A blog dedicated to news about the Greater Ottawa Fastball League and other happenings in the world of fastball / fastpitch softball in eastern Ontario and western Quebec, with occasional stories featuring Mrs Fitzroy Fastball, Fitzroy Fastball Junior and the Caveman. If you have info to send on, send me an email at fastball[at]fitzroyharbour.com. Follow @fitzroyfastball on Twitter.
Sad to report that Claire Porter, father of Greater Ottawa Fastball League pitcher Brad, died last week. Condolences to the Porter family. Claire was a great fan of the game of fastball over the years.
Seeing as there is no live fastball to watch, feel free to check out this YouTube video from the Perth Shootout in 1995, featuring the Canadian National Development Team vs New Zealand Black Sox.
Some interesting facts related to this video:
- The Perth Shootout was a major men's tournament in the early 1990s, with world class ISC teams from across North America participating each year. Even though Perth itself isn't considered a local 'hotbed' of fastball, they hosted an excellent event at a top notch facility with great crowds.
- Take note of the multitude of mullets on the players - many of us did sport this, at the time, very fashionable hair-do in the early 90s.
- The style of ball being played is also of its time. I won't give away the final score, but suffice it to say it was low-scoring, lots of small ball and slapping which was common in the 90s.
- The play-by-play man for the telecast is Claire Porter - father of GOFL pitcher Brad. The colour man is Ray Madden, a long time coach for fastball in Smiths Falls.
- Appearances in the video include local pitcher Troy McLean who was picked up by Team Canada for the weekend and Peter Peckett who is a top notch diamond announcer and scorekeeper from Perth who has also been extensively involved with the Central Canada Hockey League (formerly CJHL).
With the City of Ottawa officially holding off any bookings of sportsfields until June 30 at the earliest, the 2020 Greater Ottawa Fastball League season is on hold until further notice, as is every other league in the area, if not the world.
We will try and get somewhat of a season in later this summer if at all possible, depending on how things happen with respect to municipal, provincial and federal direction regarding COVID-19.
