GUELPH SPORTSCAST: Who's on First Base Coach?

05/04/24 • 36 min

Every year, four or five people are plucked from Guelph’s sporting history and are immortalized for all eternity on the walls of the Sleeman Centre, but one doesn’t spend a life in local sports to be immortal. It’s a passion that can span a lifetime, which is what decades of Royals might say about Paul Ante, who has been one kind of Guelph Royal or another for the last half-century.

Paul Ante been a part of the Guelph Royals Intercounty baseball team for over five decades as a player, coach, manager, and administrator. He's helped lead the team to championships, and he runs baseball clinics every year to help even younger players to develop their skills. Imagine all the lives that Ante has touched in 50 years being involved with the Guelph Royals and Guelph baseball.

And Guelph history is so indelibly tied with the sport of baseball. The Guelph Royals organization has existed in one form or another since 1861, and it even roped in George Sleeman in the 1880s who invested big in order to bring American talent to Guelph. The Royals are such an institution that they also survived their own near-death experience in 2016, and that's owed to the dedication of people Ante, who will once again be at first base on opening day later this month!

Ante took time out from getting ready for the 2024 baseball season to join us on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast to talk about his life and career in baseball in Guelph, how he feels about getting into the Hall of Fame, and what he thinks is the secret to his success in baseball. He will also talk about the difference between being a coach and being the boss, what to look out for in the upcoming season, and the role that sports has played in shaping his life and career.

So let's play ball on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast!

Paul Ante will be inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame at the Induction Ceremony & Kiwanis Sports Celebrity Dinner on Wednesday May 15 at the Italian Canadian Club, and you can find info on tickets and other inductees here. The Guelph Royals 2024 season home opener is on Saturday May 18 at 1 pm at Hastings Stadium. You can get all ticket information at the Royals' website.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify.

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

So let's play ball on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast!

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify.

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Previous Episode

End Credits #339 - May 1, 2024 (Challengers)

This week on End Credits, we work on our serve. Summer is here, so we have thoughts about getting outside and getting involved in sports, and romance (?) The two are combined in the new film Challengers, which was the number one film at the box office last weekend. And speaking of summer, it unofficially begins this weekend in theatres. Stand by for a preview!

This Wednesday, May 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:

Summer 2024 Movie Preview! For the first time since 2006 (excluding the pandemic), the summer movie season begins with a film that's not a Marvel movie. The Summer Movie Season officially begins this Friday with The Fall Guy, a straight-up action comedy starring Ryan Gosling, which is emblematic of what might the most uncertain movie slate of any summer in decades. Still, it looks like there will be some bangers, and we will seek them out!

REVIEW: Challengers (2024). Is Zendaya a movie star? Sure, she's a BFD to the Disney Channel set 10 years ago, and then she graduated to big franchises like Spider-Man and Dune, but can she hold court (heh) as one point in a romantic triangle in a big, old-fashioned Hollywood love story. The answer is in Challengers, the latest movie from Luca Guadagnino. Set against competitive world of tennis, Challengers followers three players caught between love, sex, ego, money, competition, and status. It's a capital 'S' star vehicle for Zendaya, but do we want to take the ride?

End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

Next Episode

Open Sources Guelph #469 - May 2, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we reconnect with our roots. It's been a busy week for student protests and campus shutdowns, and it's not escaped media attention, but getting less media attention is B.C.'s move to re-criminalize drugs, which may be a big step backwards. As always, this media is focused on local, and we will talk to a city councillor that maybe making a move from local to national.

This Thursday, May 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Shock and Quad. Pro-Palestinian protests are nothing new to university campuses, but they've blown up in the last few weeks do to clashes between police and students at Columbia University in New York. Solidarity protests have popped up on other campuses, and now there's a political game being played about free speech and the cultural wars, but is the coverage missing the point of these protests in the first place?

Re-Criminal Minds. In a shocking move backwards, the provincial government of British Columbia has decided to re-criminalize the use of drugs in public spaces. Many are seeing this as a pre-election move by Premier David Eby to seem tough on crime, but activists are concerned about hitting rewind on hard fought progress on harm reduction strategies. Has the pendulum swung back to policing our way our of the addictions crisis?

O'Fork in the Road. A couple of weeks ago, reps from Guelph and Wellington County met at the third session of the Health and Housing Symposium, and one of them was Ward 6 Councillor Dominique O'Rourke. On this week's show, she will tell us what she got out of the symposium experience, and we will also talk about O'Rourke's new political endeavour, a play to take her skills and experience to Ottawa as Guelph's next MP!

Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.