{"id":1186,"date":"2006-08-25T22:56:37","date_gmt":"2006-08-26T06:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=1186"},"modified":"2006-08-29T07:35:20","modified_gmt":"2006-08-29T15:35:20","slug":"saskatoon-black-sox-arrive-armed-and-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=1186","title":{"rendered":"Sr. Canadians – Aug 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Prince George Citizen<\/a>
\nFriday, August 25, 2006
\n
\nSaskatoon Black Sox arrive armed and dangerous<\/strong><\/p>\n

by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff<\/p>\n

\nSaskatchewan has some of the richest blacktop soil in the country.<\/p>\n

It grows wheat as tall as beanstalks, potatoes big as footballs, and enough championship-calibre ball players to fill any fastball field of dreams.<\/p>\n

The Saskatoon Aspen Interior Black Sox have taken full advantage, and have stocked their roster for next week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Canadian Senior Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fastpitch Championship at Spruce City Stadium with an impressive lineup of flatland homebrews.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was only two years ago the upstart Black Sox took the senior A nobility by storm, winning their first national men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s title in their very first attempt. That same year in Halifax, the Saskatoon Merchants finished third, putting an exclamation mark on Saskatchewan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rise to prominence. Fuelled by an explosion of activity at the minor fastball level, the wheatfield province continues to buck a worldwide trend toward declining participation in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fastball is growing strong in Saskatoon, our numbers have never been this high, and Regina is booming too,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Jason Kurylyk, the Black Sox manager\/coach. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The minor programs are just swamped with teams, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crazy, actually.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just think our grassroots program is exposed to a higher level and a lot of our senior players work with them in the off-season. The women especially see they can get college scholarships. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to be a great player, you just have to be a player who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s willing to work. The women have the scholarships and the men have Team Canada, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s their dream to get on that team.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fastball is still in the media focus and growing large, even when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dying everywhere else. The biggest problem is finding the sponsors for our travel.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Saskatoon brothers Keith and Pat Mackintosh both made the national team roster for next month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pan-American championship in Mexico. Both will be in action in the eight-team tournament next week at Spruce City Stadium, but wearing different jerseys. Keith plays second base for the Black Sox while Pat is an infielder for the Vancouver Grey Sox.<\/p>\n

The Black Sox like the fact they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have another shot at the St. Thomas (Ont.) Evergreen Centennials, the defending senior A champions.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They took back what was ours last year,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Kurylyk. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had a lot of injuries last year and we ended up finished fifth. One of our main pitchers, Dean Holoein, couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t throw, and shortstop Darryl Joy had his Achilles tendon cut at the Team Canada camp, so we lost two big sticks there. All of the games we lost were by one or two runs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

This time around, Holoein is nursing a groin injury, his souvenir from the ISC world tournament in Kitchener, Ont., but the Black Sox are otherwise healthy. If Holoein can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t play, Team Canada chuckers Trevor Ethier and Sean Whitten are both capable of winning a national tournament.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all top dogs with the Team Canada program and on any given day, any one of them can beat anybody,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kurylyk said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been proven a little more, but Trevor is really up-and-coming and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a workhorse. They were the two top pitchers in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc04 when Trevor was pitching for the Merchants.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Saskatoon finished fourth at the ISC world tournament the past two seasons and Kurylyk has high hopes the Black Sox will be playing for all the marbles in the national tournament final, Sept. 3. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be bolstered by a pair of Newfoundlanders, long-ball hitter Jason Hill and shortstop Geoff Evely, a wizard on defence.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re pretty thick, one through nine this year,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kurylyk said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got Bill Simmons coming in from Ontario. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with the Team Canada program too, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great lead-off hitter. Brad Twordick hits between .350 and .400 every tournament. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a lot more balanced this year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The Black Sox are well familiar with the host Prince George Black Bears, having lost a close one to them in June at the Ducks Unlimited tournament in Melfort, Sask.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had a two-hitter and they won on a two-run home run by Randy Potskin,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Kurylyk. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be taking them lightly, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for sure. They have great hitters and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always battled us hard.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Prince George Citizen Friday, August 25, 2006 Saskatoon Black Sox arrive armed and dangerous by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff Saskatchewan has some of the richest blacktop soil in the country. It grows wheat as tall as beanstalks, potatoes big as footballs, and enough championship-calibre ball players to fill any fastball field of dreams. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}