The dust is still settling over the Alex Ross Memorial Field in Snug Cove after last weekend’s annual three-day pennant race. The competition was tense, fierce, and gregarious, and it has, as always, left us with a little sense of loss as we look to the coming winter and its long, cold, baseball-less nights. But for now, the ups and downs of an exceptional season and a thrilling tournament are still very much alive in our minds as we regale one another with the stories, stats, and strikeouts that defined the 2014 Bowen Island Men’s Fastpitch season!
Spring training began much like any other year, with a few strategic recruitments here and there, as well as the usual rumour mill and trade talks that generally preclude the least prophetic of season-long projections, but there was something different about this pre-season. Something exciting. Something big was Brewing.
There was a team out there practising! It was still early April, and the season wasn’t set to begin until the 27th of that month. And this wasn’t just any team practising- this was a brand-new set of ballers who were chomping at the bit and stomping at the plate to take on the other five teams in the League. These were the Brewers.
Sponsored by the Howe Sound Brewing Co. and fearlessly coached by Robert Clayton, Derek Sinke, and James Strang, the Brewers rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the Celtics, whose Irish luck had either expired or had never really flourished in the first place, and they took to the league with the kind of fire and ambition that becomes the stuff of Bowen ballpark legend. Not because they swept the League Championship; in fact their season on paper seems at first glance not to be remarkable. But paper never really tells the whole story. What the Brewers brought to the field was a whole lot of heart, dedication, camaraderie, and pure enjoyment of the game of fastpitch. They were a pleasure to watch, and they played some truly spectacular games during the regular season. Their ride to the tournament semifinals was nothing short of inspirational, and their ever-growing fan base and raw enthusiasm for the game has reinvigorated this league in a way that some folk might not have believed possible. It was our great privilege to award all three of the Brewers’ leaders with the Coach of the Year trophy, and we only wish that Robbie could have been there to celebrate what he had worked so hard to achieve. We’re all looking forward to seeing where you take the team next season!
No season summary is complete without paying a little tribute to its champions. The Diggers outplayed everyone yet again and took home the League Champions trophy for another year, thanks to their consistently excellent coaches Tom and Adam Woodward (occasionally referred to as the Bowen Sedins, but with better results) and the team’s well-developed baseball skills. But the big story of this year’s tournament is the victory of long-time Bowen baller Eddie Weismiller and the Cruisers in a tight, tense 5-4 win over the Shakers.
Eddie began his Bowen ball career in its inaugural year as a pitcher for the Firemen, one of the Original Four teams. As the League gained in popularity, it expanded to six teams, and the late 80’s saw the introduction of Eddie and the Cruisers. They had some great seasons, winning the league title a few times and making appearances in the tournament finals and semifinals in several years, but when Eddie and his boys stepped up to the plate last weekend the team hadn’t won a tournament since 1996. Well, all of that was about to change. They came strongly into the semifinals with a 2-1 record, and then rallied through a thrilling back-and-forth battle to edge out the Twins in a 12-10 extra-innings throwdown. This was baseball at its best. Then came the final game itself, in which the Cruisers came back from an early 2-run deficit to defeat the Shakers and reclaim their long-lost tournament title! No longer can I cheekily refer to the Cruisers as the Paper Kings, a running joke that began as a reference to the Cruisers being a team that “only looks good on paper,” because now they’re real Kings and they look good all over the place. If you doubt their royal status, just check out Jamie Weismiller’s treasury: he took home quite a lot of hardware during this year’s awards ceremony, including the highest honour you can receive in the league, the Greg Cope Most Sportsmanlike Player Award. To win this one, you need to be a pretty great guy in the eyes of your teammates, your opponents, your umpires, and your scorekeepers, but most of all you need to keep the true meaning of this league close to your heart at all times. That meaning is community, and Jamie never forgets it.
Speaking of community, the tournament just wouldn’t be the same without the beer garden concession run by each individual team in rotation. This year’s concession was expertly run by the Twins and their devoted friends, fans, and families; these volunteers worked tirelessly to keep us all fed and refreshed in the hot sun all weekend long, and we are so thankful for their hard work!
And so, on that note of gratitude and contentment, we close the book on the 2014 BIMFL season. For a full list of this season’s awards, please see the Bowen Island Pub’s ad in this issue of the Undercurrent. Stats are available through the Facebook group, “Bowen Island Men’s Fastpitch League.”
Until next season, folks.
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