Dry to host '09 Seniors
Canadian tourney coming to Dartmouth
By GLENN MacDONALD Sports Reporter
Fri. Nov 16 - 6:49 AM
The Dartmouth Moosehead Dry are almost an annual entry at the Canadian senior baseball championship. But in 2009, they will host their first national tournament.
Joel Irvine, the long-time player and president of the Dry, confirmed Thursday that the team won the right to host in two years. Irvine said Dartmouth beat out Chatham, N.B., by a vote of 7-6 at a Baseball Canada meeting last week in Edmonton.
The Dry have won 14 Nova Scotia senior league titles and two national championships in 1998 and 2004 but have never played for a Canadian title in front of their home fans at Beazley Field.
"We’ve been travelling all across the country playing in nationals, so it’s finally nice to bring it home," said the 36-year-old Irvine, who grew up less than a kilometre from Beazley Field.
"It’s nice for the fans here to witness high-calibre ball like this. But this is just the first step. We have a lot to do here in terms of putting a good product on the field."
Baseball Canada also announced that Halifax will host the 2008 midget boys’ championship and next year’s senior women’s nationals will be held in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Beazley Field and the Mainland Common in Halifax will be the venues for the senior championship. But both are in need of work to meet national hosting standards. Irvine said Halifax winning the midget bid could help speed up the necessary improvements, like a new scoreboard and press box, at Mainland North.
"In order for them to host the midget nationals next year, they need to get that field ready in a hurry," Irvine said. "That’ll make our chances a little better the year after.
"But it’s been the infrastructure that has always held us back in putting in a bid to host nationals. Halifax is a vibrant city but when it comes to sports infrastructure, it’s been neglected year after year. We’re hoping by getting this bid we can finally get both ball fields up to grade. It’s long overdue."
The last time Beazley Field hosted a Canadian baseball championship was the 1989 midget nationals. Irvine and fellow Dry veteran Darren Doucette were members of that Dartmouth team which finished second, losing in the final to Ontario.
"There were 2,500 to 3,000 fans in that final game so we definitely are looking for that type of fan support," Irvine said. "I’ve been around the game for 30 years and I’ve never seen crowds like that. People still talk about it. Outside of the little league championships in Cape Breton, those are crowds you don’t see anymore. We’d like to bring that back."
Irvine, who’s been a member of every Dartmouth senior championship team, said playing at home for a national title has been the missing piece to an otherwise stellar baseball career.
He’s heading into the twilight of his career and has been bothered by a bad back, an injury that made him miss 10 weeks during the 2006 season. But Irvine said he doesn’t plan on hanging up his cleats before 2009.
"It would be nice to do in front of family and our home crowd," said Irvine, a physical education teacher. "I think myself and a few of the other veterans are going to stick around. It makes the body feel a couple years younger."
Irvine said the team’s next step is to put together an organizing committee, which will include former Dry players, and to meet with the municipal government about upgrades to the ballparks.
Notes — The 10-team tournament is expected to be held during the third week of August, 2009. … The Kentville Wildcats were the last Nova Scotia team to host senior nationals in 2001.
(herald.ca)