The final pitch
Randy Frame of the East Hants Mastodons is retiring after this week’s Canadian senior men’s fast pitch championship in Charlottetown
Randy Frame was the first player to enter the East Hants dugout Tuesday in Charlottetown. The reason was quite simple. “I am just soaking every minute of the nationals up this year,” Frame said. “It’s going to be my last one, so I am taking in every second of it.”
The 36-year-old Stewiacke, N.S., resident is calling it a career after this week’s Canadian senior men’s fast pitch championship.
He is looking forward to spending time with the family and working on his golf game. But first things first, the pitcher hopes to help his Mastodons make a run at a national title.
“Hopefully, we can turn a few heads and come away with a medal,” the pitcher said.
The Mastodons are comprised of a number of the players who won the junior nationals in 2011, including pitcher Justin Schofield.
They also have players with a wealth of senior men’s national experience like Scott Wagar, Ben Wideman, Joel Langford and Jason Sanford.
Frame grew up playing the game in Brookfield, N.S. His father Raymond was a catcher playing with Russel Stoddart in Stewiacke at the time.
“I learned pitching pretty much from Russell,” Frame said. “Being around the ball field with dad he showed me a thing or two and it stuck.”
He also credited his father for spending a lot of time with him as the young pitcher honed his craft.
Frame played in the Brookfield Elks program growing up. In 1996 he was picked up by East Hants to go to the midget nationals in Prince Albert, Sask. It was his first time at a national tournament.
The following year he went with Nova Scotia to the Canada Games in Brandon, Man. He has since gone to a number of senior men’s nationals with the Elks and Charlottetown Fawcetts and south of the border at International Softball Congress (ISC) events.
He said one of his highlights was beating the Kitchener Rivershark Twins during a round-robin game in 2009 in St. Thomas, Ont. Kitchener ended up winning the tournament.
It is one of a long list of memorable moments he will cherish from his time on the diamond.
Fawcetts third baseman Chris Craig played two seasons with Frame.
“He’s a character guy,” Craig said Wednesday. “He’s not scared to take the ball against anybody, as you saw today.”
Frame and the Mastadons lost 8-3 to the defending champion 3 Cheers Pub in Wednesday’s first game.
Frame gave up eight runs on 14 hits in 5 1/3 innings.
He struck out one and walked three.
“I’ve never see Randy ever want to come out of a game,” Craig said.
“He got touched up for five runs in the first inning and went in and shut them out for five after that. That’s just the kind of guy he is. He wants to win. He wants to be on the mound. He wants the ball.”
Frame and the Mastodons play the Fawcetts today at 2 p.m. Frame enjoyed his time in a Fawcetts uniform and the friendships remain strong.
Today’s pitching matchup had not been determined, but Frame has had success against them in the past.
Frame said he knows the Fawcetts have a bolstered lineup this time around, but said if he gets the ball, he will do his best to give his team a chance to win.
Regardless of how the week ends, Frame said, the relationships he has formed through the game will remain long into the future.
“The good thing about softball is it seems once you play somebody, or if you’re a teammate with them, it’s like a fraternity, you’re friends forever,” Frame said. “It’s a great sport.”