The local fastball landscape is undergoing an interesting expansion.
The Owen Sound Selects of late have been running Midget, Junior & Senior programs in the city, but they announced earlier this year that there would be no Senior program for 2012.
The Selects will still conduct their other two operations, including the Junior Selects who are hosting the Canadian Junior Men’s Championship Tournament in August.
And this week into the mix comes the announcement of the return of the Keady Jets, as a Junior entity
The Jets had a successful run through Minor Ball which included hosting an O.A.S.A. Bantam tournament before taking a two year hiatus.
The plan as we speak today is for the Keady club to compete in the Owen Sound Men’s Fastball League and supplement those games with a variety of tournament experiences
Among the tournaments will be the O.A.S.A. Junior Men’s Elimination Tournament June 29-July 1st at Duncan McLellan Park, a tournament in which as many as 4 clubs will advance to the National Junior Championship hosted by the Selects.
Furthermore, the Jets also announced they have been offered the hosting rights to Softball Canada’s Jr. Men’s Championship for 2013 which creates a very real possibility where the Selects host in 2012 and then step aside for the Keady Jets in 2013.
For my money the absolute best year of fastball in these parts was in 2003 when the Senior Selects and the Senior Crunch both had highly competitive entries.
Now, almost a decade later, the same scenario could be re-appearing at the Junior level in fastball
I’m Fred Wallace