BY KATHRYN WILLMS
(click logo to visit the official ISF XII World Championships website)
ISF championship in Saskatoon 17th big event he has helped organize
On Monday Aug. 8, 2005, the StarPhoenix paid tribute to a man who helped build the foundations of Saskatoon’s vibrant softball community. In an article titled “He’s rounding third, heading for home,” the paper announced that after “four decades of involvement in softball, Keith McLean is retiring.”
McLean lied.
Not only did he not retire, he is back at the helm, organizing the International Softball Federation world championship which begins Friday.
His visions of putting in time at the souvenir booth, “just selling a few T-shirts,” have gone up in a puff of smoke. The Saskatoon softball everyman is deep in the nitty-gritty of holding an international sporting showcase. A week before the tournament began, he was dealing with another hiccup, a late-registering Indonesian team.
“I’ve rounded third and I’m headed home?” he says with a laugh. “Now I’m back on first.”
It’s not that McLean doesn’t know how to retire — he and his wife retired from their company, Quality Underwriting Service, in January and even managed a celebratory trip to Hawaii — it’s just that he can’t seem to quit softball.
Since 1975, Saskatoon has held 17 national and international softball events and McLean has been involved in all of them, including world championships in 1987 and 2002.
COACHED AT ALL LEVELS
He calls the years spent coaching, “from little kids to senior A men, from midget to senior A women,” the highlight, singling out the thrill of winning the 1979 Western Canadian senior men’s title.
Along the way, he spent five years as president of the Saskatoon Amateur Softball Association and has been inducted into both the Softball Canada and Saskatoon Sports Halls of Fame.
The evolution from recreational player to SASA executive seems characteristic for McLean, who became a referee while playing hockey and still has to contain himself from getting too involved.
“When I play golf,” he says, “it’s just golf.”
He starts laughing. It turns out that, too, is not entirely true. Every week, he fundraises for the StarPhoenix’s Sporting Christmas fund.
McLean stays involved because of the connections he has made within Saskatoon’s die-hard softball community and beyond.
“I’ve got friends in every province and territory in Canada because of softball,” he says. “It’s the people.
“We’ve got one of the top facilities in the world. People in our leagues should be thankful and they should be out there helping the multitude of volunteers that have been doing this for many years. Most of them are older people, not players, who are willing to help.”
McLean is not making any grand declarations about the future. He good-naturedly answers “who knows?” when asked if there’s a fourth worlds in the cards.
He is assistant supervisor for the midget boys nationals which run Aug. 1 to 8.
“Then maybe I’ll consider not working too hard on softball,” he says. “It is the end of the season.”
With junior women nationals coming to town next summer, the legacy McLean has helped create is in good shape.
“We’ve hosted more national championships than any place in Canada; probably two for one,” McLean says. “We’re quite happy to keep the sport alive by doing these things. If people like us don’t do them, they don’t get done.”
kwillms@sp.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix