Playing at the World Series brings back a flood of memories in Medicine Hat: the former home of the Blue Jays farm team and the site of visiting World Series teams in the early 1990s.
These games became part of the local legend in Hat, taking residents back to a time when the town had a minor league farm club and the major leagues came to southeastern Alberta.
That includes Greg Morrison, a high school senior and aspiring ballplayer when future Hall of Fame stars like Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar visited his hometown in 1994.
However, Morrison was not in the stands.
He was on the field playing with a team of high-quality amateur prospects tasked with taking on the best team in baseball.
“The Blue Jays really appealed to me because you emulate who you watch as a kid,” Morrison said this week, noting that before the team's success swept the country in the early 1990s, he was actually a Boston Red Sox fan.
The Blue Jays were my second chance.”
Long road to the big leagues
Originally drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Morrison was eventually signed by the Jays.
He went on to play for his hometown team, the Baby Jays, a singles team in the Pioneer League, setting a home run record that stands to this day. It was the first minor league run with stops in Alberta, Montana and Idaho.
After an 11-year independent career in the league, Morrison returned home and now owns the Medicine Hat Mavericks. Western Canadian Baseball League. It formed shortly after the Blue Jays left town in 2003 and each summer welcomes college-age players looking to make the team.
Morrison sees this as a continuation of Medicine Hat's elite baseball tradition, and little league camps and academic programs as a way to continue that growth.
“Medicine Hat is a fantastic baseball town,” said Morrison, who is in California this week on a scouting trip.
“We have great weather, great conditions. The history of Medicine Hat is still alive.”
Prairie Baseball's Past
This history includes tumultuous visits and amateur championships dating back to the 1920s.
The minor leagues began in 1977 when the Oakland A's affiliate (Baby A's) moved north and was purchased by local businessman Bill Yuill. A year later the team moved to Toronto.
There was a singles championship in 1982, but what fans remember most is the big club's visit in 1994.
The game took place at the 2,000-seat Medicine Hat Athletic Park and attracted 9,000 fans with a gaming festival atmosphere.
A local television report details a 1994 exhibition game between the Toronto Blue Jays and a team of amateur players from the National Baseball Institute. The game was played in Medicine Hat, Alta., home of the Medicine Hat Blue Jays farm team. The event was recorded by Monarch Broadcasting. Copyright © Medicine Hat Esplanade Archives.
The tour was part of a promotional campaign designed to connect with fans across the country, showcase back-to-back championship form, and also highlight the development program in which Morrison was involved.
On the same multi-year tour, the Jays visited Regina Taylor Field, where the football field had been converted into a baseball stadium with a very short outfield fence.
Joe McFarland's father surprised his family with tickets to a 1994 exhibition game in Medicine Hat. They all drove all the way from Lethbridge, Alta. It combined the excitement of the 1992 and 1993 World Series titles with an affinity for star players from rural Alberta.
“It really solidified the belief that baseball would be a part of my life for a long time,” said McFarland, who now writes about baseball and the prospects and history of the game in western Canada.
“It was the gateway to the big leagues. Being a farm kid in those days, you didn't have cable TV or the Internet. My gateway to baseball was baseball cards and magazines, but being able to see it in person really brought me home.”
Alberta at noon52:39The Blue Jays are in the World Series!
Are you siding with the Blue Jays? You might not usually pay much attention to baseball, but our only Canadian team is in the World Series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Do you put on a baseball cap and cheer for the team?
The Hat Blue Jays were part of an influx of minor league teams into the province starting in the late 1970s, including Pioneer League teams in Lethbridge and Calgary.
They won the Pioneer League title in 1982, with a team that included future Jays legends Jimmy Key, Pat Borders and David Wells.
Later, the Triple-A Calgary Cannons and Edmonton Trappers had players just below the major leagues.
Both teams moved to the United States shortly after the Blue Jays moved to Helena, Montana in 2003.
McFarland said professional baseball in Alberta has always been about developing future stars.
He's still alive, he said, in Western Canadian Baseball Leaguewhich includes the Mavericks, Lethbridge Bulls, Okotoks Dawgs, Brooks Bombers and eight other teams from Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Morrison said baseball fans in southern Alberta have seen major league talent over the years and the region continues to produce great talent.
“[Over 25 years] You think about how many professional baseball players spent a series or a summer playing in Medicine Hat,” he said.
“We are well known and Medicine Hat is a small town, but I think we punch above our weight.”
