(click logo for official tournament website)
Editor’s note: Al Doran will be attending this one in person, so be sure to follow his reports at Al’s Fastball. (Click logo below). He’ll be posting scores and more via his Blackberry on his Orillia tournament page.
From 
[Orillia, Ontario, Canada] – With under 24 hours to go until the first pitch is thrown at the 10th Annual World Series of Fastball the park is taking shape. The stands are in place, all the fencing is complete, the tents are up and the diamonds look absoulutly great. All that remains is all the last minute things that will have our entire committee running around all day Friday to make sure that every little detail is looked after.
The World Series of Fastball has always had the reputation as one of the most difficult invitational tournaments to win and this year’s line-up of teams will put that reputation to the
test again. With 8 of the top 10 ISC ranked teams in attendance, the tournament title is wide open this year. If the top 8 teams take either of the other 2 teams lightly they may find themselves in a hole as both Midland Explorers and Pueblo Bandits are quite capable of jumping up and taking games away from the higher ranked teams.
All ten teams will see action tomorrow night with the Canadian division kicking things off at 5:00 PM with Vancouver taking on Kitchener and the host River Sharks against Jarvis. At 7:00
PM Saskatoon plays their first game against the River Sharks and the 1st game of the American division gets under way with Midland, MI taking on the Broken Bow Gremlins. At 9:00 PM, the
Pueblo Bandits make their first ever appearance at the World Series of Fastball against local favorite, the Farm Tavern.
In the last game of the night Midland will take on Patsy’s of New York. Round Robin games continue throughout the day on Saturday with the playoff games starting at 9:00 AM on Sunday. Al Doran will be on-site all weekend making regular updates of all the games.
The latest weather forecast calls for a fairly good weekend with tempatures in the low 20’s, mainly sunny with a slight chance of a shower on Saturday.
All in all, it looks to be an absolutely great weekend of elite fastball action that will feature probably the most competitive field of teams in the World Sereies of Fastball history. The tournament title is wide open and whoever emerges will have had to be at their very best all weekend.
See you at Kitchener Park starting at 5:00 PM tomorrow night.
Paul Barnetson
World Series of Fastball
pbarnetson(at)city.orillia.on.ca
www.city.orillia.on.ca/worldseries