By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
HAGERSVILLE—Last month, The Press reported on Assistant Coach and Hagersville resident Tim Richardson’s upcoming trip to Aruba to represent Canada in a popular Flag Day ball tournament along with the other members of Team Canada Modified Fastball (TCMF), a group of players aged 50+ who make the annual pilgrimage to compete against teams from the around the world.
While the dust has settled, and they were not able to secure the championship, TCMF had their best showing yet, winning nearly all of their games and coming in second place overall after a spirited final game against Santa Domingo on March 26, 2023.
In a decade’s worth of appearances at the tournament, it was TCMF’s first time reaching the championship game.
The action started with an exhibition game against the Aruba Astros on March 21, which had to be rescheduled after the third inning due to a car hitting a light pole and killing the lights at the ballpark, leading to a double-header the following night.
Playing in the Aruban tournament presents some challenges, as the game and layout of players on the field is slightly altered from Canadian fastball. The Aruban set-up has five outfielders and three infielders.
“The field was extremely large. The outfield fences were almost 400ft.,” said Richardson, who said that initially the team tried a more traditional defensive layout, but found it led to too many gaps in the outfield. “When we made the switch that’s when we started to win.”
TCMF would go on to blaze through the first round of the tournament undefeated, putting them in a race for the championship.
Richardson was surprised to find Canadian fans in the stands throughout the tournament, which was held at three separate ballparks in Oranjestad: “The tournament schedule was posted in the local paper down there. When we had our meet and greet … we had five fans from Caledonia and Hagersville, people I went to high school with that had realized my wife and I were down there.… The Aruban fans couldn’t believe how many Canadian fans we had down there. It was very surprising and really nice.”
In the penultimate game of the tournament, TCMF landed a 9-6 win over a team from Saint Maarten, advancing to the championship round against Santa Domingo, a team of Dominican players Richardson referred to as all-stars.
Prior to the game, TCMF presented Canadian flags and memorabilia to the Dominican team, and Richardon’s wife Karen had the opportunity to sing the Canadian anthem to the crowd, resulting in cheers of support from the Canadians in the stands.
“They were a superior team, no doubt,” said Richardson of Santa Domingo. Although his team racked up an early 3-0 lead, an early Santa Domingo pitching change threw a wrench in TCMF’s offensive power, with eight runners stranded on base during the remainder of the game and Santa Domingo eventually winning 13-3.
“We did Canada proud,” summed up Richardson. “It was disappointing to come up flat against that team, but we had a great experience. They were so happy to have us there and pleased with our pride and professionalism.”
In addition to the games, Richardson will treasure the memories made on the trip, the goodwill shared between players and friends, and how the team, with the help of their sponsors and the Haldimand community, left a positive impact on the local Aruban sports community too, with Richardson noting that they donated enough equipment to the minor league teams there to “outfit a whole league for more than two years.”
“It was a special trip,” concluded Richardson. “Hope we did ya proud.”
Videos of the games are still available to view on their website at tcia.godaddy.com.
