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Hartley Miller's SlapShots July 8th Edition

By Hartley Miller

On the provincial Senior “A” Men’s Fastball Scene, there are just two notable teams, the Prince George Black Bears, and the Vancouver Grey Sox. It's just past the midway point of the season, so this is a good opportunity to gauge each team’s progress. 

You might find it strange that Prince George natives, Evan Potskin (outfielder), and Craig Horswell (catcher) are members of the Grey Sox. Although it appears that these two proven ball players “snubbed” the local Black Bears, there are bona fide reasons why they have suited up for Vancouver instead of their hometown team. 

The 33-year-old Horswell has a wealth of international experience in baseball and fastball. He hopes to play for either Canada or Great Britain. Due to work commitments, he's not playing in the PG local leagues and has turned down an opportunity to attend the Canadian fastball evaluation camp starting July 17th in Kitchener, Ontario. 

Potskin played on the Canadian national team in 2003, but was overlooked last year, and now at the age of 30 has accepted an invite to the national evaluation camp and will head to Kitchener this month. Potskin works on his game by playing in the Treasure Cove Major Men's Fastball league with Treasure Cove and in the PWB baseball league with the WSP Royals. 

Horswell and Potskin chose the Grey Sox because the team is more established, has more talent (seven national caliber players), gets more exposure and participates in more games. As well, the Grey Sox are much more competitive, boasting a 28-4 record this year, including a 7-0 mark against PG. 

The Black Bears, on the other hand, are 3-8, with just two remaining tournaments. 

If you were Horswell or Potskin which team would you pick?
 
While Horswell maintains a low public profile, Potskin has been known to put his “foot in his mouth”. About a month ago, Potskin publicly slammed the Black Bears by inferring that they are not that good. He now regrets those comments, has apologized, and feels the issue is closed. 

As you can imagine, many of the Black Bears didn't take too kindly to his remarks and there were hard feelings. Potskin paid the price as he was thrown at twice in Vancouver in his first game against PG. Things have settled down, and there were no incidents of note last weekend, although Potskin did some talking with his bat and blasted a two-run home run. In spite of his comments, Potskin admits he learned a lesson. 

We all make mistakes and have said things without thinking. In fact, it’s not the mistake you made, but what you do about it that counts. Since Evan has “cleared the air”, one would hope those with “thin skin”, who were offended by his comments, would give him one more chance. 

* These aren't the greatest of times for likeable Black Bears coach Nino Fabbro and it's not because of the team's poor record or lack of clutch hits. On a personal level Nino and his softball dedicated wife, Lorry, have had three family related deaths to deal with in the past couple of months. This comes just three years after the 60-year-old Fabbro suffered a heart attack. It's at times like these that it really does put the wins and losses in perspective.

* Have you noticed the Major League Baseball standings? Bud Geracie of the San Jose Mercury News observes:
   “How's this for a coincidence? We get a new pope, and the Cardinals, Padres and Angels are all leading their divisions........”

* From Bill Scheft of Sports Illustrated, on the Indy Racing League's proposed switch to corn-based fuel.” Gentlemen, starch your engines."

And, how is your week?
 
--Hartley Miller is the sports director for radio stations 94X and the Wolf@97FM. He
also writes for the PG Free Press
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