Men’s fastpitch teams converge on Surrey’s Softball City this week for a national tournament rarely played in B.C.
For five days starting Wednesday (Aug. 30), Softball Canada’s 2023 Men’s and Master Men’s Fastpitch Championships will be held in this province for the first time since Prince George in 2006.
Several B.C.-based teams are among the 22 set to compete in Men’s and Master Men’s divisions in a sport that has had some ups and downs here over the years.
“We’re trying to kind of re-inspire boys back into the game locally,” said Greg Timm, chair of the organizing committee with Canadian Amateur Sport Society, which operates Softball City.
“Fastpitch is not often considered a sport for boys in Metro Vancouver, but that’s not the case in many of the province’s smaller towns.”
Last week Softball City hosted men’s fastpitch provincials in two divisions, followed by nationals this week. Timm’s eye is also on next summer when the diamonds in South Surrey will host the ISC (International Softball Congress) world fastpitch championships — another chance to grow the game here.
“The White Rock Rebels program once had 400 boys playing softball locally — just a little bit of history there,” Timm noted. “It used to be a really prominent game but for whatever reason, because of the high profile of baseball, because less kids are playing sports, because it didn’t have the right vision and leadership on the boys side, it just kind of collapsed here. We’re trying to get those numbers up again.”
This week, tournament schedules and standings are posted on mnf23.softballcity.bc.ca for 13 teams in the Men’s division (in Red and Black pools) and another eight in Master Men’s.
Matt Van Eeuwen, 25, is an outfielder with Moby Concrete Rippers, a team based in Vanderhoof.
“We have five to six guys from that area and the rest of us are from all over, including two guys from Kelowna and a few from the Lower Mainland,” Van Eeuwen noted.
He runs the website bcmensfastpitch.ca and works to promote the fastpitch game wherever and whenever he can, on Twitter and elsewhere.
“The fastpitch community in B.C. is small but I love that everybody knows everybody,” Van Eeuwen said. “It’s a great community game.”
Gilles LeBlanc, Softball Canada’s operations manager, said the organization has seen a rise in participation and interest for men’s softball in B.C. in recent years.
Timm points to the history of the game in B.C. has something to build on.
“Every little town would have its men’s fastpitch team, and it has a huge Indigenous background and overlay to it,” he explained. “So if you live in Powell River or Enderby or Revelstoke, wherever, those towns have a men’s fastpitch team and they go to tournaments on the weekend and the family comes and they have a family picnic, camping. They’d wrap it around fastball tournaments.
“In Metro Vancouver,” he continued, “there’s not that much left and we’re trying to kind of spark it up and tell the story a little bit here, how it’s a really great game to play and watch.”
Fastpitch involves a bat and a ball, of course, but some of its characteristics are different than baseball.
“The distances are shorter, which makes it faster,” Timm noted. “The men will throw the ball underhand at around 80 miles an hour, 82 miles an hour. If you try to hit a men’s fastpitch ball at 82 miles an hour from 46 feet as opposed to a baseball at 92 miles an hour from 60 feet, that’s hard to hit. These hitters are very skilled. And the games are quick — they last an hour and a half.”
With the ISC worlds coming to Softball City next August, Timm travelled to Wisconsin to watch the 2023 championships earlier this month, to observe, learn and start planning.
“The ISCs have been held in B.C. only twice before, both times in Victoria,” Timm said. “So here we are, using this week’s tournament as a springboard to next year’s worlds. We won the (ISC) bid last year and that gave us two years to plan that the 78th tournament in their history. We’re excited about that.”
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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