NORTH CARIBOU LAKE FIRST NATION – McCartney Beardy says he’d never picked up a baseball bat in his life before Saturday.
He certainly showed he knows what to do with one.
The North Caribou Lake First Nation youngster was one of the first to overcome his initial shyness, and joined a dozen players and coaches from the Thunder Bay Border Cats in a rag-tag practice session on a rugged ball field at the remote fly-in reserve, situated deep in Ontario’s north.
It was a blast, the 11-year-old said.
“It’s awesome,” he said.
“It feels amazing when you hit for the first time.”
Lucius Kakekeyash said he’d played the game a couple of times before, but nothing too serious.
The 13-year-old quickly mastered the art of hitting, belting the ball with power to all corners of the field, one of two roughly kept diamonds in the community.
He even managed to impress some of the Border Cats brought in to provide baseball lessons, nine Americans and one Canadian who had no idea what to expect when they volunteered for Saturday’s adventure.
“My favourite part was when I hit the ball,” Lucius said, thankful the Border Cats players were willing to spend the morning putting on a free clinic for the community’s children.
“They came all this way to help us play baseball.”
Montreal native J.F. Garon, who grew up in the Montreal suburbs and is hitting .289 as an outfielder with the Border Cats in 2017, said it’s important to give back and teach the game to the next generation, regardless of where they might happen to live.
“I think I fell in love with the game because people did it with me, so I just think it’s important to do so too,” said Garon, a former member of Canada’s junior national men’s team.
“I was blessed to have people influence me in my baseball career. I just want to be a role model. It’s baseball, it’s fun and I’m just trying to have fun with the kids.”
He was a little surprised just how much talent was waiting to be found in North Caribou Lake First Nation.
“I think most of them are still young. One of them was 10 and has a cannon for an arm. I was trying to back him up on the mound and he could get the ball there,” Garon said.
Border Cats manager Dan Grant said the excursion evolved from discussions with mining company Goldcorp, who provided the plane and donated boxes full of ball gloves, baseball caps, bases and helmets as a legacy of the visit.
It’s something the team’s owners have wanted to do since they bought the Cats a year ago.
“We kind of fast-tracked the plan and it’s been awesome so far, I think the kids are having fun.”
It’s the kind of venture the Border Cats hope to remain involved in, Grant saying he views Northwestern Ontario as one giant community.
Clearly, he liked what he saw, on and off the field.
“I see some skill so far. I think once they got a couple of lessons in they started hitting the ball a little better,” Grant said. “We always have openings.”
