Legion Memorial Ball Park

You can’t mistake the sounds around you once summer hits this area. Lawnmowers trimming the greenery on boulevards. Kids laughing and shouting in neighbourhood playgrounds. Bicycle bells politely warning pedestrians of their presence. Oh, and there’s one more distinct audible that tells us the season has officially arrived.

“Play ball!”

And nowhere is that umpire declaration heard more frequently in this community than at Legion Memorial Ball Park, where St. Albert’s elite baseball athletes share space with their more recreational counterparts. Located at 215 Sturgeon Road, the park is a sprawling mass of four diamonds, each geared to different age and skill levels. Batting cages, a club house, field house and plenty of green space surrounding the sports complex complete the look.

When asked about the significance of Legion Memorial, Kurtus Millar, the executive director of the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association (SAMBA), which operates the park, thinks of how it’s contributed to the prominence of the sport in the city. “I think of the history,” he said. “When I played baseball there, all those trees were tiny. There’s been thousands of amazing volunteers that have come through that place.”

Not to mention thousands of parents who cheered their kids along the way, from smacking home runs to catching critical fly balls. Some of those young athletes have since climbed the rungs to bigger things such as playing in the West Coast League and on U.S. collegiate teams. 

It’s a sure bet that a lot of those kids, at one time or another, had played on all four of Legion Memorial’s diamonds. The smallest one, dubbed the Mosquito, is reserved for teams consisting of players younger than 11. Slightly larger is a diamond for participants no older than 12. The second largest diamond is for Bantam competitors younger than 15. 

And the largest diamond is for the oldest players. It’s also home base for the St. Louis Tigers, a senior Men’s AAA Baseball Alberta Sunburst League franchise that has won two national titles and nine provincial championships. Another frequent user is the North Central Alberta Baseball League’s St. Louis Cardinals, which won the league championship in 2023. 

Folks can also book a field for recreational use, although Millar cautioned that there’s hardly an abundance of spare dates and times. In 2024, 72 minor league baseball teams occupied all four diamonds.

While Legion Park is busy throughout the summer, SAMBA frequently feels the budgetary pinch.

“It’s getting extremely expensive. A baseball is $10 now, and St. Albert Minor Baseball last year spent $25,000 on just baseballs and $15,000 on just chalk. The costs of everything is just getting crazy.”

Kurtus Millar

Fortunately, ever since Legion Memorial was built in time for St. Albert to host the Alberta Summer Games in 1979, SAMBA has received regular financial assistance. The local chapter of the Royal Canadian Legion donated the land where the park was to be located. Money to since upgrade the park came from funding that included a $200,000 Community Facility Enhancement Program grant in 1992 and a $35,000 Edmonton International Baseball Foundation contribution in 2017. 

Additional money has come from programs like the Jays Care Foundation, a charity arm of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays franchise to create opportunities for youth to play baseball. Millar also recalled roughly half a million dollars went to SAMBA to upgrade the diamonds, and build a clubhouse and a fieldhouse which bears his name.

Millar had no idea the fieldhouse would be christened in his honour when it was completed in 1979. Apparently, the SAMBA board kept that part a secret until the last minute. “When I saw my name up there, it brought me to tears, that’s for sure,” he recalled. “It was very overwhelming and I’m very grateful.”

Legion Memorial also benefits from an arrangement made possible by SAMBA with support from the City of St. Albert to ensure that the programs and services taking place at the park remain available to the municipality’s residents.

“I think it’s perfect, to be honest. If we’re doing renovations and upgrades, we fill out the permits with the city and they’ve been fantastic in helping us where they can and they let us do our own thing, and understand that we’re trying to make the best possible experience for those kids.”

said Millar about the agreement.

While SAMBA handles the administration end of things, many of its board members are also on hand to join the multitude of volunteers in keeping the facility in tip-top shape. It’s that sweat equity that Millar believes makes a big difference in preserving Legion Memorial’s well-being. 

“We’ve got some very talented and hardworking athletes and families who put their hearts and souls into that place,” he said. “The enthusiasm is still there; it’s still pretty awesome to see people take a lot of pride in that place and facility and play the game the right way.”

Sentimentally, the sights and sounds of what goes on at Legion Memorial likely make summer an ideal season for Millar. “There’s nothing like that place,” he said. “You stand on the deck and watch all four fields are going, and people are everywhere. Kids are chasing foul balls, you hear cheers in the ball park, it’s a pretty awesome place, that’s for sure.”