Men’s baseball action is heating up in the Alberni Valley as the Port Alberni Cubs get set to host the national 55+ championships over the B.C. Day long weekend.
The Cubs’ 57+ and 60+ teams have been “fine-tuning” their games by playing teams all around Vancouver Island as they prepare Port Alberni ball fields to host teams from across the country. They were in Chemainus last weekend to play a doubleheader against East Vancouver Island Baseball League (EVIBL) teams.
The Cubs placed second at the 55+ national championships in Halifax last summer. They applied to host the championships this year in two age divisions.
Members of the Cubs play in a Port Alberni men’s league and are spread out among four teams. Kelly McGiffin, who runs the program, notes the team runs with a catchy motto: “You don’t stop playing when you get old, you get old when you stop playing.”
Port Alberni Cubs players were at Rec Park on Wednesday, July 19 measuring the lines from home plate to the outfield in order to place the foul poles and paint the foul lines.
Lon Miles Park at Klitsa Fields has been closed for play as City of Port Alberni’s Parks, Recreation and Heritage staff members renovate the field.
“This is a reintroducing of baseball to (Rec) Park,” said McGiffin. “The park’s got lots of history to it.”
The last baseball game to be played at Rec Park occurred in 1960. After that it was reconfigured for fastball and softball. Many of the Port Alberni Cubs’ members—who are hosting the National Old Timers Men’s Baseball championships Aug. 4–6—played fastball at Rec Park, and the new iteration of the Cubs were named as an homage to the team that played under the same name in the 1950s.
“Many of our fathers played for that team,” McGiffin said.
“The coolest thing about this park is this—the stadium,” player and nationals organizer Dan Goddard said. He pointed to the wooden stands that surround home plate and run up the first and third base lines toward the team dugouts. The original high-backed bleachers are still in fairly good shape too.
“There’s so much good history here for so many of us,” Goddard added.
On Friday, July 21 the first baseball game was held at the park in 63 years: the Port Alberni Men’s League Blue Jays defeated the Angels 4–2 in a six-inning contest.
The Port Alberni Cubs will play a pre-Canadian championship game between the Cub 57’s and Cub 60’s on Tuesday, Aug. 1 at 6 p.m. at Rec Park. The national championship starts three days later on Friday, Aug. 4 with games at both Rec Park and Lon Miles Park in Port Alberni.
— With files from Don Bodger, Chemainus Valley Courier