When the Barrhead Orioles midget baseball team heads to Cuba later this month for a week-long good will tour, playing as Team Canada, they will be bringing a piece of the community with them.
Orioles players Jayden Cramer and Landon Petiot asked Town of Barrhead councillors during their Jan. 9 meeting if they would be able to bring a Barrhead flag with them as they tour the country while playing a series of four exhibition games against Cuban teams.
Council unanimously approved the request doing one better, giving them a variety of Town of Barrhead items, such as pins, postcards, coasters and other souvenir items.
“It’s not everyday that the town gets asked for a flag. It is a very special object and that is why council needs to pass a motion to give one to you,” said chief administration officer Martin Taylor. “A flag and its crest are a symbol of the community as are you young folks. When you go and play baseball on your tour you represent Barrhead and are ambassadors of not only your community, but Alberta.”
Mayor Dave McKenzie echoed Taylor’s sentiments, adding on behalf of council that the young men will represent Barrhead admirably.
The Orioles have been planning this trip since spring. In addition to the four exhibition games against Cuban teams, they will participate in one joint-squad game.
As part of the tour the team will distribute more than 24 hockey bags full of baseball equipment, as well as assorted school supplies when the team visits a Grade 5 to 12 school with about 150 students. Acting as tour guides for what is being dubbed, as the Canada Cuba Goodwill Tour will be either ex-major leaguers Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee [played for Boston and Montreal in the late 70s and early 80s], or Devon White [former Angel, Blue Jay, Marlin and Diamondback], as well as a translator.
The Orioles raised the $25,000 needed for the trip by hosting fundraisers, and doing a variety of odd jobs, from collecting bottles to chicken catching.
In an interview with the team’s coach Doug Hanlan in October, he said they could have attempted to raise the funds in other ways, but he wanted the boys to be able to take pride in the fact that they earned it.
“It is really a great experience for the kids that transcends baseball,” Hanlan said, adding he currently works with someone, who is in his 50s, and went on a similar trip when he was young. “He said as a human being it is the best feeling he has ever had. Going down there, handing out equipment, teaching the boys baseball at the clinic. When you see a country and people in that big of need and being able to help, it sticks with you for the rest of your life.”
