The 16th Annual Tigers' Baseball Association Tournament takes over Legion Memorial Park this weekend, Friday through Sunday.
Six teams from Alberta will compete in the event including all five squads in the Sunburst senior men's AAA league. The Red Deer Riggers, Fort Saskatchewan Athletics and Confederation Cubs – ranked first, third and fifth respectively – make up the Young division. In the Waples division are the second-place Parkland White Sox, fourth-place St. Albert Tigers and the St. Albert Tiger Padres.
The Padres are a new addition to the tournament. The team is made up of St. Albert Tigers alumni (35 and over) and will be competing in the Canadian National Oldtimers Baseball Federation Championships being held in Edmonton Aug. 1 to 5.
“As part of their preparation for that event they are going to play in the Tigers' tournament,” says tournament director Dave Maguire. “So the Friday night match will have the old Tigers against the younger Tigers.”
The Tigers tournament has traditionally been held in June, but after being sidelined by rain many times, a decision was made to move the tournament to July. Maguire says the weather looks promising for the weekend as so far there is no rain in Environment Canada's forecast for those dates.
The concession and beverage tent will be open for spectators all weekend and the 8 p.m. games on Friday and Saturday will feature anthem singers and ceremonial first pitches thrown by former Tigers. The addition of anthem singers and lining up alumni for the ceremonies was made possible by the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association.
“SAMBA are such great supporters of this tournament,” Maguire says. “They add their own volunteers that get involved in it as well.”
St. Albert Minor Baseball is also supplying batboys and batgirls for the competing teams and Maguire says the program has been very rewarding for the young players.
“They're very good to these kids,” he says. “We've had a couple of times in the past that teams have passed the hat and given a tip and given it to the kids after the game, so that's pretty neat.”
The first pitch of the tournament will be thrown at 8 p.m. Friday at Legion Park when the St. Albert Tigers face their predecessors in the St. Albert Tigers Padres. Round robin games happen on Saturday and the home team Tigers will face the Parkland White Sox at 8 p.m.
All 10 tournament games will be played at Legion park and the final happens Sunday at 3 p.m.
Tigers' Baseball Association
16th Annual Tigers' Tournament Schedule
Friday, June 12
8 p.m. St. Albert Tigers vs. St. Albert Tigers Padres
Saturday, June 13
10 a.m. Red Deer Riggers vs. Fort Saskatchewan A's
11 a.m. St. Albert Tigers Padres vs. Parkland White Sox
2 p.m. Confederation Cubs vs. Red Deer Riggers
6 p.m. Fort Saskatchewan A's vs. Confederation Cubs
8 p.m. Parkland White Sox vs. St. Albert Tigers
Sunday, June 14
9 a.m. Third place game
12 p.m. Semi final
3 p.m. Final
