Alex Dumais
Eagles Graduate
Osgoode Hall Law School
March 19, 2018

An open letter to Eagles grads:

My journey in baseball, like for most players, started way back in Little League. Back then
I was small and was constantly overlooked on tournament teams because of my size. So I chose
to leave Little League early to play for BC Baseball. It was there that two coaches, Steve Bailey
and Gautam Srivastava, gave me a chance. They looked past my size, saw how fast I was, and
taught me how to play outfield. Had it never been for Steve and Gautam, I would have never
gone on to succeed as much as I did. My accomplishments include a silver medal at the 2006
Nationals, gold at the 2008 BC Summer Games, gold at 2008 BC Provincials, gold at 2008,
Nationals, multiple team BC appearances, and two years with the inaugural Premier Eagles.
Come this July, it will have been seven years since I last played with the Victoria Eagles
and seven years since I chose to not continue playing ball. I often look back on it as one of the
hardest decisions of my life. All the awards, the countless ferry trips, endless hours in the batting
cage, the scouting trips across the continent for the mere chance of being put on some “list” led
me to believe that playing college baseball wasn’t just something I should do, but something that
I had to do. After all, my friends and teammates were going. It was almost impossible to justify
dropping all that hard work and not go on to play college ball.

But as much as I wanted to keep playing ball, I also wanted to one day go to law school.
The Eagles program strongly promoted continuing education so ultimately the choice became
simple...stay in Victoria, focus on school, and hopefully do well enough to go to law school.
Since my time with the Eagles, I completed an undergraduate degree at the University of
Victoria. I’ve even worked in Ottawa for a summer rubbing elbows with the prime minister.
Now, after a long first semester of law school, I write this from the library one of the finest law
schools in the country, Osgoode Hall.

I recently stumbled upon a quote from hall of famer Willie Stargell that hit close to home.
When he entered into the hall of fame he said, “People like us are afraid to leave ball. What else
is there to do? When baseball has been your whole life, you can’t think about a future without it,
so you hang on as long as you can.” I find this quote ironic considering, as I write this in the law
library, I should be working on my research paper, a paper that is nevertheless arguing against
Major League Baseball’s current form of salary arbitration. The values and skills I learned
playing baseball continue to be an asset and have helped me succeed in school, in interviews, and
in my employment. The moral of this story is that baseball will always be a part of you and has
provided you with indispensable lifelong skills. With that being said, whatever path you choose
to follow there is no need to worry about losing what you worked so hard to accomplish.

Photos courtesy of Christian J. Stewart.