Drumheller has a rich baseball history dating back to the miners who would spend the slow summers on the diamond, to the youngsters today and the parents who support them.
This summer will mark sixty years since a team of young ball players from throughout the valley got together and went on to win the Alberta Juvenile Championship, and by the time they were done, they ended up with three championships.
“Back then, there weren’t such things as divisions according to population, so we competed against teams from Calgary and Edmonton. It was quite a thing,” said Bink Losoncy, who played on the team.
He grew up playing baseball in the valley. Back then, it wasn’t organized as it is today. He played little league against teams from throughout the valley.
“Some years Rosedale would have a team, East Coulee would have a team, Drumheller had the Midland team,” explains Losoncy.
When there weren’t enough players in the outlying communities, they would form a house league in Drumheller.
While they practiced with the team, they honed their game on the diamond, simply playing as children would.
“As soon as the diamonds were dry enough after school, we would head to a diamond and play almost till dark. If there was only a couple of us, we would play catch. As more kids arrived we’d get into single scrub or double scrub. We were playing make-up games a lot. That's how we developed our skills,” he said.
There was a community component to it as well.
“At that time it was a cultural thing. My father was quite a baseball player, but the background is all the miners had their own baseball teams. What would happen is there was not much demand for coal in the summer so these guys would spend a lot of time playing baseball. From that, they passed that interest on to my generation, and a number of them actually coached the teams,” explains Losoncy.
Rick Trembecky was on the team, as was his brother Bob. He agrees the roots of baseball were deep, and the skill level was high.
“When the mines were going good, most of the players were locally grown, they weren’t brought in to play ball,” said Trembecky. “They had a senior league with Nacmine and Rosedale. They would have 2,000 to 3,000 people out to a game in Rosedale.”
His uncle John Makos played and went to the Dodger Camp in Myrtle Beach. Glen Gorbus also came from this generation, and went to play with the Phillies. Trembecky adds, while the players worked in the mines, they got a few perks, such as working on the surface or in maintenance.
As the players got older, they would form a Drumheller team at the Midget and Juvenile levels. There were no set leagues then, so they would arrange games and tournaments with other communities to make a season. There would be a wagon train of cars on game nights or weekends.
“In order to get some games, we had to play some men's teams around the countryside,” recalls Losoncy.
In the first year, they only had about 11 players, but they fielded a team. The next year they had players from Morrin, Dalum and Beiseker join the squad. Losoncy’s father helped coach the team, as did Eddie Fong, who was often involved, as was Bob Rawlusyk; his mom would help organize picnics on doubleheaders.
Dave Wood played on the team, though his roots in the valley weren’t as deep, coming to Drumheller in Grade 6.
“There was an RCMP member Bill Cutts, who did a lot with sports. I played with him on the Peewee Tigers, and we won the league championship when I was 12. He was a great man,” said Wood.
He said there were four Bantam teams and lots of good players. When they turned 15 and were Midget age, they moved from the house league.
Some players included the Trembecky boys from Rosedale, Roger Mestinsek and Danny Ripper from East Coulee. Rick Anderson from Dalum went on to play in the Alberta Major League, (as did Losoncy and Wood) and was Pitcher of the Year.
Gary Trogen from Morrin was also on the team. Wood remembers squaring off against him in little league.
“I remember vividly. We pitched against each other up at Morrin Bridge in a tournament. I got the only hit off of him, and he got their only hit off of me, and by damned he hit it out. They won 1-0,” chuckles Wood.
Wood was in Grade 10 when they won. He was 15 years old and they defeated a team from Edmonton that was largely made up of 18-year-olds.
“We beat them 3-2. They had a runner on second base and they hit a single out to left field where Bink played. We had a big strong guy catching, Jimmy Steel. Those days you could block the plate. Bink caught the ball and the guy tried to score from second base. He threw it and it bounced, it seemed like endlessly and Jimmy was blocking, got the ball and tagged him out.”
Wood’s folks had already moved to Donalda, so he wasn’t able to join the team for their second victory the following season. This team won, and they went to Western Canadians. Wood recalls listening to it on the radio.
Trembecky played a little bit of senior ball, but focused on hockey after he graduated.
He went on as a defenseman for the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Calgary Centennials in the Western Junior Hockey League. He also spent time with the Clinton Comets in the Eastern Hockey League.