CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – The P.E.I. Mudmen play their home opener Sunday at 2 p.m. at Co-op field, just off North River Road, against the Valley Bulldogs in Division 1 action.
In addition, there's also a Division 3 game featuring Prospects and The Old Boys, comprised of players 35 and older. The Old Boys are led by their spiritual leader Blake Doyle and by ex-Newfoundland rugby star Rob Carter, who has played high-calibre rugby in just about every province in Canada. The Old Boys and Prospects game is at 3:30 p.m. and if there are high school graduates who want to continue to play the game, they are welcome.
Baseball
The first-place Metro Mudcats visit Memorial Field today for a doubleheader in New Brunswick Junior Baseball League play with first pitch set for noon.
Moncton (6-1) has an explosive offence while the second-place Islanders (3-3) have allowed 36 runs already, the most in the league.
Rainouts and cold weather have plagued the five-team circuit thus far so we'll have to take a wait-and-see approach before making an evaluation of each team.
Moncton has five of the top 10 hitters, ranging from .444 to .381, while the Islanders have three in the top 20, led by Chasse Gallant at .364, Jed Noonan (.300) and Elijah Hood (.286).
Toronto
In MLB, the Toronto Blue Jays are going nowhere this season and attendance has slipped by 12,000 per game over last season. The Jays management have no interest in replacing poor, old manager John Gibbons. They'll lay the blame on Gibby and, although he's not much of a manager, the demise rests with general manager Ross Atkins.
It seems Toronto's management in their three major sports teams just can't seem to make the right decisions whether it's baseball, hockey or basketball. The Jays front office didn't want Canadian Alex Anthopoulos, who did a great job building the Blue Jays, so they gave the job to ex-Indians Mark Shapiro, who has been a disaster.
In basketball, the management paid superstar money to DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry only to find out they're good players, but not superstars. Then they fired head coach Dwayne Casey, who built the team into a first-place club.
And how about Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, who eliminated any threat to his position by forcing out Lou Lamoreillo and Mark Hunter and replacing both with a pair of analytical boy scouts. Now they have the two biggest egos in the game, Shanahan and Mike Babcock plus the analytical boys, which should make for an interesting 2018-19 season.
Golf
The charity golf tournament circuit is just around the corner with Adam Binkley's big Boys and Girls Golf of Summerside celebrity tournament with The Golden Knight himself Gerard (Turk) Gallant set for July 15-17 in Summerside. Later that same week Trent Birt's P.E.I. Golf Classic goes July 20 at Fox Meadow.
Summerside Coun. Greg Campbell is spearheading the Brett and Alex Gallant Charity tournament June 29 at Andersons Creek in support of Generation XX. Brett and Alex are class individuals and it's great to see the boys supporting worthy causes.
Harness racing
Live harness racing continues tonight at 6 p.m. at Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park (CDP) with many of the best three-year-old colts and fillies in action. Each division goes for $3,000 plus a preferred top class at $2,500 in what looks like the best card of the season.
In action up-country, the North American Cup eliminations go tonight at Mohawk with the top three-year-old colts in action as well as Ontario Sire Stake fillies featuring Percy Blue Chip, who will try the USA fillies. There's also a couple of divisions in the Fan Hanover as well, a super Mohawk card.
Condolences
People associated with local harness racing were saddened to hear of the sudden passing Thursday of popular Southport horseman Joe Smallwood.
He was 80.
RELATED: Click here for obituary
Smallwood was one of the top trainer-drivers in his day and a successful breeder as well. Joe was a sharp driver and he earned the nickname The Fox because he more often than not came through in the big races.
He launched his career here at the CDP with Jack Brown's Yankee Timber, who was a top invitational horse in the early 1960s before being sold into the USA market. Timber's full brother, Yankee Blaze, also raced here at the same era for driver Emmett Bernard.
Joe ventured into Blue Bonnets, Greenwood and Foxboro with a number of horses like Yankee Timber and the invitational trotter Trigger Tag before returning home for good. He is best remembered for his work with the great Sauls Pride, who won just about every major race in the Maritimes, including the 1980 Gold Cup and Saucer and the Governors Plate for owners Ian and Don Smith before focusing on the Atlantic Sires Stake program and breeding his own stake horses.
J K Beauty was without question his best from his stakes barn, emerging as one of the greatest mares ever in this region, good enough to battle the best female pacers in Canada and the USA. He developed a host of other Maritime winners, especially trotters that all carried the J K handle. He was a one-of-a-kind individual, well-liked by all. My condolences to his partner June Coyle and to all connected to this gentleman.
Fred MacDonald's column appears every Saturday in The Guardian. He can be reached at [email protected].
