[Alsfastball] Owen Sound Selects Will Not Operate

[Al Doran]

From: "Fred Wallace" <fredww5 at hotmail.com>
To: fastball at pmihrm.com, aldoran at pmihrm.com
Subject: Owen Sound Selects Will Not Operate
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:19:33 -0400


October 28, 2004

Owen Sound Selects Won't Operate



The group looking to reorganize the Owen Sound Selects Fastball Club has 
decided not to continue with their project.

After a second organizational meeting last night, a group of 7 interested 
people elected to cease their attempt to revive the club for 2005.

Selects spokesman Howie Traynor stated there were a number of factors 
involved in the decision, but the biggest consideration was financial in 
nature.

Traynor earlier had suggested the club needed an operating budget around $ 
75,000 in order to compete among the elite teams in North American fastball.

Without anyone willing to step up and lead the fund raising efforts for the 
club, the group decided not to continue.

Traynor states there were other considerations, but the apparent inability 
to generate a revenue stream for club operations was the biggest obstacle 
in preventing them from moving forward.

The decision was not an easy one for Traynor and others connected with the 
Owen Sound club.

As recently as 2003, the team won the Canadian Senior Men's Championship.

However, financial road blocks prevented them from operating in 2004 and 
will do likewise in 2005.

Traynor says the Selects decision is reflective of dwindling fastball 
interest in the city and elsewhere.

He points out there was a time when Owen Sound Minor Fastball was a large 
organization.

Furthermore, there once was a period where the city had almost a half dozen 
highly competitive Intermediate teams which served as a prime source of 
talent for the Owen Sound clubs, then known as King Farms and the Canadian 
Tiremen.

No longer are those organizations active in Owen Sound and as a result, the 
Senior Men's Club will not be operated in 2005.

Traynor, when asked if he could forsee a day when Senior Fastball returned 
to Owen Sound, stated he had serious doubts for the future of elite 
fastball in Owen Sound.



On tape

Owen Sound Selects spokesman Howie Traynor

Traynor confirms the Selects will not operate in 2005.

.{ CLIP 69 } HOWIE CONFIRM

Traynor doubts Senior Men's fastball has a future in Owen Sound.

.{ CLIP 71 } HOWIE AGAIN ?

Traynor says the demise of the Selects reflects a general decline in 
fastball at both the minor and recreational level in the city.

.{ CLIP 74 } HOWIE DECLINE

To hear the complete interview with Howie Traynor, listen to Georgian Bay 
Today on CFOS Thursday October 28th, between noon and 1 pm or join 
Sportstalk, Saturday between 10 am & 11 am.

To get CFOS, log on to www.radioowensound.com, click on the " CFOS " icon 
and then click on " Listen Live "

Fred Wallace
Bayshore Broadcasting

From: "Fred Wallace" <fredww5 at hotmail.com>




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