The Weyburn Beavers had a sold-out crowd at the Weyburn Legion Friday night for their first ever sports dinner and auction. The more than 200 guests in attendance enjoyed a meal provided the staff at the Legion and served by a number of the Beavers players who are already in town for the season, which starts next week.

“You would not believe how overwhelmed we are,” said team president Garnet Hansen. “Literally, thinking of this for years, and its absolutely blown me away, the response from the community and the turnout.”

The crowd was there to see the guest speakers, former Toronto Blue Jays Jesse Barfield and Roberto Alomar. The evening started with an auction for the chance to the two guests sit at the table of the winning bidder for the meal. The final bid to have Alomar at the table was $1,100 and for Barfield, it was $400. It wouldn’t be the end of the fundraising for the night, however.

Hansen explained the night, while it will help the team’s bottom line, will also go a long way to further establishing the team’s role in the community.

“I think it’s an awareness of what we’re actually trying to do as the Weyburn Beavers, as a team in the WMBL, and when you start bringing people like Jesse Barfield and Roberto Alomar into Weyburn, people start seeing value in what you’re doing.”

After the meal, the two guests joined emcee Cameron Birnie on stage for a question and answer session. The questions which came in from the crowd ranged from queries about what it was like to play against some of the all-time greats in Major League Baseball, to which teammate had the most swagger, to the best road stories which were safe to repeat in front of an audience.

The question and answer session wrapped up with a surprise announcement from Alomar. He told the audience he would be making a donation of $2,000 to the ball club through his company, Alomar Sports.

After the Q&A, the live auction began, which had a number of items, ranging from signed Blue Jays jerseys to a Blue Jays experience trip to see the team in Toronto later this season. While the final totals weren’t available right away, it is expected the fundraiser will be deemed a success.

The visit to Weyburn for the guests didn’t end after the dinner. They will be helping to run a baseball clinic with youth players in Weyburn Saturday morning at Tom Laing Park.