They were purple people greeters on a mission.

The Saskatoon Berries entered the 2024 Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) season as a team with a strong vision, but no track record.

An effective marketing and social media campaign helped brand the Berries and introduce the expansion team to the city of Saskatoon. Saskatchewan’s largest city responded by welcoming the club with open arms, and their loyalty was met with a summer of great baseball memories.

“It exceeded all our expectations, for sure,” said Steve Hildebrand, president of the Berries, at the WCBL annual meetings in Saskatoon.

“We have a great team here, a great group of people behind the scenes that pulled this off. It’s a vision we had for a few years. I’m really appreciative of all the teams welcoming us in and, yeah, it was great. Right from marketing to naming the team to colours, and then what Joe Carnahan and this coaching staff did on the field was awesome. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the players. They competed every night and really grew some affinity to the city and the fans came out. It was awesome.”

The Berries are one of the teams that is operated under the umbrella of the Sask Entertainment Group (SEG), which also owns the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League and the Saskatchewan Rush of the National Lacrosse League.

“Having done this with our other teams, with the Blades and the Rush, we’ve got a great footprint on how to go about things, how to do things,” said Hildebrand.

“We teach our people, right from the ground up, especially on the communications piece – they just did a wonderful job. Every night, every day, something was going on and super proud of them, for sure.”

The Berries also had trouble keeping merchandise on the shelves last year and the team made purple a popular colour around the city.

“When you get Morgan Wallen and Snoop Dogg wearing your stuff, you know you’ve done pretty good. That also helped just amplify everything that we did. Overall, I think our merch sales were unbelievable … it was fantastic and I have challenged our group to execute in year two,” said Hildebrand.

In addition to the marketing and merchandising wins, Saskatoon also excelled on the field.

Success didn’t come easily, or early. The Berries went 0-5 to start the season and struggled to find their footing in the first half of the campaign.

Despite the sluggish start, Hildebrand said he didn’t lose faith in the group.

“I know we started off the season a little slow last year. I never at one point felt that we were in trouble. I felt really confident in (head coach Joe Carnahan) and who he had brought in,” admitted Hildebrand.

He credited Carnahan and his coaching staff – pitching coach Andrew Albers and assistant coaches Chance Wheatley and Alex Archuleta – with guiding the club through a difficult start.

“Joe, his name speaks for itself in this league – his calming influence on everything we do is just superb. He’s won for a reason and we’re super-excited to have him on our team, and he’s an unbelievable human being,” said Hildebrand.

“Our coaching staff was great … players knew where they stood every day, they worked hard every day, they were unbelievable in the community, and that’s just a tribute to Joe and how he operates.”

The Berries finished the regular season in third place in the East Division with a 31-25 record. They defeated the second-seeded Medicine Hat Mavericks in the opening round of the postseason, before losing out to the Moose Jaw Miller Express in the second round.

Looking back on the season, Hildebrand got emotional recalling the day the Berries clinched a playoff spot and presented him with the game ball.

“That was unbelievable. That, to me, was like, we got here,” he said.

“This has been a vision for a while. This wasn’t just, hey, let’s throw a baseball team together. It’s been a vision for a while and it’s not just myself, it’s our group. That day was really like, we’re here. And then to upset Medicine Hat in the playoffs is pretty cool. It got the city going and then we played Moose Jaw in an unbelievable series and we lose out, but extremely proud of our group and the year we had.”

ENCORE ON DECK

So, how can the Berries top their 2024 season? What will the do for an encore?

Hildebrand believes their is still room to grow and improve.

“What’s cool now is everyone has seen what we do and how we do things and even someone that hasn’t played for us understands and knows who the Saskatoon Berries are,” he said.

“We have to just keep building off of what we have. The cool part is our people have seen what it looks like now. They had no idea going into the season. Now we can be even better and we’re going to do that, we’re going to be better. We have a few things in mind at the ball stadium that we’re going to do and it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ve got some new promotions that are going to happen and I think we’re just going to build off of what happened in year one and I know Joe’s going to do a great job and we’ll be right there again.”

Hildebrand said the team’s mandate is to qualify for the postseason every year and the ultimate goal is to win a WCBL championship.

“It doesn’t matter which team we have, so that’s the expectation,” said Hildebrand.

“We’re not content, no. We’re like anyone else, we want to win a championship.”

The Berries took a major step towards their playoff and title pursuits with the recent re-signing of outfielder Carter Beck, who was the WCBL Rookie of the Year, Most Outstanding Canadian and All-Star Game MVP in 2024.

“It was a super easy decision to come back, especially with how well the Jam Fam treated us all year,” said Beck in an announcement on the Saskatoon Berries website.

“I’m thrilled to be back in Saskatoon. I’m just excited to play in front of a packed house with the Jam Fam going nuts. Playing baseball there is some of the most fun I have ever had in my life.”

Added Beck: “On the development side, I feel like my swing is better than it ever has been right now and I am continuing to get stronger and faster every week.”

Carnahan was excited to welcome back Beck for another summer.

“He was an impact guy for us last season and brings energy to the park everyday. The level of his day to day consistency in work ethic, attitude and competitiveness is special,” said the head coach.

Hildebrand also spoke glowingly of the Carnduff, Saskatchewan product.

“Carter Beck, I mean what more can we say about the kid? He’s been unbelievable and, not only what he did on the field but in the community. That just helps us keep moving forward,” said Hildebrand.