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North Battleford’s Albers set for World Baseball Classic

Feb 21, 2017 | 4:00 PM

Andrew Albers will never forget the day he was drafted to Major League Baseball.

Partially because he didn’t think he’d get chosen, but partially because he missed when it happened.

“I was actually on a Grade 12 trip to Ranger Lake on draft day and I didn’t find out that I had been drafted until I got home,” the graduate of John Paul II Collegiate said in a phone interview last week. “I was actually shocked when it happened… because I pretty much told most of the teams that had inquired that I had a good offer at the University of Kentucky and was planning on going to school.”

Albers turned down the enticing offer from the Milwaukee Brewers, who took him in the 12th round, and stuck with his decision to go to college.

“I just didn’t feel like I was ready to go the professional route coming out of high school,” the 31-year-old said. “Coming out of high school in northwest Saskatchewan, it was very raw. I had a little bit of ability, but really hadn’t faced a lot of really good competition. I just thought the better fit for me was going to university [and] education was something that was really important to me as well.”

The move has paid off.

There were certainly some ups and downs, including surgery following a tear in his elbow in 2009, but Albers is now a professional baseball pitcher and has been for a few years.

He has spent time in the Blue Jays organization and has had two stints with the Minnesota Twins. Most recently, he signed with the Atlanta Braves this off-season.

“It was a fit where if I go to AAA and I do my job and I do what I think I’m capable of, that I have an opportunity to possibly pitch in the big leagues again,” Albers said of his decision to sign the minor-league contract with Atlanta. “That’s really all I can ask for at this point in my career.”

Albers has just flown down to Florida for spring training, but soon, he’ll be trading in his Braves jersey for the red and white at the World Baseball Classic. He won’t have to go far as games in Pool C will be played at Marlins Park in Miami.

He has already represented Canada on multiple occasions, including the 2011 and 2015 Pan Am Games, the 2013 World Baseball Classic and the World Baseball Cup in 2011.

Canada won gold with Albers on the mound at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, where he pitched nearly seven innings in the gold medal game.

“It’s just such a tremendous honour to get a chance to play and get to put the country across your chest,” he said. “You get to do it once and you just want to do it again and again and again. It’s so much fun.”

Albers said that Canada’s head coach and director Greg Hamilton deserves a ton of credit for all the planning that’s involved and making it an enjoyable experience for everyone.

“So many guys want to come back and they want to play, not only just for Canada, but play for [Hamilton], because he does such a tremendous job for you,” Albers said. “Those are some of the best memories I have playing baseball, is playing for Team Canada.”

Canada is in a tough group, along with the United States, Dominican Republic, and Colombia.

But Albers said one advantage is familiarity, as Canada has many returners with tons of international experience.

“A lot of the other countries have a lot of turnover with their teams, whereas with us, we have a lot of the same guys that were there in 2013,” he said. “Certainly on paper, we might not be as talented as a couple of the other teams… and you look at them on paper and they’re pretty much all-star teams. They’ve got extremely talented rosters. But at the same time, in short tournaments like that, it’s all about coming together in a really short period of time.

“That’s certainly something that everyone we have is going to buy into.”

Before heading down to spring training, Albers made sure to do what he often does in the off-season: substitute teach at his old stomping grounds, John Paul II.

“I really enjoyed my high school days,” Albers said. “[There were] so many great teachers over there over the years and just people that you pick up things from here and there – tremendous role models for anybody. And that’s really what I remember most, is that there were just so many tremendous teachers.”

Albers said Doug Sieban, who coached volleyball and taught him math and physics, and Murray Zakresky, who coached basketball and taught chemistry, are two examples of many great teachers that stood out to him.

He also remembers watching his dad play ball when he was little.

“I went to good old Beaver Lion Stadium, [my dad] used to play on the senior team,” Albers recalled. “[Baseball] was something that I kind of fell in love with from an early age. I played hockey growing up and found out I wasn’t much of a hockey player, so if I wanted to do anything in sports I better find something else.”

Albers certainly has found that ‘something else,’ something that has taken him all over the world.

But chances are, every off-season, you can find him right at home, helping teach the next generation of kids.

“It’s a great community back here in the Battlefords and one that I really enjoy being a part of,” Albers said.

The World Baseball Classic begins on March 6, but Canada’s first game isn’t until March 9 when they take on Dominican Republic.

 

Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11