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<DIV>Media Release<BR>For immediate release<BR>June 30 / 2004<BR><BR>2004
Canadian Masters Fastball Championship Update.<BR><BR>( Cobourg, Ont. )
The newly formed Canadian Masters Fastball Association<BR>have been working in
overdrive gear making preparations for their inaugural<BR>Canadian
Masters<BR>Fastball Championship. The tournament is really starting to take
shape from<BR>designing our own logo<BR>to bringing on a Western Canadian
Representative and appointing a tournament<BR>convener.<BR><BR>The Canadian
Masters Fastball Championship is not affiliated with Softball<BR>Canada but the
tournament will have all the bells and whistles and glitz and<BR>glamour of a
true<BR>Canadian Championship.We will have Gold medals and jackets for the
Canadian<BR>Champions and Silver<BR>and Bronze medals for 2nd and 3rd place
teams. We will have the usual<BR>souvenir t-shirts, hats<BR>etc. for sale and a
photographer will be on hand to take team photos.<BR>We will have 1st and 2nd
Team All - Canadian awards.<BR><BR>Cobourg Legion Fields was the host site of
the Canadian Masters Championship<BR>back in the late 90's. Harry Jeschke
and his merry crew did a fantastic job<BR>hosting the tournament<BR>and Harry is
famous for keeping the diamonds in pristine condition.<BR><BR>We will be using
the official rules of Softball Canada for the most part. We<BR>will need to
tweak some of the rules regarding age eligibility etc.<BR>Ontario, Softball
Canada and the Eastern<BR>Canadian's all have different age rules so we strived
to even the playing<BR>field to attract teams from every
province.<BR><BR>Pitchers and players must be a minimum of 40 years of age in
the year of the<BR>event ( as per Softball Canada ) however ALL teams will be
allowed 5 "<BR>UNDERAGE " players between the age of<BR>35 - 39. Thirty-five
year old players must be 35 as of Jan. 1st 2004. These<BR>underage players
can not<BR>pitch. For non-Ontario teams that use 40 year old players exclusively
they<BR>will be permitted to pick - up<BR>a maximum of 5 underage players from
anywhere within their own province. All<BR>teams will have to register
and<BR>compete in their own provincial tournament to be eligible for the
2004<BR>Canadian Masters Fastball Championship.<BR>We may offer all-star status
to teams wishing to come that don't have a<BR>provincial tournament to compete
in.<BR>We will be offering a men's division only for 2004 but would be more
then<BR>happy to accept women's teams in 2005.<BR><BR>There will be 5 berths
available for each province so in theory any team<BR>competing in their own
provincial tournament<BR>is eligible to play in the 2004 Canadian Masters
Fastball Championship.<BR><BR>We have revised our tournament date by dropping
Thursday and<BR>kicking things off on the Friday. The official date is Friday
Sep. 3rd.<BR>through Sunday Sep 5th. with Monday Sep. 6th set aside for rain out
make up<BR>games.<BR><BR>Stay tuned for our next press release to be issued on
or about Monday July<BR>5th. In our next press release we will be naming
our Western rep. and<BR>tournament<BR>convener and we will also be announcing 3
automatic berths.<BR>We will also announce the tournament format and entry
fee.<BR><BR>Softball Canada has been in contact with us and we have asked for
their<BR>guidance and support for our pilot project.<BR>We are striving to do
everything Softball Canada does since they do<BR>everything on such a grand
scale.<BR><BR>In summary, we want to host the 2004 Canadian Masters Fastball
Championship<BR>with enough flexibility to accommodate every province but most
important<BR>is the fact we want this tournament to have the look and feel of a
Canadian<BR>Championship.<BR><BR>Canadian Masters Fastball Association
Executive<BR><BR>Wayne Wells - President<BR>wwells39@cogeco.ca<BR><BR>Dave
Birnie - Vice President<BR>ranger11@idirect.com<BR><BR>Alex Rutherford -
Treasurer<BR>rutherfordfinancial@bellnet.ca<BR><BR>Sylvia Ryan -
Secretary<BR>sylvia.ryan@rogers.com<BR><BR><BR>Dave Birnie<BR>Vice
President<BR>Canadian Masters Fastball Association<BR><A
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