This was the first of my international trips to play baseball. It was a chance to see some parts of the world I have never been. Air Canada to Toronto and a 2 hour drive through rush hour traffic on a Friday of a holiday weekend on a rainy September day led us to the town of Petersborough. This was a small city of about 100,000 people north east of Toronto. The air was thick with humid moisture from the rains as we entered our hotel room. We could see the field about 1/2 mile away, across the river in the park.

We proceeded to check out one of the local pubs where we had dinner and met up with some of the locals for drinking and dancing till the wee hours. The next day we were ready for our first game against a Canadian team. I was chosen to be the starting pitcher. This was my first tournament and first time playing with most of the guys on the team. I lasted about 4 innings and never really pitched well. We lost by a couple of runs.

David Blakemore pitched a good game the next day and we played well enough to win our second game that day. There was a home run hitting contest that night, David won first place and a new Easton bat, I came in 4th out of 3 finalists. We lost our 3rd and final game the following day to end our baseball for the week.

Petersborough is famous for the "Lift Lock" at one of the many canals thru the area. It was an impressive display of civil engineering. We met many locals and had a bar-B-Q with them and traded stories and lies with them. Then it was time to return to Toronto for the trip home.

Before returning home, some of us went to see Niagara Falls. We spent several hours enjoying the town and the falls. There were a number of interesting buildings and gardens to see.

This was the first MSBL tournament I attended and as it turned out, led to many more. The Canucs played well and seemed to like baseball. Out of the 8 teams in this tournament, 4 were American. The tournament was won by a team from Detroit. It was a nice way to spend a few days.

Eh!

Information on Canada
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Home Page By Dennis McCroskey, All Rights Reserved
Last Updated November 29, 1996