By Ottawa Royals & Knights Baseball Club
With the fall colors shining in the surrounding woods and a little breeze reminding spectators that Canadian Thanksgiving is just around the corner, the sounds of wood cracking ball echoed for the last time this season on Sunday, Oct. 5 as the 2014 edition of the SAM BAT Fall League came to a successful close at Tauvette Field in Blackburn Hamlet.
Members of the Royals and Knights organization combined with players hailing from many different clubs and levels all over the city to form teams for the league’s month-long campaign.
In the finals, the Chris Cook-coached Team B denied the late comeback efforts of Andrew Beattie’s Team A to win the Bantam division, while Steve Goldberg’s Team D Demons earned a shutout win over Ray Cote’s Team A to take the Peewee title.
There was naturally plenty of excitement surrounding championship day, but the league is more focused on smiles – which were present in abundance throughout – than on wins and losses. “It’s really designed for kids to have a good time,” emphasizes Beattie, the league’s manager. “We just want to see the kids come out, have fun, and play baseball.”
It’s a low-frills operation, with one umpire per game, no team uniforms, and a scoreboard system where players mark the score in the dirt with a stick. “I think we spend far too much effort on organized sport and not enough time on kids just playing,” Beattie underlines. “This is the way baseball should be played for kids in the fall. I do believe there is a time and a place for solid development, but they’ve gone through a long season, so the fall is just supposed to be a period where they can go back and remember what it’s like to be a kid again.”
Fall League player Annabelle Davies is a big fan of the more relaxed approach. “I really love baseball,” says Davies, a former competitive soccer player who played at the highest level but found the associated politics took the fun out of the game.
The Ottawa West Twins player has found a home on the diamond, quickly picking up some solid skills since making the switch to baseball. “The summer is more competitive. You go away for tournaments and everything,” adds the Grade 8 Broadview Middle School student. “It’s not like fall, which is more for fun.”
Although the focus is on playing and less on drills, the opportunity to play an additional eight games naturally offers participants a chance to improve their baseball abilities in a low-pressure environment, Beattie highlights. Players have no set positions, so they get a chance to practice different areas of their games when they move around, he explains, and the wooden bat-only rule is particularly valuable as well.
“The wooden bat has a smaller sweet spot than the aluminum bats, so they have to learn how to swing it properly to be able to hit that ball,” details Beattie, whose players each receive a SAM BAT (valued at $130) included with their registration. “If you start them at a younger age hitting with a wooden bat, they’ll become a younger hitter when they get into the higher ranks.”
Find out more about SAM BAT Fall League at ottawaroyalsbaseballclub.com.
—By Ottawa Sportspage