Spring is here and the North Central Alberta Baseball League (NCABL) season will soon be upon us.
The NCABL is an amateur baseball league established in 1968 that has 10 teams, including Barrhead and Westlock.
Pat McElroy, NCABL’s acting commissioner said historically the league has had anywhere from six to 11 teams, with the majority of the teams coming from rural communities in North Central Alberta. However, in recent years, McElroy said that has changed.
“Now most of the teams come from the Edmonton area,” he said.
As for the level of baseball, McElroy said the NCABL is a Senior AA league, which is a notch or two below Single A.
“It is still pretty good ball,” he said. “We call ourselves a working man’s league with the majority of our players coming from the communities they play for.”
He also said a there are a number of college players who either play or work out with teams.
Besides playing a good level of baseball, McElroy said the league is very competitive.
The defending champions are the Edmonton Blackhawks, who have won the championship for the last two years.
“Even though the Blackhawks have won the championship for the last couple of years we have great parity in the league,” he said, adding that it is a real dogfight to get into the playoffs each year.
One of the reasons McElroy believes the league is so competitive is a combination of a short season with a limited number of games and that only a small percentage of teams are able to make the playoffs.
“We only play 18 regular season games, so the outcome of every game is really important and to top that off only four teams make the playoffs,” he said, adding that although it’s an amateur league the governors run it like it was professional. “We even have an All-Star game.”
The All-Star game is rotated between all the NCABL franchises. This year the game will be in St. Albert on July 21. The semi finals are held in conjunction with the Westlock Fair followed by the finals in the town of the highest seated team.
After being a more than 10 year absence from the team, the Barrhead Orioles rejoined the NCABL last year.
“We are really excited to have Barrhead in the league again,” McElroy said. “Considering they were basically a first-year team they had a strong team that was always competitive and they had really great support from the community.”
Ryan Warehime, a player and governor with the Barrhead Baltimore baseball team, said the players are raring to go.
“We have been practicing for about a month now and we can’t wait until we get to play our first real game,” he said.
Although this year will only be Barrhead’s second year back in the league, Warehime said, the Orioles have actually been back together for more than three years, adding that for the first two years the team played only in tournaments. Last year the Orioles finished just out of the playoffs, two games under 500.
A record Warehime said the team hopes to build on in order to help restore Barrhead’s baseball legacy.
“Barrhead has a long tradition of baseball. Until we left the league in 2007 Barrhead always had a senior baseball team,” he said, adding Barrhead teams were particularly strong in the 1970s and 80s, due to players such as Keith Van der Keere, John Osborne and Mike Teahen.
The NCABL season officially begins on Sunday, May 10 with a handful of games, including Barrhead’s home opener against the Sherwood Park Athletics. Game time is 2 p.m. and admission is free.
