For 50 years, Canada Day weekend has been synonymous with fastball in Prince George.
Today at 3 p.m. at Spruce City Stadium, the 50th annual Canada Day Fastpitch tournament gets underway with 13 men's teams and six women's teams entered.
"The tournament originated (in 1969) when Charlie Ghostkeeper invited people down from northern Alberta for family gatherings because there were so many people from Alberta who moved to Prince George for work," said Sheldon Bjorklund, now in his fifth season as the tournament organizer.
"It started off as a northern Alberta reunion in Prince George and they had some exhibition softball games amongst each other and that's how the tournament started."
Bjorklund remembers when he was volunteering for the tournament as a teenaged statistician and having plenty of late nights and early mornings at the ball park with very little sleep in between due to the sheer number of teams entered in the event.
He found a Citizen article in the Prince George Library's digital archive which talked about the lengths Ghostkeeper would go to cheat Mother Nature after an extended downpour left the field temporarily unplayable.
"He brought a helicopter to dry the field," said Bjorklund. "Charlie was pretty good at problem-solving and making sure the show went on, by hook or by crook we were going to make that tournament happen.
"You couldn't do it nowadays but I heard they dumped a bunch of diesel to dry out the field and lit it on fire."
The Big Guy Lake Kings of Prince George are one of the favourites to be playing in Sunday's final. The Kings won tournaments this spring in Kamloops and Williams Lake and fared well in a Kelowna tournament over the Victoria Day long weekend which drew Canada's national team.
Custom Edge Sports is the other Prince George team in the men's tournament. The men's draw includes four Saskatchewan teams, including the ever-tough Regina Hawks, Prince Albert Thunderbirds, Canoe Lake Cree 45s and Water Hen Royals.
Driftpile LTA Cree will represent Alberta, while the other B.C. teams are the STK Orioles (Chase), Witset Arrows (Moricetown), Burns Lake Redskins, Woyenne Nation (Buns Lake) Naka'zdli Pirates (Fort St. James) and Takla Lakers (Fort St. James).
In the women's tournament, Falcon Contracting and Prince George Chaos are the two local teams. Also entered are Driftpile, Burns Lake, BC/Alberta Selects and Secwepemc Saints (Shuswap).
Finals are scheduled for 5 p.m. on Sunday at Spruce City Stadium and the Spruce City Minor Boys Stadium.
