Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to acknowledge the Ottawa Champions Baseball Club in its second season.
The Ottawa Champions play in the Can-Am League, which has teams in Quebec City; Sussex County, New Jersey; Rockland, New York; and Trois-Rivières. Last year they sold just more than 115,000 tickets and welcomed more than 150,000 fans to the ballpark for their inaugural season that saw them compete for the playoff spot right up until the last games of the season.
The local star is Sebastien Boucher who is from Gatineau, Quebec. The team manager is Hal Lanier, who played for the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees.
The Ottawa Champions will play 54 home games this summer. In mid-June, they will welcome the Cuban national team and in late June a sister-league team, the Shikoku Island League all-stars from Japan. They will play in Ottawa against the Champions.
Next year, as part of the Canadian 2017 celebrations, the Ottawa Champions will hold a Can-Am all-star game.
I encourage every baseball fan in Ottawa—Vanier to come out and watch the Ottawa Champions knock it out of the park.