In 2016, the last time Prince George hosted the Canadian Native Fastball Championships, 77 teams converged on the city.
This year, after two consecutive years of pandemic-related cancellations. The number of teams has dropped to 50, and that suits tournament organizer Randy Potskin just fine. More teams would require more umpires and Potskin says the 18 umps he has lined up this weekend are already going to be stretched thin during the three-day tournament.
“It’s been a challenge with sponsorships and getting umpires is our biggest problem right now, we lost a lot of umpires in those two years,” said Potskin. ”But it actually worked out, in some weird way. If we would have had 70 teams we would not have enough umpires.
“We’ll be lucky if we have 18 umpires and we need 20, so we have a call for umpires to come out of retirement.”
The two years of COVID put the shadow of uncertainty on several teams around the country, Potskin said, and some of the teams he had lined up two years ago decided not to travel to Prince George. Recent spikes this year in the price of fuel, food and accommodations also kept some teams grounded.
“The biggest drop is in our masters division, we lost 10 teams,” said Potskin. “We only had six in the men’s and three in the women’s, so we canceled the master women’s division.
“Three days and 50 teams is a lot to handle for any city.”
Potskin said unless the tournament is extended to four days, most cities do not have enough ball parks or umpires to have 70 teams involved in just a three-day event and the Alberta city that hosts native nationals next year will have to take that into account and possible put a cap on the number of entries or extend it to four days.
This year’s tournament has 22 teams in the men’s division, 14 in the women’s pool, eight in junior (under-23) and six in master men’s.
Two Prince George teams, Aiken Lake Kings and Tyco Coating Hitmen, are entered in the men’s division, while Falcon Contracting (formerly known as Big Guy Lake, the 2019 third-place finishers) is playing in the U-23 division. Although there is no Prince George team in the women’s division, several of the city’s female players will take the field playing for out-of-town teams.
The Peguis (First Nation) Redmen of Manitoba are back to defend the men’s division title they won the last time the tournament was played in 2019, in Winnipeg. The Ontario Smoke of Dundalk, Ont., who finished second to Peguis in 2019, are also entered in native nationals this weekend, competing in the men’s and women’s divisions.
”Peguis has the same team and they’re three years older and that’s why they’re the favourites,” said Potskin, who will play second base for Aiken Lake, a team that also includes local fastball legends Chad Ghostkeeper and Evan Potskin.
Lenny’s Selects of Alberta, named in memory of Len Potskin, a longtime Prince George player/coach who died in 2011 at age 40, will have his sons on the team to help compete for the men’s title.
Takla First Nation is entering teams in each division, Saik’uz has men’s and junior teams, while Fort St. James will be represented in the master men’s and junior divisions.
The games will be played at Carrie Jane Gray Park – Spruce City Stadium, Ron Wiley Field, Spruce City Minor Boys, Rotary (baseball) Field – Prince George Minor Girls Field at Freeman Park and Nechako Park.
With an estimated 900 players coming to the city for the weekend, most of them staying in hotels, eating in restaurants and shopping at retail stores, the tournament is expected to inject $2-3 million into the local economy.
Games start Friday at 8 a.m. at five of the six fields except Nechako Park, where the first game is at 10 a.m.
Admission is $15 (day pass) and $35 (event pass).
No rain is in the forecast and highs are expected to reach between 27 and 28 C range all three days.
A dance is planned for the Roll-A-Dome Saturday night.
Finals in all division are set for Sunday afternoon, starting at 4 p.m.
