OKOTOKS, Alta. — For years, a debate has played out on local baseball fields across Canada: Which program produces the country’s best high-school-aged talent?
It’s a question that has never received a definitive answer, as bringing the nation’s top players together for a true coast-to-coast competition has long presented a logistical challenge.
But this summer, Baseball Canada sought to settle the matter by introducing The Road to Okotoks — a national tournament that brings together the country’s top amateur programs and culminates in a week of best-on-best action for The Morneau Cup at Seaman Stadium in Okotoks, Alta.
Twenty-nine teams initially threw their hats into the ring for a shot at the national title, battling it out in regional qualifiers in late May across Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. From there, 16 punched their tickets to Okotoks, where the championship tournament got underway on Tuesday.
“We’re hoping that this becomes a staple and one of the biggest, most well-attended tournaments in Canada each year,” Baseball Canada CEO and former MLB all-star Jason Dickson said Monday at the home of the host Okotoks Dawgs. “I think as the interest grows — we’ve already got more teams that didn’t compete this year say they’re going to next year — you’ll see the qualifying tournaments get a little bit bigger and the intensity rise around those.”
By requiring teams to earn their place through regional qualifiers, The Road to Okotoks is designed to capture some of the same win-and-advance urgency that defines events such as the College World Series, NCAA basketball’s March Madness and the Canadian Hockey League’s Memorial Cup.
"That's kind of the vision. Why are those so special? It's because everybody has a puncher's chance, originally," Canadian Junior National Team head coach Greg Hamilton said Monday. "It goes from everybody taking a shot at it to getting to the national championship tournament. And that's what we want to create here, and we think we've got the opportunity to do it in Canada."
When all was said and done in those three qualifiers, teams from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada all emerged to join the Dawgs in the field of 16. Adding to the uniqueness of the event, Baseball Canada staged a three-round draft after the qualifying round, allowing the 16 teams that advanced to select consenting players from programs that fell just short — although not every team chose to participate.
Along with providing players aged 19 and under a chance to represent their programs on an elevated stage, The Road to Okotoks aims to give Canadians greater exposure to professional scouts and collegiate programs.
“We really want to increase that compete level because that really shows college coaches or the pro guys how somebody competes,” Dickson said. “It helps us on the Canadian National Team when we see how somebody (performs) when it’s a bases-loaded jam. We know what the stuff is, we’ve seen the numbers. But can they get people out when it really matters?
“I think that’s good for the kids, right? Some will be successful, and they’ll learn from it; some won’t be successful, and they’ll learn from it. But they need to be put in those tough spots to really understand how to compete.”
Although that increased intensity was already on display during the qualifiers, the tension is sure to only build over the course of a 45-game schedule this week in Okotoks, which will ultimately decide who walks away with the inaugural Morneau Cup — named after 2006 American League MVP and New Westminster, B.C., native Justin Morneau.
“They’re ultra-competitive, and we want to give them an outlet for that,” Hamilton said of the players and programs in the tournament. “To win a national championship, that’s incredibly special. And to put the best players in the best programs and pit them against one another, the pride comes out, and the competitiveness comes out.”
The 16 teams were sorted into pools of four in Okotoks, where each program will play three games within their group and one crossover match. The top squads from each pool will then automatically advance to the quarterfinals, awaiting the winners of do-or-die games between the second- and third-place finishers.
In addition to the tournament action, there will also be a home run derby on Friday, and a chance for those visiting the town just south of Calgary for the first time to attend a Western Canadian Baseball League game between the collegiate Dawgs and the visiting Sylvan Lake Gulls.
It all leads into the marquee matchups on Saturday and Sunday, when Morneau will be on hand to present the trophy bearing his name to the inaugural champion.
"At the end of the day, these kids realize something is on the line," Dickson said of how tight he expects the competition to be. "Justin Morneau is handing out the Morneau Cup. And I'm not knocking showcases, but this is not a showcase, and I think the players will start to feel that. ... So, I think it'll be a dogfight."
As for the future of The Road to Okotoks, both Dickson and Hamilton said that planning is underway for how to make the tournament the best it can be for athletes across the country.
"If you could fast-forward five years, (we hope) it's one of those events that everyone talks about, going to Okotoks or going to win the Morneau Cup," Dickson said. "For some kids, it may be where their career gets a little bit of a boost. It might be, 'I had a breakout tournament. Somebody saw me, and I got a better college offer, pro offer,' or whatever it may be.
"But we just want to really have everybody thinking about, 'How do I win this tournament every year?'"
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