As manager of the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre, Craig Langille had a busy July.
For nearly three weeks, the NSC was the temporary home for hundreds of wildfire evacuees. Preparing the plan to deal with that meant Langille's duties changed abruptly and he was suddenly thrust into a position as an emergency responder.
Just like he was last year in Fort McMurray.
While that city was burning, he was setting up an evacuation centre at a recreation facility he managed at MacDonald Island Park. But that lasted only a couple of hours until the entire city had to be evacuated from the rapidly-advancing flames.
Considering Langille's background in baseball as a relief pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers' system, putting out fires comes with the territory. He spent three seasons pitching in the minor leagues, two with the Brewers' Arizona League affiliate (2005 and 2006) and one in the Pioneer League in Helena, Mont. (2007).
Langille took on his new job on the UNBC campus in April and the move to Prince George has allowed him to revive his baseball career after five years away from the game. He took a spot in the rotation with the KnB Contracting Orioles of the Northland Dodge Prince George Senior Baseball League - one of three Orioles pitchers picked to play for the Prince George Grays when they host the B.C. senior provincial baseball championship which starts Saturday at Citizen Field.
The Grays last hosted the tournament in 2012 and went 2-2 that year but have struggled ever since against their provincial peers. This year they've played just one team - the Kamloops Sun Devils - winning one of three games, but Langille figures the Grays will be competitive in the five-team tournament.
"Being at home we have a full staff - we have a lot of guys who can get on the mound and can hit, and we'll definitely have good defence," said Langille, who pitched six innings in a 4-3 win over the Sun Devils a month ago at Citizen Field.
Lefthander Curtis Sawchuk, who plays for the 2017 regular season-champion Queensway Auto World Red Sox, brings college experience from Missouri Baptist, having played in the 2013 NAIA World Series. Jon Bourassa, Dylan Johnson, Scott Atherton, Conor Whitely and Tyrus Jocko are the other Grays pitchers available for the three-day tournament.
Before he arrived in Prince George, Langille hadn't played since 2012, the end of a five-year stint of senior ball in Nova Scotia for Dartmouth Moosehead Dry.
He was drafted by the Brewers in the seventh round, 196th overall in the 2004 Major League Baseball draft. At the time, Langille was still in high school playing junior ball in Halifax. His stock rose just before the draft when he pitched the game of his life in the Nova Scotia triple-A junior league, tossing a no-hitter witnessed by former Toronto Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick, then the GM of the Seattle Mariners.
"It was three days before the draft and he flew out to see me and I threw a no-hitter, the only one I've ever thrown," said Langille. "That was a clutch moment for my career and getting to where I wanted to. That was definitely the highlight of my career."
Armed with a wicked sinkerball, Langille played with or against the likes of Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Michael Brantley and Mike Moustakas. He also faced the speedy Ichiro Suzuki, who came in for one spring training game and successfully laid down a bunt which Langille was unable to field in time to throw him out.
"It was a dream come true, when I was a kid I always told my parents I wanted to play major league baseball and they just kind of laughed, they didn't think it was really an attainable goal," said Langille.
"It was definitely a great experience and I was blessed to even have that opportunity. We have some players around here that have gotten to that level. I was hoping to get the opportunity to play with Jared Young with the Grays, but he obviously has a lot better opportunity (now playing minor pro in the Northwest Baseball League for the Eugene Emeralds)."
Having grown up as a third baseman in the Halifax suburb of Hammonds Plains, Langille nearly quit baseball when he was 16. He was contemplating a summer of playing golf and hanging out with his high school buddies when one of his friends and his coach steered him back to the diamond in Dartmouth.
"I thought it was all over - I actually got noticed playing midget B baseball and the next year I went up to junior and that's when it took off," he said. "I never really took pitching seriously until I was asked to when I was 17 years old."
Although he signed in 2004, the Moncton. N.B. native couldn't get a work visa that year and spent the 2005 season in the Western Major Baseball League with Swift Current. He played a fall schedule for two years (2005 and 2006) in the Arizona Instructional League, where he shared the field with some of the top MLB prospects.
"It is a very difficult sport to make it in," he said. "Of the people who get drafted, only three per cent of them make it to major league baseball."
Langille received a $107,000 U.S. signing bonus with his first contract in 2004. He didn't get rich from playing, but the Brewers paid for his five-year education at Dalhousie University after his pro career ended.
Langille admits he had difficulty making the jump from junior ball his first pro season. In 14 games that year with the Arizona Brewers he posted a 2-3 record with a 6.84 earned run average.
His ERA dropped to 3.18 the following year.
"I got moved to the bullpen my second year and it definitely paid off, I threw really well," he said.
The Brewers released Langille after the 2007 Pioneer League season. After he graduated from Dalhousie in the spring of 2013 with a degree in recreation management, he worked in Milwaukee in the Brewers' front office, where he helped compile a 10-year scouting analysis, which dated back as far as his own draft year.
Langille plans to get involved in off-season programs to teach kids in Prince George Youth Baseball Association skills that will help them play the game and is trying to encourage other players in the PGSBL to get involved as coaches.
The evacuation order for Williams Lake was lifted on Thursday and the last busload of evacuees left the NSC Sunday afternoon. Assuming the wildfire threat continues to diminish, life will soon return to normal for Langille and his staff.
Last year because of the fires, Langille was laid off his job at Suncor Community Leisure Centre for a full month and returned to Halifax until people were allowed back in the city. The house in Fort McMurray where he was living with his partner, Rhea Bouchard, escaped damage but several homes on the adjacent street were destroyed.
"I definitely know what they're going through here," he said. "This was something I went through and now I'm on the other side of things and I hope that being here, we can just make the experience a little bit easier for them and get them home safe."
