{"id":18667,"date":"2012-09-30T09:23:12","date_gmt":"2012-09-30T16:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=18667"},"modified":"2012-09-30T09:24:10","modified_gmt":"2012-09-30T16:24:10","slug":"mr-softball-pei-jeff-ellsworth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=18667","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Softball PEI – Jeff Ellsworth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cap tip, Al Doran, Al’s Fastball.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click logo for complete news story and photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeff Ellsworth has pursued his passion for ball with grit and success<\/p>\n

Playing ball has brought Jeff Ellsworth great joy and plenty of pain, often both at the same time.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old solidly built softball player has played hurt, at times really hurt, in pursuit of triumph on the field.
\nThere was the groin injury that left a large portion of one leg purple that failed to keep Ellsworth from stepping up to the plate or from covering centre field.<\/p>\n

He played an entire tournament with a broken finger set in a splint that left his middle digit extended skyward, allowing him the luxury of providing unspoken assessment on any perceived bad call.<\/p>\n

Ellsworth has tallied at least seven concussions that he is aware of: four coming from hockey and three from ball, including one resulting from a wayward pitch that split his helmet in two.<\/p>\n

Today when he sneezes, he sees stars.<\/p>\n

Yet, he notes with a sense of jock bravado, \u201cI\u2019ll play through anything.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Prince Edward Island, Canada<\/figcaption><\/figure>Even as a boy growing up in St. Lawrence, P.E.I., the only son of Melvin and Sheila Ellsworth who was sandwiched between two sisters, saw the game leave its mark on his body.<\/p>\n

At about eight or nine, Ellsworth started playing pick-up games of baseball with a dozen or so guys for hours and hours at a stretch. He was given the freedom to remain glued to a ball diamond as long as his homework was done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of hours,\u2019\u2019 he recalls fondly. \u201cI remember going home with blisters on my hands, going through a glove a summer.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He soon signed up for organized softball, splitting his defensive talents between shortstop and outfield. The adrenaline of competition stoked his intensity right from the start.
\n\u201cI just loved to win from the get go,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI did not like to lose at all.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He went on to win a great deal over the years with his most recent victory coming earlier this month at the Pan American Championship in Medellin, Columbia.<\/p>\n

Ellsworth was not only the captain of Canada\u2019s softball team that took home gold, but he delivered the decisive blow with a two-run home run in the first inning of a 4-1 win in the championship game.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue reading.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cap tip, Al Doran, Al’s Fastball. Jeff Ellsworth has pursued his passion for ball with grit and success Playing ball has brought Jeff Ellsworth great joy and plenty of pain, often both at the same time. The 34-year-old solidly built softball player has played hurt, at times really hurt, in pursuit of triumph on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"category-players","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18671,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667\/revisions\/18671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}