By IAN WILSON
The questions start now.
Will the Okotoks Dawgs claim the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) championship and three-peat for the second time in franchise history?
How will the expansion Saskatoon Berries look on the field after an off-season of marketing and promotional success?
Can the Sylvan Lake Gulls remain near the top of the standings despite the loss of 2023 WCBL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Jonah Weisner and the league’s Most Outstanding Pitcher, Tyler Boudreau?
Will the Moose Jaw Miller Express convert their regular-season prowess into another trip to the championship final like the postseason run they had in 2022?
With a full season under reigning WCBL Coach of the Year Kevin Mitchell, can the Medicine Hat Mavericks claim the East Division playoff crown for a second straight summer?
The Regina Red Sox appeared in the championship finals in 2018 and 2019 but have not won a postseason game since – can they win games that matter in August?
How special of a season will this be for the Lethbridge Bulls, who transformed the league when they joined in 1999 and celebrate their 25th anniversary this year?
Can the experienced coaching staff in Swift Current turn the 57’s around and make them a winner again?
After back-to-back playoff appearances for the Fort McMurray Giants, can the team claim their first postseason victory in 2024?
As work continues on a new stadium in Spruce Grove that will eventually be home to the Edmonton Prospects, how will they perform following their one-year hiatus from WCBL action?
Will the Weyburn Beavers dig their way out of last place in the league?
The Brooks Bombers gained their first postseason experience in 2022 … can they return to playoff form?
Who will claim the major awards at the end of the season, including the regular season and postseason MVP honours and the top pitcher selection? Who will emerge as the best rookie in the WCBL, as well as the circuit’s most inspiring coach?
Batting, pitching and team records have fallen over the last two seasons. Can we expect to see record-breaking performances in 2024? Can a pitcher or a hitter turn in a magical Triple Crown season?
So many questions … and the answers lie ahead.
To get us ready to ponder these questions, let’s look around the WCBL at team previews for each of the league’s 12 squads:
WEST DIVISION
OKOTOKS DAWGS
Let the big Dawg eat.
These are the words that adorn the back of the sign that welcomes fans of the Okotoks Dawgs to Seaman Stadium. They serve as a reminder of the club’s appetite for winning.
And if the last few years are any indication, the Dawgs have been well fed.
Okotoks enters the 2024 season as the back-to-back defending Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) champions and the team has won three of the last four WCBL titles … read more
SYLVAN LAKE GULLS
The Sylvan Lake Gulls are a proven winner on the WCBL circuit.
Over the last two summers, the squad has posted identical regular-season records of 38-18, and since joining the WCBL in 2021 the Gulls have not had a losing record.
Despite that success, Sylvan Lake has yet to overcome the juggernaut Okotoks Dawgs. The Dawgs have bested the Gulls in the standings and in the postseason, eliminating their northern neighbours in the second round in consecutive years. If the Gulls hope to truly take flight, they’ll need to figure out how to defeat Okotoks … read more
LETHBRIDGE BULLS
The Lethbridge Bulls have plenty to celebrate this year.
With 2024 marking the 25th anniversary of the WCBL franchise, the team has a lot planned to promote the ball club and recognize its proud history.
Part of that history includes opening up Alberta to the circuit and setting the league on a path from the Saskatchewan Major Baseball League (SMBL) to the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL), the predecessor of the WCBL. The Bulls will look to convert that trailblazing history into modern-day success this year … read more
FORT McMURRAY GIANTS
The Fort McMurray Giants have turned the corner.
After entering the WCBL as an expansion franchise in 2016, the northern Alberta squad experienced their first .500 season in 2019.
Since then, the Giants have qualified for the postseason in consecutive seasons. Fort McMurray suffered a pair of first-round sweeps in both of those playoffs – one at the hands of the Sylvan Lake Gulls, followed by another courtesy of the Okotoks Dawgs last summer.
A playoff victory remains on the franchise firsts list for the Giants, but the team has shown enough in the regular season recently that they have found a way to punch their ticket for meaningful games in August … read more
BROOKS BOMBERS
The Brooks Bombers have had a taste of playoff baseball and now the team and its fans want more.
That taste came in 2022, when the team qualified for the postseason for the first time in franchise history.
The Bombers missed out on extra August baseball last year, but the focus will be on getting back to the playoffs in 2024. Can Brooks climb the West Division standings and lockdown a postseason berth? … read more
EDMONTON PROSPECTS
If you build it, they will come.
But you need to have patience, as the Edmonton Prospects have learned over the last few years.
Since the franchise left Re/Max Field in the provincial capital to undertake the construction of Myshak Metro Ballpark in nearby Spruce Grove, the Prospects have had to find a temporary home in Sherwood Park, where they played in 2021, 2022 and at the Centennial Park Diamond No. 9 they’ll call home again this season.
The franchise made the difficult decision to skip the 2023 WCBL season to focus efforts on the new ballpark project, which has experienced delays since it was announced. They return to the league this season, however, and are ready to play ball yet again … read more
EAST DIVISION
MOOSE JAW MILLER EXPRESS
The Moose Jaw Miller Express are coming off back-to-back summers that have seen the team emerge as a force to be reckoned with. In that time, the WCBL East Division champs have won 71 regular-season games and lost only 41 contests.
Despite that success, the Miller Express have not been able to claim a WCBL title. After going to the 2022 final and losing to the Okotoks Dawgs, Moose Jaw bowed out in the second round of the postseason to the Medicine Hat Mavericks last year. They won’t have to wait long to exact revenge against the Mavs, as Moose Jaw plays host to Medicine Hat in their home-opening weekend on May 25-26.
The Millers and their fans hope this year will be different and the club will be able to convert regular-season prowess into the ultimate WCBL playoff reward – a nameplate on the Harry Hallis Memorial Trophy … read more
MEDICINE HAT MAVERICKS
The Mavericks have been a big hit on the field and in the community of Medicine Hat.
After making a run to the WCBL championship final last summer, their playoff push was named the sports story of the year by the Medicine Hat News.
The East Division champs also saw gains at the turnstiles, seeing their total crowds at a recently-renovated Athletic Park grow from 32,986 in 2022 to 35,449 in 2023, resulting in an average attendance of 1,266 per game.
The Mavs will look to build on the momentum they saw during last year’s magical postseason run by turning in a more consistent regular-season record before they gear up for another run at the WCBL title … read more
REGINA RED SOX
The Regina Red Sox are looking to put together a bounce-back season this summer.
After claiming top spot in the East Division of the WCBL in 2022, the Red Sox suffered a first-round playoff loss to the Medicine Hat Mavericks. That postseason exit was followed by a 23-33 record in the 2023 regular season and another opening-round playoff loss to the Mavs.
Regina will set their sights on top spot in the division yet again in 2024, before the club looks to embark on a deep postseason run … read more
SWIFT CURRENT 57’s
Swift Current will look to make a speedy return to the winning ways that 57’s fans have become accustomed to.
After finishing just above the .500 mark in 2022, the WCBL club struggled last summer, picking up just 19 wins in 56 games. It was still a good enough record to qualify for the 2023 postseason, but the Moose Jaw Miller Express swept them out of the playoffs in their best-of-three opening series.
The 57’s have been a championship-calibre squad dating back to their time in the Saskatchewan Major Baseball League (SMBL) in the 1990s. They followed up five SMBL titles that decade with another seven championships in the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL) – the predecessor of the WCBL – since 2000.
Swift Current’s last victory lap with the Harry Hallis Memorial Trophy took place in 2017 under head coach Joe Carnahan, who has since taken on the skipper role with the expansion Saskatoon Berries. Before they talk titles though, the 57’s will need to establish that they are a legitimate playoff team again … read more
WEYBURN BEAVERS
It’s time for the Beavers to start climbing out of their dam hole.
Weyburn has finished in last place in the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) the last two summers after going 14-42 in consecutive seasons.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 WCBL season and abbreviated the 2021 campaign to an all-Alberta edition, the Beavers were able to field a winning team. Weyburn went 33-22 in 2019 and the Beavers led the East Division standings in 2018 with a record of 37 wins and just 11 losses. In those days, you had to look back to 2014 to find Weyburn’s last sub-.500 season.
The franchise was a regular part of the WCBL postseason back then. Their fans are hungry for a return to the playoffs … read more
SASKATOON BERRIES
It’s been a hectic year for the Saskatoon Berries.
Since their arrival in the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) was publicly revealed in March of 2023, Saskatoon has selected a team name, picked club colours, crafted a logo, cultivated a social media following, ordered merchandise, undertaken ballpark renos, sold tickets, added sponsors and generally announced their presence to Saskatchewan’s largest city.
That’s just a hint of the off-the-field activities. The Berries have also been busy putting the roster in place, including an experienced coaching staff and pitchers and hitters from across North America
Fans of the Berries will have a half-dozen hometown players to cheer for, as well as a number of high-end Canadian and American college athletes.
How will the Berries stack up in the East Division standings? Can they challenge the Moose Jaw Miller Express, who were tops in the group during the 2023 regular season? Will they be better than the Medicine Hat Mavericks, who emerged as the East Division representative in last year’s WCBL championship final? … read more
Opening Day for the WCBL is Friday, May 24th with the Brooks Bombers visiting the Okotoks Dawgs at Seaman Stadium, the Moose Jaw Miller Express facing the Beavers at Weyburn’s Tom Laing Park, and the Edmonton Prospects squaring off against the Giants at Legacy Dodge Field in Fort McMurray. All game times are set for 7:05 p.m.
Tales of Baseball 