Variants

Happy New Year 2020 to all!

This is to let you know that the league history documentation project previously mentioned here is now pretty much complete and visible on the website.

You’ll now notice when you log on to www.grandslamslopitch.com that the red menu bar at the top contains two new drop-down menus, ‘League History ’05-’20,’ and ‘League History ’81-’04.’ You can click on either of these and then choose any year that you are interested in, (see example photo attached).

Choosing any of the years takes you to a simple summary page titled ‘Year in Review’ with a paragraph about significant happenings in the league that year, and one-click links to see:

• Board/Executive membership
• Final regular season standings
• Playoff (medal) results
• Team rosters, managers and coaches for that year
• Game schedules
• Tournament results (Calgary Tournament, Mike Church and Huntsman Games)
• Old newsletters
• Obituaries for teammates and their partners we’ve lost
• Photo albums

The information is not complete throughout the years, and I hope anyone who can ‘fill in the gaps’ will contact me with more information to post. 2009 and 2010 especially are a bit of a ‘black hole’ without much preserved. As we go forward, I will post complete information for 2020 and subsequent years in this same format so that nothing is lost to the sands of time.

I encourage you all to surf through the CSMSL years. I hope it will be a meaningful and enjoyable remembrance for you older guys and for you younger guys, well, it’s a very interesting story of how one man, Wilf Popplestone, gathered a team together in 1981, which led to the stable league of 22 teams and 300 people we now enjoy throughout the year. I know I learned a ton just by putting this all together.

Thanks again to you ‘classic’ members who helped put the scrapbooks together that I’ve transferred to the website for everyone’s enjoyment, and to Mo Lakness who got them into my hands.

Enjoy,

Gary Paukert
CSMSL Communications

For those of you, that have not fled the cold weather and want to stay in baseball shape over the winter, come to the batting cage . It is situated beside McMahon Stadium in a large white dome. Our league members only pay $10 + .50 cents GST to use the facilities Monday – Friday, noon to five pm. A few of us go Mondays to workout, but any day of the week is good. Set up your own group and keep in shape to avoid less pain in the spring.

Hello CSMSL members,

It never ceases to amaze me how fast I go from complaining about the afternoon heat wearing me down on the diamond to watching sadly as the snow cover gets deeper and deeper. Is there anything sadder than a softball diamond covered with snowdrifts? On the other hand, as I sit here watching us get buried by yet dump of snow, I remember how every year all of a sudden May is just around the corner and with it all the busyness of softball season. Hope springs eternal.

Rogers Hornsby played Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1937 with five teams, mostly with the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Browns. You’ve probably heard his quote about the off-season: “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

Well all that to tell you that as your Communications Director I have some plans for my off-season and one of them is to add to and update the League History portion of our website. Mo Lakness has handed off to me a fair amount of historical information that I want to add and I find it very interesting to delve into how our league was formed, built and has changed over the years. It’s a good story and I think we owe it to ourselves and all those who have worked so hard before us to not let it fade into the shifting sands of time. We have a good website that will allow us to record our story for our enjoyment and for those who come after us.

You can help me! Tell me your story. You have medals hanging around that can fill in the league’s history. Write me this winter and tell how you and the Royals finished in third place in 2003 or that the Mariners got the silver medal in the playoffs in 2012. Tell me about your team traveling to St. Albert and losing every game that one year. Tell me about your buddy who worked hard to build the league but has now passed on. Send me photos of your ratty ol’ team. Tell me what tournaments you’ve attended. Tell me how you found out about the CSMSL and how it’s been a blessing in your life. You’ve got a story to tell – I’ll be your biographer.

I intend to add a ‘League History’ page to the website, with sub-pages for each year so we’ll always be able to go back and see a ‘Year In Review,’ with final standings, medalists, rule and bylaw changes, media coverage and lots and lots of pictures of your ugly mugs.

It’ll be as good as your submissions, so start sending them to me. Or if you aren’t good at that, give me a call and I’ll write while you talk.

It beats staring out the window all winter. And I think everyone will really enjoy the result.

Get to work.

Gary Paukert
GaryW@ThePaukerts.net
403-995-4426
Site 8, Box 10, RR 2
Okotoks, AB T1S 1A2

Hello all,

One of our Division A players related this interesting story to John Schmidt. It was sent to the player by a friend who was playing at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, UT just a couple weeks ago.

“I was playing rover right behind the pitcher and saw the line drive hit him and knock him down. I saw something fly off to his left. It was the piece of the (plastic) mask that is missing in the photo. He was basically unhurt other than a bit stunned. He is planning to use only a metal mask in the future. It’s surprising but Huntsman has not made masks mandatory for pitchers.”

If you look closely at the facemask in the photo you’ll notice it’s missing a number of connecting pieces. It died a hero, but metal wouldn’t have broken.

Stay safe, everyone!

Here they are, gentlemen, your 2019 AA Champion Rangers team.

Link to full-sized photo:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/teampages/images/21784070/1.jpg

Big congrats on the gold medal, guys.

Gary Paukert
CSMSL Communications