The Quotable Caveman

This rainy weather has not been kind to the Fitzroy Mites Softball team practice schedule so the Caveman is not in good humour. However, he has a had few quotable moments lately.

The "Natural"
We were out last week for a little softball practice time. After practising his CANpitch drills and throwing several strikes, we did some ground balls and pop flies. Next, we had some batting practice. Caveman was clearly enjoying himself, happy to be back outside playing some softball. After a particularly well hit ball out into the back forty, almost into the Carp River he remarked: "I was born to play this game!"

Good eatin'
Yesterday at supper, Caveman was looking for seconds. To his mother, formally: "Can I have some more meat of the pig, mother?" Mrs. Fastball, exasperated: "Yes, you can have some more ham, [Caveman]."

A novel approach
Caveman was upset after school today. I asked him why he was upset.
Caveman: "Because madame (his Grade 3 teacher) told us that our short stories for French class had to have lots of detail, but now she says I have too many details. [sigh]"
Me: "Oh, well that should not be a big deal, just make it shorter."
Caveman: "My story is 31 pages long. She wants two."

Stittsville to host Provincial Girls U14 Championship

As per the Provincial Women's Softball Association and Twitter, the Stittsville Minor Softball Association has been announced as the host for the 2014 provincial tournament for house league select girls U14 "Novice" (also known as "Peewee").

The SMSA will be using the Grove 1 and 2 in Stittsville, as well as Richmond Lions Park. The date for the tournament is August 22, 23, and 24.

Softball Canada Senior Men's Training Camp June 13-15

Softball Canada will be holding a training camp in Brampton June 13 - 15 to evaluate the 40-man athlete pool to determine who will make Team Canada for the PanAm games this fall in Argentina.

As mentioned back in January on the blog, Matt Greer of Shawville who plays for the Quyon Flyers of the GOFL, is one of the invitees. Also recently added to the 40-man pool is Joel Langford, who grew up in Orleans and is a graduate of the OAFA program, a former player in the GOFL, and is currently a member of the Toronto Gators ISC Club. Joel is also a third cousin of Fitzroy Junior and the Caveman (true fact!).

The complete list of invitees is on the Softball Canada website.

Good luck to both guys on their quest to make Team Canada.

Obituary: Mike Marcellus

Condolences to the Marcellus family on the death of Mike. Mike's son Ryan is a former teammate of mine in the old Arnprior Men's Fastball League. Mike was a frequent attendee to games and more that once made an appearance in the Prior Sports Bar line up when we only had eight guys show up.

Michael Marcellus - Obituary

OASA Springboard Clinic in West Carleton goes well

For the second year in a row, the Ontario Amateur Softball Association host a "Springboard" skills clinic for kids ages 8-18 in West Carleton, at Stonecrest Elementary School. This was one of four sessions in the province with others earlier in the month in Palmerston and Port Hope and one upcoming this coming weekend in Cayuga.

Once again, it was very successful as 70 athletes participated in drills to get ready for the upcoming season. New this year was the addition of a Softball Ontario "Learn to Coach" clinic in which 16 coaches were trained.

Thanks to Garry Waugh of the OASA for coordinating the logistics for the event. Also thanks to Shawn Trudeau who was the lead instructor for the day. He was helped by several men and women who gave their Saturday up to share their softball knowledge with the young people attending: Al Read, Cory Morrison, Dave Bahm, Kevin McGuire, Jeff Cavanagh, Erin Mulivhill, Grace Lonergan, Jean Cardona, Brad Porter, Jamey Mick, Robin Mackin and Andy Barber.

Two indications it was a success:
- Several people gave compliments on the way out the door as the picked up their free softball which came with the registration. A couple of people asked "when the next one would be held?".
- Caveman and Fitzroy Junior both attended the morning session and enjoyed it. Both showed off their skills prompting one of the instructors to comment "Where did they learn how to play ball?". Caveman also declared that he was giving the session "eight and three-quarters out of ten" - high praise from a hard marker.

Kernaghan Cup Fastball Tournament - Grafton‏

Kernaghan Cup Fastball Tournament - Grafton‏

July 18th – 20th, 2014
Grafton Ball Fields at the Haldimand Arena
10766 County Road 2, Grafton
Cost: $450.00/team
(cheques must be received by June 15th, 2014, payable to “Community Sports and Events Committee”)

Men's and Women's Divisions
Dance on the Saturday evening as well!
Guarantee of 3-4 games per team
To Register email jenkeller@hotmail.com

GOFL schedule coming soon

The 2014 schedule for the Greater Ottawa Fastball League will be available soon.

There are seven teams, each playing nine home games for a total of 63 matches.

I4C Victory and Kars Aces will now be playing home games out of Manotick. Kanata Pirates will have home games in Carp. West Carleton Electric will continue with home games in Fitzroy Harbour and Micksburg Twins and Quyon Flyers will play in their respective home towns.

Play starts on May 13 and continues over twelve weeks. Three best-of-five playoff series will be played in August (2nd vs 7th, 3rd vs 6th, 4th vs 5th) with the first place team getting a bye (assuming they accept it). The four remaining teams then advance to the Final Weekend Showdown on September 12 and 13 in Stittsville.

Micksburg Twins are the GOFL defending champions, taking the title over the Kars Aces in their inaugural season.

Pickering Tournament June 13-14

from Dave Northern

Pickering Men's Fastball Tournament on Friday June 13 and Saturday June 14 (no games on Father's Day).

$350 entry fee, 3 game guarantee, 1 Fri night, 2 Sat (am/pm), top 4 teams make the semi-finals Sat @ 6pm, Championship @ 8pm.  

Everybody bats, no ISC calibre pitchers.  Top 4 teams get prize money. Player of the Game awards each team, each game.  Last year there were 14 teams.  

 

Contact:

Dave Northern

905-706-7873 cell

905-420-0628 home

dave.northern1@gmail.com

 

Wayne Wells inducted in Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame

Many players in eastern Ontario will have played against Wayne Wells from Peterborough. He was recently inducted into the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame. Info here from Al's Fastball.

North Leeds Men's Fastball League has 8 teams this season

from Terry McCann

North Leeds Mens Fastball League has 8 confirmed entries at this time, games are on Thursday nights and it is a 14 game schedule with play to begin on Thursday May 22nd.

The Greenbush Jrs have dropped out and there is a new team - the Eastons Corners Aces. The 7 returning teams are:

Domville Jrs

Lyn

Greenbush Generals

Newboro

Seeleys Bay

Athens

Eastons Corners Classics

"The Glen" still looking for a few more players

The Glen Cairn Men's Fastball League currently has 76 players registered for the season. They are looking for a few more guys to join to ensure seven teams with sold rosters. "The Glen" will have seven men's teams plus the Stittsville Midget Selects this year.

If you are interested in registering, sign up online.

REMINDER: OASA Springboard Clinic in West Carleton on April 26

The Ontario Amateur Softball Association (OASA) is proud to bring its Springboard Program to eastern Ontario, in partnership with the West Carleton Softball Association.

Saturday April 26th, 2014

Stonecrest Elementary School, 3791 Stonecrest Road, Woodlawn (West Carleton)

There will be two different sessions throughout the day

Ages 8-12: 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Ages 13-16: 12:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m.

There will also be an 8 hour "Learn to Coach" session for interested coaches.

Registration: Players and Coaches

a) Pre-Registration: Participants (players and coaches) are encouraged to pre-register on the OASA website www.oasa.ca .

b) The Learn to Coach course will be made available to all coaches. Please register if you are interested in taking this course at www.oasa.ca. Cost is $67.15.

c) Saturday April 26th registrations will be taken at the door as well but space may be limited depending on pre-registered numbers.

d) There is a $15 per player entry fee payable at the door. Cheques can be made payable to the OASA. Please come early to ensure you can register in a timely fashion.

Included with the Entry Fee: T-Shirt, Ball, Information Booklet and Healthy Snack.

What will the players learn at the Springboard?
1. Warm-Up A proper and fun way to a Warm-Up

2. Batting Techniques

• a) Grip
• b) Stance
• c) Ready Position
• d) Swing

3. Throwing:

• a) Grip
• b) Throwing Mechanics

4. Fielding (infield and outfield)

• a) Throwing
• b) Footwork

5. Pitching: instruction through the CANpitch Program (for interested pitchers)

6. Base-running: this will include starting, rounding a base, and leaving from a base

For further inquires or questions, please contact Adam Brown at fastball@fitzroyharbour.com.

Cornwall Men's Fastball League registration April 9

The Cornwall Men's Fastball League registration will be held Wednesday April 9. See this article for more details: http://www.standard-freeholder.com/2014/04/08/fastball-registration.

Another "Name that Player" contest UPDATED

Back in July, I had a "contest" on the blog to see if readers could identify GOFL players based on some photos, which in turn were based on their nicknames.

Now that we have another month to wait before ball season started, I thought it was time for another such contest. To refresh you memory, here are the "rules", such as they are:

Sometimes you may play against (or even with) a particular player for a long period of time and never know their actual name on their birth certificate. Or you may have a nickname (like I do) that only people you play ball with call you by - your other friends outside fastball have never heard you called that.

With that in mind, this contest tests your knowledge of Greater Ottawa Fastball League player nicknames. See below for four sets of images (the last two photos are combined for a single person), each representing a player in the GOFL.

If you know the real names of the players these represent, put your answers in the comments and leave your name (or nickname, I suppose). First person to get all four correct receives a complementary Labatt 50 the next time they are at the Fitzroy Harbour Community Centre (retail value $3.50).

UPDATE at 3:50pm: I received four correct answers before noon! Kenny Fleck was the first one in at 8:32am. However, he texted me instead of putting in the comments, so I am not sure if he should be disqualified on a technicality. Other correct answers by Shawn Laframboise, Joe McCleary and Derick Bulley, in the comments. (Don't look unless you want to know the answers.) What the heck, all four guys are awarded complementary Labatt 50s at the FHCC. Congrats.

List of ISC Qualifiers

The International Softball Congress has posted a list of qualifier tournaments for teams interested in attending the ISC World Tournament.

Stittsville Minor Softball Association hosting coaching clinic

The Stittsville Minor Softball Association is hosting a coaching clinic on Sunday April 27 from Noon to 4pm at the Richcraft Recreation Complex in north Kanata.

The session is focused on helping coaches working with young beginning players. For more information, visit their website at http://www.stittsvillesoftball.org/.

Pontiac Men's Fastball League looks good for 2014

Back in January, we had an item on the blog about the possible return of the Pontiac league this year.

It looks like there will indeed be a men's fastball league on the Quebec side in the Pontiac this year, playing once a week on Mondays (to be confirmed) at the Shawville RA diamonds.

This league will be recreational and open to all skill levels. If you are interested in participating, contact Joe McCleary via Facebook, by phone 613-294-7319 or email at jmccleary25@gmail.com.

Given my experience playing fastball against (and on occasion, with) the boys from the Pontiac, this league will be lots of fun and will include a few post-game refreshments.

Kemptville Slugfest - Girls' Softball Tournament

Kemptville Little League Invites You to the First-Ever Wildcat Slugfest Girls' Softball Tournament
                                                               
Kemptville and District Little League presents the 2014 Wildcat Slugfest Girls' Softball Tournament. Come be part of a special weekend of competition and fun.

*** 3 Games Guaranteed (weather permitting) ***
*** Welcome Pennant for All Players ***
*** Medals for the Division Winners ***
*** Experienced, Professionally Attired Umpires ***
*** Well Groomed and Lined Diamonds ***
*** Canteen with Drinks, Dogs and Snacks ***

Ages:  Squirt (9 and 10) | PeeWee (11 and 12) | Bantam (13 and 14)
Location: Kemptville Riverside and South Gower Parks
Date: June 6-8, 2014
Registration Deadline: May 15
Cost: $160 (Cdn.) / $145 (USD)

More information at  >>>  www.KemptvilleLittleLeague.com