Listening to his constituents helped a former Okotoks mayor bring the boys of summer to town. It also got him inducted into the Okotoks Dawgs hall of fame.
“Near as I can remember, Ed Poffenroth’s grandson in Houston was talking to his grandmother and told her there is something going on up there — the Dawgs are looking for a place to play,” said former mayor Bill McAlpine. “Ed said let’s go for a coffee. So we did and he told me: ‘Hey you should work on this.’”
As a result, the Dawgs came to Okotoks in 2007, and young Ryan Poffenroth played a closing role — on the mound, not in negotiations — in the team’s championship season that inaugural year.
Nearly a decade later, McAlpine, along with Daryl ‘Doc’ Seaman, were inducted into the Dawgs’ Hall of Fame as builders at the team’s annual banquet Saturday at the Foothills Centennial Centre.
McAlpine and Dawgs executive director John Ircandia ended up working together in bringing the team to town after Ircandia had struck out more times than Reggie Jackson in finding a location for the team — including a site just east of Aldersyde.
“John and I went to an MD council meeting to make our pitch for Aldersyde and they voted it down 4-3,” McAlpine said. “In hindsight, it might have been the best thing that happened.”
McAlpine then set to bringing the club to Okotoks. After ensuring the former Nexen site was safe, he worked with council and administration to approve the Seaman Stadium site.
“There was some work to do, but eventually we got it passed almost unanimously by council.”
Some of that work was getting Nexen to approve it for a site. McAlpine said the savvy businessman, Daryl ‘Doc’ Seaman was instrumental in getting Nexen’s approval.
Seaman, who passed away in 2009, was a man who got things done.
He was a decorated war hero in the Second World War and, along with his brothers Don and B.J., became a leading oil businessman. He was a former owner of the Calgary Flames and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010.
However, Doc also loved baseball while growing up in Saskatchewan.
“The reason he got the name ‘Doc’ was because he carried around a doctor’s bag with his baseball equipment in,” Ircandia told the sold-out audience.
He also helped the Dawgs.
Doc and his brother Don – also a member of the Dawgs’ hall of fame — donated the funds to build Seaman Stadium as well as Duvernay Fieldhouse.
He still continues to give.
“Even from beyond arrangements have been made where he continues to contribute,” Ircandia said. “He left a grant of some $100-million of which the Dawgs will receive $140,000 to go towards the building of our new high-def video board. It will be like watching TV at Seaman Stadium.”
The estate also combined a pair of legends when they donated Doc’s Ty Cobb autographed baseball for the banquet’s auction. Seaman got the ball signed by Cobb while visiting New York.
The legendary Detroit Tiger outfielder — the Georgia Peach — was one of the first five-inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
It was purchased for $2,600 by Doc’s long-time executive secretary Jean Brown.
“I wanted it because it was Doc’s and I love baseball,” Brown said.
The other members of the Dawgs Hall of Fame are sportswriter Bob Elliott, builder Blair Kubicek, Don Seaman, New York Mets pitcher Jim Henderson and Ircandia.
