Joey Payeur
With the Major League Baseball season opening in less than two weeks, those who enjoy the delights of the diamond soon will have their hunger for the grand old game satisfied.
The same can be said for those of the younger generation here in the Rainy River district.
The Fort Frances Little League Baseball Association isn’t waiting for the snow to melt to start recruiting players aged seven-12, and softball players aged nine-12, to fill their rosters for the upcoming season.
Registration forms already are available at Skates & Blades and Taggs Source for Sports here for four different age categories, which can be filled out and returned to those two stores.
Practices will be held in Fort Frances, with games taking place at Rizzo Field and Holler Field over in International Falls.
“This is our eighth year doing baseball,” noted association president Dave Sande. “We’re hoping to get at least enough kids to have a Major ‘A’ [ages 11-12] and Major ‘B’ [ages nine-10] baseball team again this year.”
The Major ‘A’ roster will include players born between May 1, 1996 and April 30, 1998 while the Major ‘B’ group will encompass those born between May 1, 1998 and April 30, 2000.
There also will be a minor league level for baseball for children born between May 1, 2000 and April 30, 2002, with teams to be made up of a combination of boys and girls this year.
As well, there will be major girls’ softball division for those born between Jan. 1, 1996 and Dec. 31, 1999.
The registration fee for all four levels is $75.
However, Sande is not optimistic Junior baseball (ages 13-16) will return to the local scene after taking a one-year hiatus last year due to a lack of players.
“We ran out of bodies,” explained Sande. “[Youth] soccer has 500-600 kids signing up and we’re on this side of the border trying to compete against that.
“There’s just too many leaving baseball for us to keep the older age levels going,” he remarked. “But we’ll try and rebuild it again.”
Fred Jack coached the local Major ‘B’ squad to the league championship last year—and is planning to coach a majority of the same group in Major ‘A’ in 2009.
“It was a lot of work to get the boys to play good defence,” Jack said of last year’s squad. “The bats were there for the boys and a big part of it was our pitching.
“As far as I know, I am pretty much expecting all of them back to play Major ‘A’.”
Sande said last year’s local Major ‘A’ squad had a good regular season, but had to forfeit its playoff games due to not having enough players to field a complete squad at that point of the season.
Days and times for the different leagues will be provided when they are available, with the regular season expected to run in May and June.
