For many guys who will wear Ottawa Champions uniforms this season, it’s about redemption, a second chance — hoping somebody will notice, maybe leading to an opportunity to wear a major-league uniform.

For many, it never happens. Occasionally, it does. And that’s why players like Champions shortstop Daniel Bick keep pushing along.

First, to the regular season, which opens Thursday night as the Champions, in their second Can-Am League year, host the New Jersey Jackals at RCGT Park.

“I think we’ve put together a good ballclub,” said Champions manager Hal Lanier. “Our defence is going to be very, very good. We have some better arms in the outfield, we have guys who can go get the ball. The infield will be solid with Bick and (Albert) Cartwright playing short and second. We have two quality catchers, both of them could be No. 1.”

Last year’s inaugural season saw the Champions wind up in fifth place with a 46-50 record, just missing the Can-Am playoffs. The 2016 edition of the team was put together a bit differently, conforming to the spacious home park.

“We looked at it from the standpoint, let’s put players on the field who are accustomed to the small park, let’s get line-drive hitters, not guys who are going to pop the ball up all the time,” said Lanier. “This is a tough ballpark to hit home runs in. We have guys who are going to make contact, they’re not going to strike out as much as we did last year. That will really help our run production; that’s where we really failed last year — I think we were last in scoring runs. We’ve got guys who are going to put the ball in play and that makes opportunities to drive in runs. We’ll get some home runs, I think we have more power than we did last year, but we’re going to put guys in motion — hit and run a bit more than we did. We didn’t have the guys on our club that could do that — we had maybe one or two, this year maybe we have five or six.”

It’ll be tough to replace some of the players who are gone from the 2015 squad.

“We had a lot of guys retire, they went on to other jobs,” said Lanier. “We’re going to miss those guys. It’s tough to replace a 14-game winner, Andrew Werner, and a guy (Alan DeRatt) who had 24 saves last year. But we feel very good with our pitchers. Tyler Wilson, who was a setup man last year, is going to get an opportunity to close. He’s got the stuff to do it.”

Lanier is one of those baseball lifers, a guy who has been around the game for the better part of 55 years. The 73-year old played in the majors from 1964-73, won a World Series ring as a coach with the St. Louis Cardinals, then won the NL manager of the year award in 1986 with the Houston Astros, who dumped him in 1988. He’s gone on to manage 18 years in independent baseball.

Players like Bick keep him going. He wants to see them get their shot.

“There may be some guys who won’t be here all season,” said Lanier. “I’m surprised Daniel is here. He had a great workout with the Arizona Diamondbacks this winter. More than one team looked at him and he performed very well. He’s on the radar; if he gets off to a good start, you’re going to have to replace that.

“With all these players, our No. 1 priority is getting them an opportunity to go back to an organization. I told the guys, ‘Hey, this is your second opportunity. One door closed on you, but another door opened up. Go out there and put up numbers and see what happens.’ ”

The 24-year-old Bick, who has been a baseballer since he was three, played at Georgia College and State University. He played in summer leagues in Massachusetts, New York, New England and Saskatchewan — yep, with the Regina Red Sox of the WMBL.

Bick said going to an invitational Diamondbacks camp was a good experience.

“I got good feedback, but they seemed to be full on guys — there wasn’t much room,” he said. “My main focus is to come back here, where I was last year, and have a good season. Some of it is right place, right time. It’s what people need. If they need your position and you happen to be there …”

For now, he’s absorbing what he can from his teammates and his manager.

“A lot of people here have played affiliated baseball,” said Bick. “I listen to what they have to say, I don’t take anything for granted. If you want to make it to the next level, you have to perform at the level below.”

As for the 2016 Champions and playoff hopes, Bick said: “We definitely have a more balanced team, more speed. I like what I see so far. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. That’s the beauty of baseball.”