Baseball in the North Central Alberta Baseball League is alive and well. How can one draw this conclusion after the Blackhawks failed to win a single game while registering four consecutive defeats during the 2019 Western Canada Baseball Championship in Stonewall, Manitoba, last week-end. The answer is simple. The Blackhawks competed as a club team with the same basic roster they have depended upon in regular and post-season NCABL play. Their competition, on the other hand, were all clubs bolstered with several star players from across each competing province or at least from a larger regional base. A quick analysis of each game played will reveal a constant pattern. The Blackhawks fiercely competed in each of those four games, losing them all by an aggregate total of only six runs. In other words, the Blackhawks, our defending League Champions did not embarrass themselves. Far from it. They were in every game, losing two by a single run and two by a pair of runs including one game in extra innings. As Sam Ewanishan, one of the Blackhawk catchers noted, three small yet consistent observations or distinctions could be highlighted. The first was that all pitchers faced were top ten candidates in any League, the second was that no inherent weaknesses could be found in any batting order faced, and the third was that the club rosters faced by the Blackhawks were comprised of large and strong athletes. These three observations are all that is needed to prove another fact, that the Blackhawks were capable of facing this adversity while refusing to bend. Baseball is definitely alive and well in the NCABL.