SAFE TRAVELS: Among those bidding Marty Grant, back row, middle, farewell were, back row, councillor Aldo Miccio and Jack Fletcher and front, from left Lewis Miccio, Grant’s son Cooper and Hugo Fletcher
Around 30 friends and supporters bid Nelson’s Marty Grant an emotional farewell on Sunday as the veteran Black Sox pitcher left for his fifth world championship softball campaign in Canada.
With three world crowns already under his belt, the 42-year-old Grant is chasing title No 4 in Saskatoon starting on July 17.
An official sendoff from councillor Aldo Miccio, representing Mayor Kerry Marshall, and a rousing Haka Tika Tonu performed by the Nelson kapa haka group Whatukura were part of the brief farewell ceremony at Nelson Airport.
Grant thanked his supporters and training partners Derryn French, Sam Miller, Simon Ashby and Jack Fletcher, and his friends who in a surprise gesture last week presented Grant’s wife Abbie and son Cooper with air tickets to travel to Canada for the championships. Abbie is recovering from successful breast cancer surgery.
Grant’s progress can be followed on his Twitter page or via the international softball federation website link for the champs, which will provide coverage of games and Ballpark Radio.
Editor’s note: “Bon Voyage” might be a more suitable headline; “Farewell” sounds like retirement and Marty is very much on the active player list, earning All World honors at last year’s ISC World Tournament at age 42. The last line of the story is not quite accurate — we’ll be broadcasting the Black Sox games on Ballparkradio at the World Fastball Invitational at Monkton this coming week/end, July 2-5, 2009, but not the ISF Championships which start July 17, 2009. Ballparkradio did submit a proposal to broacast the 2009 ISF World Championships in Saskatoon, but was not selected to do the broadcasting.