June 8, 2024

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

SYLVAN LAKE, Alta. _ As a former goalie and a catcher Logan Grant is adept at moving his fingers.

“So, what kind of year did you have?” he was asked as the Okotoks Dawgs bus headed north past Calgary.

“Pretty good,” Grant said.

And then the fingers went to work .. for the Bellevue Bruins Grant (Chestermere, Alta.) was named ...

_ All-Conference First Team.

_ Conference Player of the Year.

_ Second Team All-American.

_ Gold Glove.

_ Bellevue Male Athlete of the year.

All fingers ticked. Even the thumb.

Good ... because we were almost out of ink on our Marriott pen.

The NAIA-Baseball Coaches’ Association All-America Committee voted Grant the All-American honour. He was North Star Athletic Association Player of the Year, First Team all-NSAA, NSAA Gold Glove winner and the School’s Male Athlete of the Year.

Grant batted .346 with a 1.148 OPS, starting all 53 games. He led the team in home runs (20), doubles (16), extra-base hits (37), RBIs (66) and total bases (149). His home run, total base, and RBI totals all led the North Star, while he finished the year second in doubles. He finished second on the team with 71 hits.

He’s not the only Canuck there, as his teammates include RHP Gavin Wuschke (Regina, Sask.) and SS Brendan Luther (Mississauga, Ont.).

“Brendan is probably my best friend on this team. We met last year with the Dawgs and kind of clicked, then were together in Nebraska,” said Grant. “We tease the Americans ... like when Canada won the World Juniors, since some of them follow hockey.”

He feasted off Mayville State Comets pitching, going deep five times, as well as homering three times facing the Valley City State Vikings, twice against St. Thomas, Dakota State Trojans and Waldorf Warriors. Plus hitting one homer each against Arizona Christian Firestorm, Science & Arts Oklahoma Drovers, Mount Marty Lancers, Midland Warriors, Viterbo Hawks and Saint Francis Cougars.

“And I was on the top step screaming on each one of them,” Luther said. “What was I screaming? Anything I could think of ... he was by far our best player this spring.”

Playing left field, Grant walked, stole second and scored on a Tucker Zdunich (High River, Alta.) single for the game’s first run as the Dawgs got back on the winning track with a 3-1 victory over the Sylvan Lake Gulls in front of 1,576 fans on a chilly six-degree Saturday night at Gulls Stadium. Besides catching, the versatile Grant also plays third base and the outfield with the Dawgs.

* * *

IN GAME: Campbellsville University RHP Garrett Maloney pitched six innings, allowing an unearned run and striking out eight in his 74-pitch outing ... Louis-Felix Anderson (Montreal, Que.) settled matters in the seventh with a home run off Nebraska reliever Kyle Froelich (Nipawin, Sask.) and doubled earlier ... Greg Ross (Sarnia, Ont.), Emporia State’s Trent Warstler and North Dakota State’s Seth Thompson (Calgary, Alta.) each worked a scoreless inning, striking out a man each ... Combined Joe Sergent’s pitching staff allowed three singles, didn’t walk a man and fanned 11 ... Gavin Roy (Sudbury, Ont.) singled for the Gulls.

* * *

Growing up in Chestermere, east of Calgary, his parents Alana and Kevin Grant had five acres of land.

“We used to raise cattle (Simmental) and my late grandma’s place beside us is 55 acres,” he said.

He was asked if when he was young, he was ever sad when a cow was loaded up headed for the slaughterhouse. “Not really.”

Now, the Grants raise custom hay for farmers who raise cattle and horses.

Grant began playing for the Chestermere Crushers as a 12-year-old.

Originally, he attended the Vauxhall Academy Jets program, but they had backstops Shayne Campbell (Winnipeg, Man.) and Ty Wevers (Lethbridge, Alta.).

Tyler Hollick of the Dawgs had talked to Grant’s parents before Vauxhall so when it was apparent he was not going back, Hollick called again.

“It was a better fit for me, closer to home,” said Grant.

He played hockey in Chestermere, then double-A for the Wheatland Warriors in Strathmore and triple-A for the Rocky View Raiders in Okotoks. As a goalie.

“It suits me well as a catcher,” Grant said. “Catching is similar to playing goal: the whole ice is in front of you and the whole field of play is in front of you, too. You have to stop the puck and you have to block the ball.”

Especially with a man on third.

Grant started using the one-knee technique this year (although not as extreme with a man on third) and his all-time favourite catcher is former St. Louis Cardinals Yadier Molina.

Now, we know little of hockey except what our grandson tells us, but height is important to netminders. So, we asked Grant, listed at 6-foot-2, why he gave up hockey.”

“Because I was super short then, I was probably 5-foot-8 or 5-foot-9 when I quit hockey ... I got the height, after I quit,” he answered. “I still watch a lot of hockey. I have interest and I wonder what could have been, but I made the right choice choosing baseball.”

How often did they pick the top corners over his shoulders?

He said he had “a pretty good glove hand so not that many,” but his weakness was the five hole.”

* * *

Grant is with his third team in the Western Canadian Baseball League. He was supposed to play for the Fort McMurray Giants in 2021 but COVID-19 cut down the number of teams in the loop. So, he moved to Sylvan Lake to play for coach Jason Chatwood, then spent a year with the Swift Current ‘57s in 2022 and has been with Okotoks the past two seasons.

It is a crowded catching roster with the Dawgs with Caleb Lumbard (Regina, Sask.), Colorado State-Pueblo’s Jason Arriola, Jacob Wrubleski (Bragg Creek, Alta.), Anderson and Grant. Grant played left field Friday in Lethbridge, while Arriola was at second base.

Last year the Dawgs had Cal-State Northridge’s Connor Stewart, Lombard and Grant as catchers.

* * *

The eldest of three boys his parents were in Fort McMurray this weekend. They were there to see youngest brother Dylan play for the Calgary Cardinals. Middle brother Cole Grant is a pipe fitter apprentice.

Kevin works for Calgary Diesel and mom Alana for Versa Cold Trucking a refrigeration company. With all three boys playing hockey and baseball growing up, it was a family constantly on the move to the rink or the ball diamond.

Winger Jay Neighbours (Aidrie, Alta.) of the St. Louis Blues was a teammate with the Crushers, whose biggest rival was either Calgary-East or Calgary-West, according to Grant. Neighbours was a first-round pick (26th overall) in 2020 and scored 27 goals this season in 77 games.

His best day on the ball diamond came this spring when he went 5-for-6 with three home runs and nine RBIs in a 20-7 win against the Mayville State. The left-handed hitter’s homers went to right centre, left centre and centre. He went into his trot in the first for a 1-0 lead, in the second for a 5-3 lead and a three-run homer in the fourth for a 14-3 lead, Again with the fingers. He also hit a run-scoring triple in the sixth to go up 16-5 and a run-scoring double in the eighth to make it a 17-7 laugher.

But it is tough to top last summer when the Dawgs won the WCBL title against the Medicine Hat Mavericks.

“We were up 5-0, they came back and tied it,” Grant recalled his eyes growing wide at the memory. “We had two men on and a I hit a ball to left centre.”

Most rate the league stadiums thusly: Seaman Stadium in Okotoks, Sylvan Lake No. 2 and Medicine Hat third.

“I’d say Medicine Hat would be No. 2, the fans are right on you, I like their set up,” Grant said. “I’ve seen our place grow year after year. I was here before they built the Core +4 in left field. I’ve seen it develop.

“This year we added another new section (down the first base line) and the ribbon board in the outfield.”

His favourite Blue Jay is neither Danny Jansen nor Alejandro Kirk, but shortstop Bo Bichette.

“Bichette is sneaky good, I like watching him,” said Grant, who is asked if he has his own ‘Bo-Flo’ going. “Naw, I have long hair but nothing like Bo. I have a bit of a mullet.”

Mullet or flo, any way you comb it, it all looks good to Bellevue coach Duane Monlux, where Grant will return this fall, or Dawgs coach Lou Pote.

* * *

One from the road: As the Dawgs bus pulled into the parking lot at Sylvan Lake -- while the Edmonton Oilers were starting off their Stanley Cup final against the Florida Panthers -- skipper Pote looked out the front window and said:

“Look at all the Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs fans who are here tonight.”