Fitzroy Harbour Men's Fastball League

Some older readers will remember the "Good Old Days" of fastball when many area small villages and towns had a local recreational fastball league. The vast majority of those leagues are dead and gone.

However, the Fitzroy Harbour Men's Fastball League continues on in its 30-ish year of existence. The league had been teetering on the edge of folding the last few years. In its hey-day there were 10 teams in the league. While the league is now 4 teams, I'm pleased to report it is quite healthy with 14 or 15 players on each team, several new pitchers signing up, and each team having 4 or 5 recent graduates in their late teens or early twenties from the West Carleton Minor Softball program on their roster.

Now don't get me wrong - the play won't be confused with Senior level ball. (Exhibit A - the late game last night was 21-11 in five innings.) The league is lots of fun and strictly recreational - everybody bats, free defensive substitution, pitchers can't go more than 4 innings, etc. But it is still nice to see a community league where grown men are playing FASTBALL not three-pitch or slo-pitch or lob-ball - FASTBALL.

After a 6 year hiatus, I've signed up again for the Wednesday night league and will be playing whenever possible - if you run into Mrs. Fitzroy Fastball, don't mention that to her OK? She doesn't need to know I'm playing in two leagues.