Hi this is Fred Wallace with Off the Wire, brought to you by Auto Logic, the Logical Choice.
This has been a baseball summer, no question, heightened by the spectacular run of the Blue Jays to the American League East lead.
On another level, the Intercounty Baseball Championship could be determined tonight at Midhurst when the Barrie Baycats host the Kitchener Panthers.
Barrie leads the best of 7; 3-1.
Ken Hashizume keeps us up to date on the Baycats, but during a holiday stint at Midland in mid-August, curiosity got the best of me and I made the drive to Coates Stadium to see the deciding game of the Baycats series with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The experience was good one.
First off, Coates Stadium is a very nice ball park, well looked after and centered amongst a large complex of diamonds and fields that had games of every description taking place.
The atmosphere inside the stadium is very upbeat, probably a thousand people at the game I was at, lots of families and youngsters, well timed musical interludes and fireworks with Barrie home runs and at the end of the game.
On the field, Intercounty Baseball isn’t minor pro, but it’s not that far off.
The players are young, some powerful, some others exceptionally fleet.
The pitching was solid the night I was there, Adam Rowe quite sturdy for Barrie.
No lack of hits either, 2 home runs in a 7-2 Barrie win that propelled the Baycats to the Championship series against Kitchener.
The lone blemish was fielding in the game as Toronto made 5 errors and more or less handed Barrie the victory.
Regardless, tonight or some night in the future, a night of Intercounty Baseball at Coates Stadium is a good night.
I’m Fred Wallace