Back on the mound
MacDonald’s return to senior baseball a boost for Sooners pitching staff
Sheldon MacDonald admits he may not rely on throwing heat as much as he did during his first go around in the Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League, but the 40-year-old righthander is showing he still has what it takes with the Sydney Sooners.
The Judique native pitched for the Halifax Pelham Molson Canadians from 1999 to 2004. He was picked up by the Dartmouth Moosehead Dry for nationals in that final year and won the title. After that, he hung up his cleats to focus on starting a family.
But a couple of years ago, the itch to pitch returned.
After playing with the Port Hawkesbury Old Bucs at the 2015 over-35 nationals in Yarmouth, MacDonald felt that he still had some gas in the tank. That’s when he gave Sooners bench boss Jim (Rico) McEachern a call last spring.
“He has been one of the most positive additions that I have had the privilege of being associated with in the 40-plus years I’ve been involved with the Sydney Sooners,” said McEachern. “He’s a gentleman, he’s a fantastic personality. A maturing, stabilizing person to have around the team, around the bench. As far as skill, last year, we took our time. He set a goal as to when he would be ready to really challenge his comeback and he was right on schedule.”
MacDonald credited McEachern for helping ease him back into the league.
“I’ve played with other teams and they’ll throw you in right away no matter how strong you are or not strong you are, you get abused,” he said. “But Rico was great with me. By September, I felt strong enough to pitch 10 innings. For me, that was what helped a lot and made me want to continue on this year, is that I had a good finish to last year.”
MacDonald doesn’t get to practise with his Sooners teammates during the week due to distance and other commitments, like coaching his eightyear-old son Reid’s mosquito ‘AA’ baseball team, the Cape
Breton West Warriors. Instead, he prepares at home with a batting cage in his back yard and gets some throwing in to be game ready.
So far this summer, MacDonald sports a 1-0 record thanks to a 6-2 victory over the Dartmouth Moosehead Dry at home, July 14. He also has two no-decisions in three starts, and has a 2.36 earned-run average over 19 innings pitched.
He said as long as he feels strong, healthy and is able to help the team, he’ll keep playing.
“We have young kids, and my son is of age now to follow ball and loves coming down to Sydney and comes down the park to chase foul balls and watch the games. For me, that makes it just as important to keep playing,” said MacDonald. He and his wife, Dayna, also have two daughters: six-year-old Mollie and three-year-old Clara. “We have a great team with a great group of guys. Hopefully, we can challenge any other team for the championship at the end.”
The first-place Sooners (111) will face MacDonald’s former squad in a battle of the top two teams in the standings at Susan McEachern Memorial Ball Park in Sydney. Halifax (104) is two games back, and gave the Sydney squad its only loss this season. Sydney and Halifax meet Friday at 7 p.m. and play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
The Sooners are 6-0 at home this summer.
“The challenge for us is to win a weekend series and see what we can do to keep that undefeated home streak in place, too,” said McEachern. “You set those little goals out there, but realistically, a weekend series win would be very positive, but we’ll take it a game at a time.”