By JOE McFARLAND & IAN WILSON
Jamie Campbell has seen a lot of baseball, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
As the host of Blue Jays Central on Sportsnet, the broadcaster takes in a lot of matchups involving Major League Baseball’s team in Toronto, but he also makes an effort to attend games at all levels across Canada.
Case in point, Campbell and his youngest son made a trip to Alberta in 2024 to check out Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) action at three different ballparks.
The Ontario native is also a baseball advocate, who spends significant time at fundraising events around the nation. On March 15th, Campbell and former MLB pitcher John Axford will be in Saskatchewan for a sports dinner in support of the Weyburn Beavers.
Campbell made time for Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast recently to discuss his travels. Here’s what he had to say during the Q&A session with host Joe McFarland:
Last time you were on the podcast we were in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and you discussed the phone calls that you made to baseball fans across Canada. What was that experience like?
It was such a privilege and such a joy and I still do it to this day … there’s a need to serve the people in their golden years in this country – sometimes a voice on the other end of the line is soothing and comforting.
You were able to take a trip to Alberta last summer – in the middle of the Blue Jays season – to attend WCBL games. It seems you cannot get enough of baseball. What was that trip like?
You’ve got to understand, I was a bit weird as a child. When I was able, around the age of 14 I want to say, I think the year was 1982 specifically. My parents somehow, some way approved my decision to get out of school early, or if it was summertime, leave whenever I needed to, to walk half an hour to a train station and take a half-an-hour train ride into downtown Toronto – as a 14 and 15 year old kid by myself – to hang around hotels in downtown Toronto and wait for visiting ball players to come down and board their bus for Exhibition Stadium, so going to baseball, even while working in baseball, is not necessarily a surprising thing for me. I spent oodles and oodles of time at Exhibition Stadium watching games by myself, probably 25 to 30 a year during that stretch and they were not a competitive team back then. I have upwards of 2,500 autographed baseball cards in my basement to prove that I was a pretty serious fan.
So, getting on a plane with my youngest son and flying to Medicine Hat and then driving to Sylvan Lake and then driving down to Okotoks, which is what we did over the course of four days, was not surprising at all. My youngest son does not enjoy baseball but loved the trip for some reason and would like to do it again, so I am officially hooked on the WCBL and that league has a fan for life … I have been watching from afar for so long that I thought at some point I’ve got to find the time to see this for myself.
I think because in the last several years I’ve really sort of expanded my reach a little bit here in Ontario, where we have the Intercounty League, for example, and one of my favourite teams in our Intercounty League is called the Welland Jackfish. They play out of a stadium that used to have a minor-league team for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the gameday experience was unparalleled when we discovered it. It’s worth driving along the QEW, through Hamilton, down to St. Catharines and then weaving your way to Welland to see this. It’s a beautiful ballpark. The baseball is wonderful. The beer is always cold. The seats aren’t expensive.
And I started thinking, there are probably ballparks and leagues and teams like this across this country and I need to see as many of them as I can, so I knew of the WCBL for years and at the time that I really planted the idea, the Okotoks Dawgs were a bit of a national story because of, not only the success on the field, but the number of people that were showing up at Seaman Stadium. And I just thought, okay, well, let’s start there. Let’s go to southern Alberta first. I’d seen photographs of the stadium in Medicine Hat and thought, my goodness that’s beautiful, let’s make that a destination and then I heard these great stories about the Sylvan Lake Gulls and then, okay, well we’ve got to make the drive up there, too, and it turned into something wonderful. And now I’m scheming about how the summer of 2025 is going to unfold, because I do have a little bit of time in between Blue Jay games. I haven’t made a definitive plan but I’ve got some ideas.
Did the big names who came through Athletic Park – Lloyd Moseby, David Wells, Jimmy Key, Pat Borders, etc. – go through your mind while you were in Medicine Hat?
It did, it absolutely did. Even back when Medicine Hat and Lethbridge had minor league teams, I wasn’t as tuned in. It’s funny how in modern day we’re so tuned in, if you love the Blue Jays, into every level of their minor league system and you know who the kids are when they show up and who’s coming through the system and who’s dropped off as a prospect. I wish it was a little more available, that kind of information, when I was younger but chances are if I had known that in the ’80s, I would’ve jumped on a plane and come to Medicine Hat then, but of course I didn’t have the income at that time.
I thought deeply about that when we went to Medicine Hat, for sure. The experience of being there as a local would be so interesting because it’s available to you throughout the summer, right? It’s the best part about baseball, is that you don’t have to go and you don’t have to watch but it’s there if you need it and it’s there most nights. If the sun is shining and the weather’s nice and some of your friends are there, it’s an unforgettable experience.
Walk us through your trip. What was it like?
The stadium experience in each venue that I went to – Medicine Hat, Sylvan Lake and Okotoks – was exquisite. Let’s explore that idea. I’ve been to a lot of rundown places to see baseball. None of these places are rundown, they’re majestic and beautiful. And the one in Sylvan Lake is kind of out in a field. It literally feels like you’re driving to the field that they cut in the cornfields for the movie Field of Dreams, it really does. You’re in line behind a bunch of pickup trucks and there’s dirt and dust flying all over the place and then you pull up to the stadium and it’s just heavenly.
Secondly, the level of play, because the participants are young and they’re not finished their professional careers, you see a lot of older players here locally in the Intercounty League whose shot at pro baseball has come to a close but they still want to play the game, you know … in the WCBL it’s a little bit different in that these kids still have a chance to rise through affiliated baseball. The fun thing about being in Sylvan Lake for us is that it was days before the major league draft and one of the Gulls star players was Nathan Flewelling. I ran into his parents the moment we walked into the hotel in Red Deer and it was just so neat to watch him days before he was ultimately drafted in the third round by the Tampa Bay Rays because that journey for him is just beginning. That’s probably one of the reasons why the level of baseball was so good.
How important is it for people to see that you can make it from playing in the WCBL to playing in Major League Baseball?
It’s critically important, especially when you consider it’s not just Canadian kids that get this opportunity. I’m thinking of Andrew Kittredge, whose had a reasonably successful major-league career and who pitched in Okotoks at one point. He needed a place to showcase his game in the summer and not everybody gets invited to the Cape Cod League, so that place for him was Alberta. It’s incredible how the opportunity that a league like this can provide is a really important aspect of the journey that they can take to professional baseball and, if they’re lucky, to the major leagues. But beyond that, the life experience. You think about these kids that come from Florida or California or anywhere in the southern States and they’re playing summer league ball in Weyburn or Saskatoon or Fort McMurray. What an incredible life experience that must be, one that they can take back and explain to their friends and family that it was a joyous time in my life.
What did you think about the Saskatoon Berries and their introduction to the Western Canadian Baseball League?
I hate to bring hockey into the conversation, but from a success standpoint they were also like the Vegas Golden Knights when they were introduced to the NHL and suddenly became an immediate contender. I’ve been by that stadium many, many times. I do a fundraiser for the Kinsmen Club almost every winter in Saskatoon and the venue looks terrific, and I hear from people every time I go there about how much satisfaction they get out of attending a Berries game.
I can’t deny that it’s on my radar for the summer of 2025. I would like to get out to the league further west and see teams out in Victoria and Nanaimo, as well, which is also a possibility. And then I’m investigating maybe doing something on the East Coast, as well. There’s baseball all over this country and it’s not hard to find if you look for it.
You have a trip planned to Saskatchewan for a Weyburn Beavers fundraiser on March 15th. How important is it to you to be spreading the baseball gospel across Canada?
Spreading the gospel is important, but also ensuring that the revenues are in place for these teams to continue to function. I know, having connected now with the club in Weyburn, that they’re having a fundraiser to help ensure that they have the revenue to be able to not only operate but assist in sort of the local development of facilities and young players.
Any chance I get to help an organization develop in that respect, you know, and I know some of these fundraisers that we’re doing some of the money generated goes into improving the existing facilities, I’ll do that if I have the time, I’ll do it. I just feel so strongly about the growth of baseball in Canada, in every province, at every level, whether it’s Challenger Baseball. I was reading today about registration today in Manitoba for Challenger Baseball, which is close to my heart as well. I’ll do whatever I can. I don’t have all the free time in the world and I am dealing with leukemia and I’m still raising two young men but, every chance I get, when somebody reaches out and they need my assistance to present this game, in some fashion, to a community I do the best I can to assist.
How much has leukemia shaped your outlook on life?
I always had this really rosy outlook on life, from the time I was a teenager. I made a point, even then, and I even remember a very specific instance when I was 17 years old, just having a conversation with myself, if you can believe this, and saying, ‘Hey, there’s no guarantee that you survive beyond tomorrow, so enjoy whatever comes and make sure you see it, smell it, feel it and relish it.’ I already had that mindset when I was diagnosed in January of 2021 with what’s called CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Now, I’m very lucky because my leukemia is treatable. It’s not curable but it’s treatable and I’m in treatment as we speak and that treatment is fantastic and it’s keeping me alive.
It altered my perspective a little bit in that I see things differently. I’ll never forget the first walk I went on with my two sons in the days that followed my diagnosis, and I’d gone on walks with my sons hundreds of times before and this one just felt different. It looked different and it felt different. I can’t explain it. I guess you’d have to receive the kind of diagnosis I did to understand it. Sometimes people, and I’ve heard others say this, sometimes people say that getting a diagnosis like this can be a bit of a blessing because it wakes them up to what they weren’t seeing. The beauty for me is that I’m seeing so much more of my existence now. I literally take the first sip of my coffee in the morning and I taste it and I relish it and it’s not just something that I consider a given every day. It’s something that I cherish. It’s the simple things. It’s the smiles and the conversations that you have with people day to day, even people I don’t even know very well. I just see those things so much more than I ever did.
And I’m so grateful to work in the field of baseball because baseball is kind of built on that when you think about it. Baseball was built on, hey, we’re having a game today, that’s why it was called America’s pastime. Over a hundred years ago it was just something that brought a community together. We’re having a game down at the local park, everybody’s welcome to come. Bring your kids, bring your friends and that’s how conversations and ideas were formed at the ballpark. And then it became a serious, professional game and the major leagues got involved and all that stuff, and I get that. But it is called a pastime for a reason. I almost feel like I got myself committed to the perfect sport for the kind of person I am and that is engaging, conversational and respectful of anybody who wants to show up to a ballpark on any given day.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t talk some Blue Jays. What intrigues you the most about the 2025 edition of the Toronto Blue Jays?
It’s not going to be boring. I called my broadcast partner, Joe Siddall, the other day and I said, ‘Hey, at least it won’t be boring, right?’ Let’s be honest, a lot of people are upset about the fact that the star of the Toronto Blue Jays, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is still at this moment unsigned. We live in the era of social media, where people can voice those concerns publicly, unlike say 30 years ago, and if you really had an issue with an organization you had to write a letter or leave a voicemail. Now we’re more aware of the frustration of the fan base and it’s totally, totally understandable.
In the time that has elapsed since 2016, the Blue Jays have made the postseason and not actually won a game in the postseason. The feeling is that there’s a window of opportunity coming to a close that involves the prime years of not only Guerrero Jr. but Bo Bichette. So, where does that leave us? I’m one who believes that if all goes right and this team goes off, and produces at such a high level, and Guerrero Jr. is doing the kind of things he did a year ago, and Bo Bichette rebounds to be the All-Star that he is, and Santander has a reasonably comparable year to the one he had last year and the pitching is excellent, and suddenly the Blue Jays are contending again and the Rogers Centre is filling up again. Who’s to say Rogers doesn’t go to Guerrero Jr.’s agent – not the player himself – and says, ‘Hey look, let’s do this. When the season’s over, regardless of how it pans out, go out on the market and when you get your number one offer from a team, come back to us and we’ll match it and/or top it.’ I know this so-called deadline has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean an agreement can’t be reached. In fact, I think the New York Yankees a couple of years back actually let Aaron Judge go to free agency, too, and they were able to convince him to come back with a whole truck load of money, so it’s not like it hasn’t been done before. I just say, hey listen, enjoy the season, let’s hope for better things than what we saw last year. I know the Blue Jays have money to spend, maybe they end up spending it on the two guys they’ve brought through their system since about 2015.
Vlad going in with no extension, but fired up because he knows he can get paid if he goes off, this is potentially a very good thing for the Jays – and they’re going in as a bit of an underdog, as well.
They are because the division itself is seemingly twice as good as it was a year ago. The Yankees might’ve looked a little off in the World Series but they still got to the World Series. For the most part, that roster remains intact, with the additions of guys like Max Fried, for example. The Red Sox seem to have gotten better. They went out and got (Garrett) Crochet and signed Alex Bregman. Suddenly Boston is a better team than they were a year ago. Baltimore isn’t going anywhere and Baltimore’s wonderful young core, despite the playoff failures in the last two years, is still probably, from a roster perspective, the best in the division. So, there’s three teams that the Blue Jays would have to skip past and then for some reason the Tampa Bay Rays are a horror show when it comes to facing Toronto every single year since they changed their name from Devil Ray to Ray and who knows how it’s going to unfold?
I would recommend people just enjoy it and ticket buyers have every right to not buy tickets if they don’t like the product. I totally understand it. You might see that, but I will say this, I was at every home game last year and there was a point in the season in late July when you knew the club was not going to make the postseason and, oddly, the attendance figures got bigger. By late July and all through August, I’d look around most nights and I’d see 30,000 to 35,000 people in the stands. What I think I saw was, okay, so they’re not going to the postseason, but it’s still a ball game and it’s still a joy to make your way down to the stadium on a beautiful Toronto night and see a baseball game being played. That’s sort of the essence of what baseball has been. It’s like me going to Alberta for four or five days to see games from teams that I don’t know well at all, but the experience is wonderful. I know it’s difficult but when you’re spending the kind of dollars that you are on Major League Baseball tickets, I understand that, but in the city that I live in here, they showed up and I’m guessing they might do that again this year.
Last question for you and it’s the one we ask everyone: what does the game of baseball mean to you?
I have really strong, strong memories of my first time at a Major League Baseball game. The Blue Jays had arrived in 1977. My dad took me to a game in April of that year that was rained out. We went to the stadium anyway, even though it was pouring. I came through the tunnel at the old stadium and down on the field there was only one player out there and it was Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox running laps in the rain. Dad said to me, ‘We’re probably going to have to leave at some point and go home.’ And I said, ‘Just give me a second,’ and I ran down to the Blue Jays dugout, looked in and the only player I could see in there had been the hero from the opening day, a man by the name of Doug Ault and I called him over and he autographed my glove. I was nine years old and that memory is so fresh in my mind, as was pretty much every major league experience that I’ve had since.
So, what does the game mean to me? It kind of defines who I am in the weirdest way. It’s been an element of my life that is and always will be cherished because it has brought me such joy.
You know, I was at Wrigley Field this past summer drinking beer with eldest son, even though – I freely admit this – at the time my eldest son was only 18 years of age, so slightly under the legal authority in the United States to consume a beer. But I said too bad, I’m going down to the concessions, I’ll be back in five minutes and I came back with a couple of beers and that was a moment with him that I will never forget and a baseball game gave me that moment. Maybe that’s how to summarize it best is what a gift the game has given someone like me and hopefully people who are watching and/or listening to this podcast are deriving the same kind of joy from the game.
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