I suppose it is a good thing that the B.C. Senior Men’s Baseball Championships are coming back to Trail next August - as long as the volunteer network can be put into place quickly. We have enjoyed seeing so much of the Orioles in Butler Park this year, the ball was often excellent and the concession was very good.
But, Trail made pretty much bupkus from its home games. I am sure they will need to do better to fund their provincial effort, their efforts in general - everything from having ample scorekeepers and announcers available to charging a modest admission to 50-50 draws and raffles requires people not on the playing field to pitch in.
I was fairly sure people would have stepped up for some or all of those tasks this season - and with 20-plus home games it surely would have made a difference in team finances, but don’t know anybody that was asked to help out anywhere but the press box.
And, it would probably help if the city hadn’t decided to charge for the use of the sound system - a fairly hefty per game charge at that - so available volunteers could help fans enjoy the game without putting a stress on the team’s finances.
Looking forward to next year.
• Word is, Jason Bay has called it quits. If he would still like to play but cannot meet his own standards, that is a bit sad.
He had a quite exemplary career anyway, being one of the best outfielders around when healthy until cracking his head on the concrete at Dodger Stadium.
Any sports career will end. Jason’s had a lot of high points and a bit of money as rewards, so it was well worth doing - and he did it well for a long time.
• All this babble about a boycott, or moving the Winter Games to some site outside Russia is nonsense.
We either must get rid of the IOC once and for all and exalt and support the world championships so athletes have a positive goal at which to aim their efforts, or put up with the crap - bribes, fraud and condoning human rights abuses - and shut up about it.
The IOC is too corrupt to overhaul, so it should just go into the dustbin of history - where it has belonged for many decades - and we should move on with more honest and supportable activities.
If we can’t bring ourselves to do that, we deserve all the angst and costs the Games bring along with them, every time.