Regina Red Sox general manager Gary Brotzel enjoys the attention the WCBL gets from Sportsnet’s Jamie Campbell
"Anybody who's watched Jays broadcasts has seen some of our league team hats on his desk; he talks about it,” Brotzel said on the SportsCage. "I think he's been in every park now except maybe Fort Mac. He books off holidays to come and watch the Western Canadian Baseball League, so that's pretty neat."
Besides recognizing Campbell’s support for the WCBL, Brotzel also wanted to acknowledge he honoured the passing of Jesse Lubiniecki.
Lubiniecki passed away on May 30, 2025, in a single car roll over while returning from Rose County, Montana to rejoin the Red Sox for the 2025 season.
Sending hugs to Jesse Lubiniecki’s family tonight. He died Friday while returning home to play for the @ReginaRedSox of the @wcbleague pic.twitter.com/saNch5bTMJ
— Jamie Campbell (@SNETCampbell) June 3, 2025
In 2025, the Red Sox won their third league championship, the other two times were in 2011 and 2012. Reflecting on the season, Brotzel points out the turnover the team had to overcome because players either went to play for another pro team or went back to school.
"You lose your starting rotation, your two closers, two first basemen, and your starting Division I catcher — all in 10 days," Brotzel recalled. "We replenished them with or replaced them with not 12 players; eight is all we could bring in. That's what we won the championship with. I don't think any other team in our league could have pulled that off, I really don't."
One player on Regina's championship team was Brady Bye and he talked about the process of getting along with the players.
“We lost some big tools, some great locker room guys, that was tough. We weren't really sure what to expect with some new guys coming in, but the new guys we had come in were awesome," Bye explained. "They meshed super well with us; it took us a little while to click. We had all the tools all year long, and then that last week of the season we really figured it out."
In Brotzel's opinion, none of the Red Sox's recent success is possible without head coach Rye Pothakos.
"I have to give Rye Pothakos, our field manager, a lot of credit. He reminds me a lot of what Corey Mace says, keeping that even keel, not too high. Let's go out and do our job," Brotzel said.
"If someone gets hurt, next man up, everybody on our roster has a kind of a role to play. That was very much our focus and our mentality, not only last year, but the season before. I don't want to cut teams down in our league, but some dugouts get very emotional, and the players are flying around, jumping out of the dugout, chirping, and that's not us."
Next season, the Red Sox will be under new ownership after Queen City Sports & Entertainment, which also owns the Regina Pats, bought the team. Brotzel was the president of the team last season and with the new ownership, he will be the general manager for 2026.
"A more professional attitude is being taken, I mean we've done our best as a non-profit,” Brotzel explained. "You can only do so much, and you can only go so far without having people doing specific jobs all day, every day. Instead of me doing this and that, a professional focuses on every aspect of the team, that's what I'm excited about."
