There’s one masters athlete in Prince George who wants a Slopitch League for older athletes in Prince George so much she recruits strangers off the street.
Jackie Burns belongs to a 55+ Slopitch women’s team down south but thought about how much fun it would be to have a Masters Mixed Slopitch League in Prince George.
“We got people to sign up at our table at the PG Golf & Curling Club, we got some from our posters and The Citizen notice and people we know who used to play, then I go walking and I see people that look about the right age and I go up and ask,” Burns laughed.
And that worked?
“Ah, no,” Burns laughed again.
The group of ball players gets together every Thursday morning at the Nechako Park Field.
“We were a little ambitious thinking we could play two days a week,” Burns said. “We’ve got a lot of golfers so they are already busy so we thought we would start out with one day a week this year.”
The league has 24 players and they are hoping for more to join in the fun.
There are two teams, The Legends and The Swing Masters.
“It’s been kinda fun connecting with old ballplayers I haven’t seen for a while,” Burns said.
“And we’ve made some adaptive rules so it isn’t too hard – it’s still ball, but we’ve made some changes.”
Domenic Demarzo has been playing ball since 1975. He and Burns have known each other for years so she recruited him to be the president of the Masters Mixed Slopitch League.
“I started playing here in Prince George – we had a team called the Angels,” Demarzo said.
“Back then we played at different school fields against other teams and we progressed from there to form a men’s ball league called Senior Men’s Slopitch.”
Demarzo played in the league for years then switched to a mixed league and continued to play.
“This is my first time playing in a league for seniors,” Demarzo said.
Last year he played in a division with younger and older teams.
“And we held our own but it was tough competing with younger players,” he said.
“We’ve adopted rules to make it safer for the older people.”
As long as a player can get to first base, they can get a runner to take over for them, Demarzo added.
“If you hit the ball in the infield you get to first automatically,” Demarzo explained.
That gives the opportunity for players who are not that quick to get on base.
“This is our first attempt to get a seniors’ league going – we’ve had senior teams – both men’s and mixed go to the 55+ BC Games and National Softball Association BC tournaments for 55+,” Demarzo said.
The league invites anyone interested to come out and try it.
“We would be more than happy to have people come out,” Demarzo said.
“55+ is what we’re looking at for age and we’re trying to make a league of it. Right now we’ve got two teams and if we got four teams of 12 to 14 players we’d play twice a week. Players who’ve joined are very, very happy to be part of the league because there’s no other place to play. The other leagues are just too fast for them. They’re playing against 20- and 30-year-olds.”
Originally the idea was to get a team together for the 55+ BC Games in Nanaimo from Sept. 9 to 13 but there isn’t enough time and not enough people want to make the trip but that might change next year when the 55+ BC Games are held in Kamloops from Aug. 18 to 22.
Randy Mackus, a quarter amputee, and championship golfer, joined the league recently.
“This is absolutely fantastic,” Mackus said.
“I didn’t really think that I would be able to swing the bat because I’m a bit different. The bat is heavier than a golf club but it seems to work out fine and everybody is really supportive. There’s a lot of ‘hey, way to go!’ - which is kinda cool.”
Mackus said he likes trying everything.
“And just like anybody else I am trying to figure out what happens after 55 or even 60 because we have a preconceived notion of what that might be. Just because we’re getting old doesn’t mean we can’t do sh#% anymore. When we were 13 we looked at 60 and thought ‘you’re really old’ – but that’s not how it is now. I don’t feel old, do you?”
So right now it’s all about the love of the sport.
“We’re just hoping we can get more people to come on down and join us and have some fun, be social and active,” Burns said.
For more information reach out to Jackie Burns at [email protected].
