It has been a good couple of weeks for the apparently very few senior baseball fans in the area. The Orioles have done everything well except bat, but the few hits they have have allowed them to come up with three wins at lovely little Butler Park the past two weekends.
Sure, that goes with four losses, but among those was a 1-0 waste of a pitching gem by Scott Davidson last Saturday. Rebounding to split with a very good Kelowna Jays team by taking Sunday’s doubleheader made for a positive feeling around the club.
The games have been free, so far, and the concession stays open as long as is reasonable, so there few drawbacks to spending an evening or morning/afternoon at the ball park.
The weather has held up both weekends, despite fairly dire forecasts, so I have gotten to watch good baseball in the sunshine, by the river, all good stuff that more of you should be enjoying.
Trail plays away for the next two weeks, but returns for a set of doubleheaders against the Northwest Honkers, an elite PIL squad, June 15 and 16.
I hear the Jones boys will see limited action with Trail this season, being booked for a hockey tour of Europe with their NCAA title runner-up team, so it is a good thing for the senior club that would-be Trail Jays are available due to the hiatus that club is taking. One of those, Davidson, was the winning pitcher, and drove in the winning run in the Orioles first win of the year two weekends ago, and threw a one hitter last Saturday in a game two loss.
Several other Jays, and Jays graduates, are helping fill the roster with competitive talent.
•It’s good to see such as Dan Dekeyser, Justin Schultz and now Torey Krug, all of whom took the Junior A, NCAA route, bringing an impact (and college degrees) to the big (NHL) show. It promotes the idea that education and hockey careers are compatible - that the anti-education pro junior leagues are not the only route to the pros - and should boost chances for the Smoke Eaters and their BCHL counterparts to lure top minor hockey players into their sphere.
•Just finished, “Coping with Emotions and Otters,” (Talon Books, 2013) by Beaver Valley native Dina Del Bucchia. It is full of smart and funny, just as Dina is, and worth reading for more reasons than support of a local talent.
I don’t know if local libraries have it in stock, but if not they should buy it soon. And, not to be too crass, so should any of you that enjoy modern thinking and writing.