From The Midland Free Press
Posted By IAN SHANTZ
Forget about that hardball game. Grant Patterson shoots from the hip.
Fastball is the specialty for this 36-year-old monster of a hurler.
And the team he joined prior to the start of the summer specializes in victories.
For the six-foot-seven, 225-pound Penetanguishene native, it all worked out in the end.
“These past few weeks have been a dream come true,” said Patterson, who grew up playing in the Toanche Fastball League his dad helped start. “It really hasn’t hit me yet, to be honest.”
Patterson was there when the Kitchener Rivershark Twins — a morphing of the Orillia Riversharks and Kitchener Twins — captured the first Canadian senior men’s fastpitch championship in its 42-year history a few weeks ago in St. Thomas.
The Rivershark Twins edged out the Jarvis Gamblers, 3-2, in extra innings.
“It’s weird,” said Patterson, who reaches speeds of more than 80 miles an hour with his windmill delivery. “I was warming up for most of (the final) at world’s, and the guys dragged me back to the bench for the last inning. They said, ‘You have to be here to see this.’ It was absolutely incredible to be a part of.”
The Rivershark Twins scored in the ninth to win the national crown. For Patterson, who left his former Michigan-based Midland Explorers teammates in the off-season to join the all-world Kitchener-based squad, things went exactly as he’d hoped.
“We had a great bunch of guys in (Michigan), but we could never win,” said Patterson, who lives in Toronto with his wife, J. J., and young daughters, Sydney, and Avery.
“I told the guys, basically, that I want to win, that I want to experience what it feels like to win. They understood.”
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En route to the final, Patterson pitched a two-hitter, helping his team blank the Charlottetown Fawcetts.
Patterson also helped his team solidify a first-place finish in preliminary action, tossing another two-hitter, this time in a 4-0 shutout over the host St. Thomas squad.
“For me, it was amazing,” said Patterson, who works as a chief compliance officer in the investment sector. “There were 3,000 fans there watching it. Their fans.”
The heroics in St. Thomas were a dramatic follow-up to the Rivershark Twins’ 1-0 win over the Broken Bow Patsy’s of Nebraska a few weeks earlier in the final at the International Softball Congress world championship in Quad Cities, which borders Illinois and Iowa.
Patterson was one of five new players to join the all-star calibre Rivershark Twins this season.
The team features players from New Zealand, Newfoundland, Calgary, Texas and everywhere in between.
“I think for the five of us, it might take a bit more time to set in,” he said. “But when we get our rings … that’s what we all play for.”
Prior to moving to Toronto, Patterson spent several years playing for the Toanche Eagles in the Simcoe Rural Fastball League.
For the past two years, Patterson has played for Canada’s national fastball team.
He said there are a lot of talented players coming out of the Simcoe league. At the worlds in Quad Cities, the Wyevale Tribe competed in the ISC II championship, while players from Vasey and Toanche were also represented.