For countless years the cities of Yorkton and Melville have been at war with one another verbally, emotionally and even physically.
But now the two rival communities have come together over one of the main things that they have fought about for decades: baseball.
Midget league baseball to be exact, as the two cities have recently announced a partnership with each other that will see the Yorkton Midget Cardinals program and Melville Millionaires Midget baseball program combine to form one baseball program: the Parkland Expos.
The Parkland Expos will consist of a ‘AAA’ baseball team and a ‘AA’ baseball team, both made up of Yorkton, Melville and surrounding area players and both playing in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League (SPBL), with the possibility of an ‘A’ level club if there is enough interest.
“It’s exciting to have Yorkton and Melville, two rival communities, working together to provide a new program for baseball players in our zone that will offer new opportunities for players,” said Melville’s Aaron Elmy, one of three coaches that will be running the ‘AAA’ Expos team along with Yorkton coaches Tony Black and Stefan Bymak. “Of course because of the rivalry it’s sometimes tough to put aside that animosity and work successfully towards a goal that benefits players from both communities no matter where they’re from, but we’re able to do that here for not only the ‘AAA’ team, but the ‘AA’ team and, if we have the numbers, the ‘A’ team.
“Of course there’s always a little bit of skepticism in both communities about whether it can be successful or not of course, but we’re fully confident that it will be successful.”
Skepticism, however, is not just in the communities. Sask. Baseball is also a little bit skeptical, granting the two communities a one year trial period for the Parkland Expos club. “This is sort of a one year trial thing that Sask. Baseball agreed to, but we’re hoping that we will stick around and continue to grow and develop this program,” offered Yorkton’s Stefan Bymak.
Elmy also offered a comment on the one year trial period for the Expos, suggesting that immediate success will go a long way to solidifying the Parkland Expos program. “We think it has the potential to last much longer than one year but the success of our first year will be crucial for the long-term outlook of the program,” mentioned Elmy, adding that a successful campaign will always provide positive feedback for the club.
As for the team name, the initial question is: why the Expos? “Why the Expos?” repeated Bymak. “Well that’s kind of a throwback to 15 or 20 years ago when Yorkton was last the Expos, so it’s got some heritage, some legacy.”
Elmy agreed with Bymak, but went a little more in depth as he was a member of the Yorkton Expos back in 1993. “I love it (the name). The Expos name has some history in the area and for myself, my experience was very positive,” suggested Elmy. “Tony Hayden and Don Szabo created a team from Yorkton and the surrounding area and had success with doing that.
“So there is history of the Expos in the area.”
Another reason for the team name is actually in the logo; or rather, the colours of the logo. “One other thing about it that I love is that it mixes the two colours in the logo,” mentioned Elmy, continuing, ‘You’ve got the Cardinal Red and the Millionaire Blue both tied into the logo so I can’t think of a better logo or a better team name than what we’ve come up with.”
Historically, the Yorkton Expos were a team that had found success, existing in the 1990’s and early 2000’s before Yorkton officially dropped the team name in 2001 (then a bantam baseball team) and went solely with the Cardinal name.
The 1993 Yorkton Expos won the Saskatchewan Midget ‘AAA’ Baseball League title while the 1998 Expos team won the league and provincial championship before winning a bronze medal at the 1998 Midget ‘AAA’ National Tournament in Red Deer, Alberta.
Bymak, Elmy and company are hoping that the Parkland Expos will continue the success of the Expos name in 2015. “I fully expect us to do well this year and be successful,” said Bymak. “We’ve got some good triple-A ball players in this area and we’ve got some good, young, developing ball players that are going to get a chance to really showcase their skills at the double-A level and hopefully improve and be able to work towards playing for the triple-A program in the coming years, so this year should be a success.”
Looking for players, sponsors
Bymak also mentioned that, while the club has been helped greatly by the Painted Hand Community Development Organization who donated a large amount of money to help the team purchase new jerseys, hats and gear, it still needs sponsors. “Any business or person or organization that is interested in donating, they can certainly get a hold of myself at (306)-621-6631,” mentioned Bymak.
Bymak also said that the club is still looking for midget aged players (born 1997-1999). “We did some evaluations last fall but there will be an open tryout again this spring,” suggested Bymak, continuing, “Anybody that has any interest or anybody that is new to the community that hasn’t taken part in any of those evaluations that were held last fall are free to contact me (number above) and just let us know that they’re interested.
“We’re going to be doing registrations a little bit earlier this year so that hopefully we’ll know exactly what the numbers are to determine exactly how many teams we will be able to form this year.”
Major tournaments
The Parkland Expos ‘AAA’ baseball team has applied and been granted the 2015 Western Canadian ‘AAA’ Baseball Championships, which will take place from August 21-23 in Yorkton.
The Expos have also applied and been granted permission to host the 2015 Midget ‘AAA’ Provincial Championship.
Unlike the Western Championship, the Provincials will take place in Melville from July 24-26.
The Expos will also split their 2015 home games between the two communities of Melville and Yorkton.
