Successful hosting of championship baseball

Posted on: Staff Writer

From edition: August 23 2019 Strathmore Times

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

The 2019 Western Canada AA Minor Baseball Championship was held in Strathmore and Cheadle Aug. 16-18. Hosted by the Strathmore & District Minor Ball Association and Strathmore Reds baseball teams, the tournament included teams in the U13, U15 and U18 divisions from the four western provinces. Doug Taylor Photo

The 2019 Western Canada AA Minor Baseball Championship was held in Strathmore and Cheadle Aug. 16-18. Hosted by the Strathmore & District Minor Ball Association and Strathmore Reds baseball teams, the tournament included teams in the U13, U15 and U18 divisions from the four western provinces.
Doug Taylor Photo
Strathmore held the prestigious AA Minor Western Canada Baseball Championship on Aug. 16-18 with games at the Kinsmen Park diamond, Strathmore ag grounds diamond and the Fair Field Cheadle Lions diamond.
The event was hosted by the Strathmore Reds and included participating provincial winners from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in U13, U15 and U18 divisions.
This year’s westerns marked the first major baseball event held in Strathmore in 30 years – since the completion of the ag diamonds where the Beaver National Championships were hosted in 1989.
“It was an excellent, fantastic weekend. It’s a great opportunity and showcased our facilities,” said Don Anderson, tournament chairman.
Heavy rain on Friday resulted in delayed play until the rain stopped and the diamonds were put back into shape with the help of tournament volunteers.
Although none of the three Strathmore Reds teams took home the gold, each team played well and had some strong competitive games. The championship was also a good opportunity to show off Strathmore’s facilities and a good initializer to host future events.
With the Kinsmen Park diamond improvements near completion and several local ball diamonds to utilize, Strathmore could be a good candidate to host any number of future amateur baseball events each year, such as the Alberta Summer Games or Alberta’s own provincial championships.
“Everything was very good; a big thank you to all the volunteers at each of the venues, even with the challenge of the rainstorm on Friday … people were very pleased with how the tournament ran, the facilities and everything. We had lots of good comments,” said Anderson.