Disappointed with last year’s tournament, Dave Mack says he wanted to make this year’s Senior Little League Canadian Championships world class.
The city sent its senior and junior little league team to last year’s tournament in Regina, Sask. Mack travelled out to see the games, but remembers that he wasn’t happy with how things were being run and decided to take matters into his own hands.
“I was trying to follow the games out there and there was nothing,” he said. “ I drove by the ballpark. I thought it was just a weekend tournament. It’s the Canadian championships for these guys.
“For most of them, it will be the only Canadian championships they will ever see at any level. The host did well with rooms, and the games were good quality but there was no local press. The kids didn’t get a Canadian championship experience and I knew we could offer that.”
Mack and Norm Randle started to get the ball rolling into bringing the championship to Thunder Bay.
It took nearly a year of hard work but it is all finally starting to pay off as the nine-day long baseball tournament, featuring players between the ages of 15 and 16 years old , kicked off in the city Wednesday afternoon at Baseball Central.
Seven teams, representing either their home province or region, are competing in this year’s championships and include:
- British Columbia
- Saskatchewan
- The Prairies
- Ontario
- Quebec
- The Maritimes.
The final games are scheduled for Aug. 8 and the winner of the tournament will move on to represent Canada at the Senior Little League World Series, which is being held in Bangor, Maine on Aug. 10.
The first game of the tournament, which features the hometown Thunder Bay Selects, gets started at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Baseball Central.
Mack said putting the tournament together was more time consuming than it was difficult.
“We have the perfect venue for it,” he said. “We hosted the Ontario seniors last year here so we knew we could do it. We actually applied for the senior Canadians this year and the big league Canadian next year. We got both of them.”
The following is the schedule for the Thunder Bay Selects:
- Fraser Valley Cyclones Aug. 1 at 6:30 p.m.
- Ottawa South Blues Aug. 2 at 6:30 p.m.
- Saskatchewan Aug. 3 at noon
- Valleyfield Elites Aug. 4 at 6:30 p.m.
- Cape Breton Cubs Aug. 6 at 6:30 p.m.
Mack said he was thankful by the level of support for the tournament to come to the city.
“Thunder Bay has never been a baseball powerhouse,” he said. “All the leagues are seeing a bit of a decline. We have the talent in this area and we’re trying to get baseball front and centre.”a
The Selects got off to a good start Wednesday night, downing Lethbridge 11-4. In other action, Quebec's Valleyfield Elites edged B.C.'s Fraser Valley Cyclones 9-8 and Saskatchwan pounded the South Ottawa Blues 12-5.
For more information about the tournament, visit the official website.
