By Adam Donnelly

Kamloops Major Men’s Fastball League Opening Day 2018

Apr 24, 2018 | 4:33 PM

KAMLOOPS — Tuesday is Opening Night for the Kamloops Major Men’s Fastball League down at Charles Anderson Stadium. While fastpitch softball has been a part of the Kamloops sporting landscape for decades, participation has been in decline since the mid-2000’s; the game has seen a resurgence over the past few years, thanks to the concerted effort of a few passionate ballplayers.

After a winter that felt like it would never end, the boys of spring are back at Charles Anderson Stadium, as the Kamloops Major Men’s Fastball season kicks off tonight at 6:15, and for John Pagnotta, Opening Night couldn’t come soon enough.

“I just love the game,” Pagnotta, aka Johnny Ballgame says. “It’s a great group of guys, and this year we’re six teams, so it’s getting better every year.”

After the league took a hiatus due to financial difficulties five years ago, 2018 will be the fourth season back on the diamond at the Chuck. The league has expanded this year to include a team from Chu Chua, which brings the total up to two teams from Kamloops, two from Chase, with the sixth driving in from Lillooet to play doubleheaders once a week.

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“We’re trying to get a solid six-team foundation and keep our sport alive,” KMMFL President Darren Bowser explains.

Bowser was instrumental in bringing the sport back from the brink of extinction in 2015. He says the issue is a lack of players coming up through minor ball to refill the league’s ranks.

“There’s a decline [in participation] all over the province, and in Canada as a whole,” Bowser says. “It’s not just in Kamloops.”

Pagnotta was one of a pair of KMMFL athletes who won Gold at the World Masters Games in 2017 in New Zealand. He says he’s tried slo-pitch but prefers the challenge of fastpitch.

“I love the challenge. That ball comes at you 60 miles an hour, I think it is. It’s a lot more challenging at-bat, for sure,” Pagnotta says.

Bowser says the league as it stands should be stable for a couple of years – but now that they’ve rebuilt their player base the challenge will be growing the game with a new generation.

“Fastball is hopefully stable here for a little while, and we’ll do our best to re-grow our minor ball system so we can have kids coming up, and we can develop those kids.”