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Take me out to a ball game
Grenfell - Tuesday August 27, 2013
by:Timothy W. Shire

In our visits to the eastern portion of Saskatchewan this summer we were pleasantly surprised to see people playing on baseball fields. Though most Saskatchewan communities have elaborate sets of ball fields, they seem to be vacant almost all of the time. That’s not the case in places like Yorkton, Melville and Grenfell.

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On Monday evening last week we were camping in Melville Regional park which has within it, a whole series of ball diamonds and they were all going full tilt Monday night, right up until dark.

On Thursday, we moved from Melville Regional Park to Grenfell Regional Park, about forty-five minutes south of Melville. Grenfell is a small town, but in a fairly heavily populated part of the province. That evening, as the day ended the cars and pickup trucks began to gather and the lights came on. The game, fastball, was about to begin. The town team is called the “Gems” and were dressed in burgundy Jerseys, while the visiting team came from the Ochapawace First Nation not far from town to the north east. The Ochapawace team wore light coloured jerseys and they are called “the pretty boys.”

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The game was nearly over as we were having a campfire at our site and our grand daughters were enjoying toasted and flaming marsh mallows. With that done, we decided to stroll over to the game. Not realising the size of the crowd, or the level of excitement, we had heard the cheering earlier, but had paid little attention. Most of the bleachers were full and every eye was glued on the action.

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Now if you are familiar with ball we all know that it is a game with a lot of pauses then the action occurs at blinding speed. In fastball, there are all the elements of hardball with just as much speed. The ball is slightly larger than a baseball, but smaller than a softball and the infield throws are really fast. We were watching some outstanding pitching, but just as outstanding hitting and the grand daughters exploded when near the end of the game, in a losing effort, a Gem batter sent the ball over the fence.

When the game ended, the Gems trudged out of their dug out and slowly drifted off past first base, while the Pretty Boys cheered and left the field. But the stands did not empty, on that warm summer evening, they slowly drifted off to the concession for a coffee and by eleven the parking lot was empty and the lights went out.

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