A warning for Intercounty Baseball League

Re: Call it the lopsided league — July 22

Some Intercounty Baseball League managers recently were complaining about the level of competition in the league. They must take great care not to go down the road that Guelph men’s fastball followed.

When I first played City of Guelph softball, there were three men’s fast pitch leagues in the city, the Royal City, Service, and Suburban leagues, comprising over 30 teams. Slo-pitch was gaining popularity and the lower level Suburban league soon folded.

There were six strong teams in the Royal City league, but after a few years a couple of these teams folded. Pretty soon things started to unravel. A couple of these stronger teams picked up quality players from disbanding teams. Now there were two teams considerably better.

Several more teams disbanded, and the two remaining leagues amalgamated. Men’s fastball in Guelph was down to one league with less than 10 teams. One of the strong teams recruited another high level pitcher from out of town, and then had three aces. It became difficult to compete with this team.

Teams folded due to lack of players/coaches/sponsors. Pitching was a constant problem. Teams with only one strong pitcher had little chance of beating teams with two or more. More teams found it impossible to compete and their quality players joined other teams. Soon there were ‘have’ and ‘have not’ teams. Once a league gets down to less than five teams, the end is near. Soon Guelph men’s fastball was no more.

The lesson for Intercounty is to be careful. Scores of 20-1 and 17-4 are indications that things are not healthy. Players who leave weaker teams to join the stronger ones weaken the whole league. It is imperative that young local players be given the chance to play and that pitchers be developed. It is critical that players who reside in a certain city play for their city’s team. Sponsors and fans do not want to see teams totally dominate others. It gets pretty boring playing the same teams 10 times a season. The Intercounty really needs to focus on its competition levels, for the sake of its survival. Peter Zess Guelph