP, 0R, 1 BB, 1 H performance today.  As well, even though Youks had been getting on base, he wasn't showing any power, and a couple of home runs against the Jays has hopefully helped him break out of his hitting slump.  Jed Lowrie is hitting the ball like an MVP candidate, instead of a backup middle infielder.

Talent ID camps

I had previously posted a schedule of Canada Cup ID camps for 16/17 years olds.

At the same times and locations, the Talent ID camps will be held for 13-15 year olds interested in trying out for the Alberta Zone Championship and the Western Canada Summer Games.  Please look here for registration and other information.

Due to the recent poor weather in the southern part of our province, the first camps have had to be postponed.
Please look at the Alberta Amateur Baseball Council's website for updates on rescheduling.

Date	City	Time	Location	Contact
Postponed	Medicine Hat		Athletic Park	Lovell McDonnel
Postponed	Lethbridge		Spitz Stadium	Aaron Lavorato
May 6th	Calgary	6:00pm	Optimist Park	Miki Kawahara
May 9th	Calgary	5:30pm	Inland Park	Matt McLane
May 10th	Okotoks	5:30pm	Seaman Stadium	Brett Thomas
May 16th	Sherwood Park	5:30pm	Heights Park	Curtis Denney
May 17th	Red Deer	5:30pm	Edgar Park	Terry Letkeman
May 24th	Edmonton	5:30pm	Callingwood Park	Dan Rude
May 31st	St. Albert	5:30pm	Legion Memorial	Ed Ewasiuk
June 2nd	Grande Prairie	5:30pm	Evergreen Park	Mona Turner
June 6th	Ft. McMurray	5:30pm	Ron Morgan Park	Paul McWilliams
June 7th	Elk Point	6:30pm	Basset Field	Lorn Berg

Don't Listen to David Lee Roth

I hear that there is a long wait time on the Tobin Bridge (if you're in Boston), and if you are in my home province, well, good luck finding a bridge. We're sort of landlocked here.

And besides, the Blue Jays coming to town is just what the doctor ordered!

On straws, camels, and assigning blame to a loss

Last week, after a 1-0 loss to the Indians,  I heard a few fans complaining that we lost the game because of Darnell McDonald's baserunning blunder.   Others blamed the umpire for calling him out when he was "clearly" safe.  There's more here about why blaming an umpire for a loss is never very astute.  But I want to touch on why blaming one player, or one play is also a sign that you probably should be watching hockey instead, because baseball is obviously way too complicated for you.

Former Red Sox Jose Canseco to play/manage in Alberta

I'll admit the headline might be a bit stretch.  Jose Canseco is remembered as a lot of things, but "former Red Sox" is not usually the first thing to come to mind. And he won't be managing an Alberta team.

But Jose Canseco has signed on to be a player/manager of the Yuma (Arizona) Scorpions.  They play in the North American Baseball League along with our home province Calgary Vipers and Edmonton Capitals, so we should see him in the dugout and maybe even playing 1st base, or DHing when the Scorpions visit our province.

He will make his first visit when the Capitals host Yuma from June 24th to 26th in Edmonton, and then go on to Calgary to play the Vipers 29th to July 2nd.  If you miss these series, he will return to Calgary August 18th to 21st.


Get your Jose Canseco Autographed Oakland A's White Majestic Jersey Inscribed "88 AL MVP", by clicking on the jersey on the left.

Albertans in MLB

There are 16 Canadian players on opening day rosters.  From new household names such as defending MVP Joey Votto to those who were around BEFORE the Blue Jays had won a World Series (Matt Stairs).  And these players come from coast to coast, but not a single one of these is from Alberta.  Hopefully this will change in the next few seasons, as the Canadian Baseball Network has released its annual list of Canadians playing college ball, and there are 74 Albertan baseball players on the rosters of schools playing college south of the border.
Among the notables are RHP Ryan Thompson, LHP Ryan Kennedy and 3B Jesse Sawyer who are all on the

Red Sox Nation Alberta - Watch Party

To all Red Sox fans in Alberta...

Our very own Marc David of Calgary has been named Acting RSN Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta. He has set up a Red Sox Nation Alberta Facebook group which I encourage all fans to follow.

There will be occasional events posted there. The first one is a Blue Jays vs. Red Sox watch party at the Melrose cafe in Calgary. This will be the VERY FIRST Red Sox Nation INTERNATIONAL EVENT!!! Come on out and be a part of it.

For more info you can contact Marc David directly at abgov@redsoxnation.com

(By the way... reminder to any facebook users to also "like" this blog's facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RSN-Alberta-Blog/203620509651224

MUST WIN GAME!

I just did the math.  If we get swept by the Yankees, we will be officially mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.  How can we be eliminated so early, you ask?  Well, we'll be 7 games behind them, with only 7 to go in the 16 game schedule, and they'll have the tiebreaker by beating us head-to-head, so... Wait - what's that you say?  We play 162 games?

Ryan Thompson - From the Prairies to dominating the Northeast-10 Conference

Right handed pitcher Ryan Thompson has a future that is much brighter than those rare summer days in Fort McMurray.

Originally from Calgary, he played ball in Fort McMurray before moving to New Hampshire and playing High School baseball at Souhegan High in Amherst.  He then started his College career at UConn with mixed success.  His highlight was pitching a perfect inning of relief in a win at Hartford, but he ended up only appearing in 5 games, and had a 9.53 ERA.  Subsequently he transferred to Franklin Pierce to play for the Ravens of the Northeast-10 Conference in Rindge, NH.   Things have been looking up ever since!

As a newcomer and just a sophomore, he was designated one of the team’s captains which was “a testament to his leadership qualities”, said Ravens  Coach Jayson King, adding that Ryan “ is one of the hardest working guys on our team and is totally dedicated to pitching and our program”.  And the accolades kept coming.  

The sky is falling!

Look up!  The team that was named 2012 World Champions before the season even started is 0-5!  For those of you who are bad at math, that projects to a 0-162 record over the season  So why aren't more people panicking?  Is it because here in Canada most fans are too busy following the last few days of the ice hockey regular season, to notice that baseball has started?