The Foothills-Wheatbelt League featured eight teams with a 14 game regular schedule.
Then, there were the tournaments! The Rotary Tournament in Lethbridge was one of the summer highlights on the prairies.
Below : The Buick that got Jack Altman and friends from California to Canada!
Further below - The parks may not have been pretty, but the brand of ball was awfully good. The Vulcan park, from the back of the stands, looking in from the outfield, and a view from the stands behind home plate . (Photos courtesy Jack Altman)
Clarence Yanosik gets congratulations from manager George Wesley after blasting a homer for the Foothills-Wheatbelt All-Stars in the Lethbridge Tournament. [Photo courtesy of the Galt Museum and Archives, Photo # 19753802003]
Above left - Gord Vejprava belts one to right to help the All-Stars beat Nampa (Idaho) in the Lethbridge Tournament. The catcher is George Makina.
Above right - George Chalich (left) and Don Parrott two key members of the Spokane Boutens of the Rotary Tournament.
Left - January, 1954. George Wesley (second from the right) and his daughter, Mary, look on as Jack Rossiter greets Gordon Wesley upon arrival at the Rossiter Baseball School in Florida.
Gordon was one of 36 Canadians at the school.
Far left - Red Deer hurler Dave Martin. Red Deer fans voted Martin the most valuable player on the team. Dave was presented with the Ernie Wells Memorial Trophy. Pete Kruger won in 1952 and Ken Ing in 1953.
Left - - Gordie Tench of the Spokane Builders, the outstanding performer in the Lethbridge Rotary Tournament.
Tench hurled a four-hitter to beat Fairchild and came in to relieve in the 7th inning of the final against Spokane Boutens.
He didn't allow a hit the rest of the way and drove in the winning run with a triple
Below left - A familiar site in the 1950s, the Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevators. Few of the original elevators remain today.
Below right - Catcher Bob Laurie of Taber who helped the Taber Merchants to the Southern Alberta junior title in 1954 before advancing to the semi-pro Granum White Sox in 1955.
The Chinook Baseball League opened locally in Calgary Victoria Day with Carstairs Cardinals engaging Universal Mercurys in a double header.
The respective coaches, Hugh Wilson of Carstairs and Dave Able of Mercurys chat between games. Cardinals captured the first contest with the Mercs coming on in the evening to gain the verdict.