Ball fans packed the grandstands at Port Alberni’s historic Rec Park Stadium on July 26 to July 28 for a glorious weekend of men’s fastball.
Dubbed “Bringing it Back to the Valley”, the tournament was hosted by the Parksville Red Sox and featured eight teams from Nanaimo, Victoria, Lillooet, Chase, Prince George and California, USA.
“It was a great turnout,” said Tseshaht member Thomas Dick, a first-time tournament organizer and second baseman for the Parksville Red Sox.
T'it'q'et First Nation’s Gabe Alec brought his young squad the Smart Alec’s all the way from central B.C. to play ball.
“The Red Sox keep coming to our tournament in Lillooet, so we wanted to pay the favour back and support them,” said Alec. “It was awesome. The scenery was great; we’ve never been to the Island before, so it was a good experience.”
Dick said the weather was “perfect” all weekend long, and the tourney kicked off with a double header on Friday, eight games on Saturday and four games on Sunday.
“The stands were filled. A lot of people loved it. They enjoyed every minute of it. We had people travel from really far just to come watch,” he said.
The stacked JB Bombers team won the tournament and went home with a cash prize of $2,800. Tournament MVP Pablo Migliavacca and the Top Pitcher Luis Colombo were both JB players.
“JB Bombers had Venezuelans, Mexicans, Argentinians… It was really good caliber ball,” said Dick.
Big Guy Lake Reds from Prince George took second place and a prize purse of $1,600 and the STK Grizzlies from Chase nabbed a cool $800 for finishing third.
“We’re looking forward to it again. Port Alberni used to be one of the best places you could play fastball, but it kind of died down. The players are there, it’s just really hard to find pitchers,” said Dick, who grew up playing baseball.
He went on to say it’s been over 15 years since the Alberni Valley has hosted a men’s fastball tournament.
“That’s why I wanted to show the Valley what kind of caliber ball is around. I played all my life,” he said. “Thanks to all the spectators that came out. Next year, we’re hoping to (include) ladies too.”
The Smart Alec’s also plan to be back in the Alberni Valley next year.
“We actually gained some fans. After our games, we’d hear the fans cheering us on,” Alec said, adding that the only bad thing was the ferry waits. “One of our boys didn’t reserve and ended up wasting all of Friday and all of Sunday at the ferry terminal. We had an 8 a.m. game on Saturday, so they only got a few hours of sleep before our first game.
