Written by Kevin Kvame, Baseball Fan
I’ve spent most of my life in and around baseball. Little League diamonds near & far, academy and team workouts at all levels, summer collegiate nights at Spitz Stadium and ballparks all over North America — the game has given me more than I could ever give back.
I’ve been lucky enough to serve on international, national, provincial, and local boards, and to lead programs and leagues for many years now. And somewhere along the way, I started noticing something.
The box scores remember the players. The standings remember the teams. But the persons behind the stats as well as the people who actually make all of it possible — the ones setting up fields at dawn, driving kids across the province, sitting on boards, cooking meals, building things out of nothing but an idea and a work ethic — they often fade into the background. Nobody writes their names down.
I’ve been lucky enough to know a lot of those people. And I’ve decided it’s time to start writing their names down — if I can stay coherent enough to cover as many of them as I can in the coming months and years. (That’s the goal, anyway. Check back with me in a few years and see how that’s going, haha.)
So beginning next Friday, October 2, I’m launching Friday Features — a weekly column recognizing some person or persons special from the baseball universe I’ve lived in for years, and tying their story to what’s happening in the game right now.
The formats rotate monthly:
First Friday — The Invisible Roster. The people who never appear in a box score: volunteers, grounds crews, host families, board members, the folks doing the unglamorous work that keeps the whole thing standing.
Second Friday — Full Circle Friday. One person, one arc — where they started in the game and where they are now, and what the road between those two points says about the culture of our program: community, dedication, loyalty, and leadership.
Third Friday — Nine Innings, Nine Questions. Nine questions for people who’ve impacted the game in my travels. Same nine questions, different legends of community and baseball— and we’ll surprise you each month.
Fourth Friday — Still in the Game. The alumni who hung up the spikes but never left baseball — now coaching, mentoring, umpiring, building the next generation. Great people with (hopefully) some great stories!!
And on months with five Fridays? Bonus post. Because the roster of people worth recognizing runs a lot deeper than four a month!
A couple of ground rules I am basing things off of: if someone we’re featuring is doing something special in the game, we’ll give it a quiet shout-out — but we won’t be doing any selling. The people are the story. And expect a bit of humour along the way — these are baseball people, after all.
One more thing: each week’s subject stays a surprise until we announce it the Wednesday before. So no spoilers. First reveal drops Wednesday, September 30.
One Friday at a time. The people first. See you October 2.
Published: September 26, 2026
