CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Baseball fans who have been anxiously awaiting the return of the Charlottetown Gaudet’s Auto Body Islanders in the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League will see their wish come true Monday afternoon.
The Isles host the Moncton Fisher Cats, last year’s first-place club, at 2 p.m. at Memorial Field.
The Islanders have Jordan Stevenson, perhaps the best right-handed pitcher in the Maritimes, and clever Jake Beck headlining a young pitching corps while slugger Dillon Doucette, hard-hitting Grant Grady and a number of high-talented junior graduates should take care of the offence.
In addition, the Doug Hines-coached Islanders are affiliated with Dave MacIsaac’s always strong junior club, which should guarantee having a competitive team in the strong senior league. The Islanders are on the road today playing a doubleheader in Saint John, N.B., and we’ll see them here Monday.
MacIsaac’s P.E.I. Junior Islanders are in action Sunday afternoon at Memorial Field while the Kings County Baseball League gets underway Sunday in Peakes, Morell and Charlottetown.
Toronto
Ten years ago, the Raptors were a distant third among Toronto sports fans trailing the Maple Leafs and the Blue Jays in popularity.
If a poll were taken today, I would not be surprised if the Raptors have surpassed the other two clubs for fan support. Sunday night’s nail-biting, last-shot victory over the Philadelphia 76ers was one of the most exciting games in Canadian basketball history and many sports fans, who usually never watch a complete basketball game, were glued to their TV screens from start to finish.
The Raptors opened the best-of-seven conference final on the road Wednesday against Milwaukee Bucks and lost a heart-breaking game, which they led throughout.
The only games that come close to the level of excitement generated in the last two Raptors games for me occurred with P.E.I. teams.
The first took place at the Canadian university championships in Halifax about 15 years ago when flashy UPEI sharpshooter Jeff Walker was fouled from three-point land at the buzzer with Saint Mary’s ahead 80-77. Walker stepped to the line and calmly sank the three foul shots to tie the game that the Panthers eventually won in overtime.
The other occasion was right here at the Eastlink Centre where talented Island Storm guard Frank Session put on a show in the final two games of the NBL playoffs.
NHL
I wrote in last week’s column that I hoped the NHL’s on-ice referees would not play as much of a factor as they did in the opening two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But Wednesday night they again played a huge factor in the outcome with a couple of highly controversial calls. How they continue to miss obvious calls is hard to understand.
The non-call when a St. Louis Blues player shot the puck directly into the stands at a crucial point in the game should have drawn a penalty and then came the hand pass in overtime. It resulted in the San Jose winning goal and it should have been waved off.
I have a solution: send our own former premier referee Jamie Kennedy to NHL headquarters to school all on-ice officials.
Harness racing
Live harness racing continues tonight at 6 p.m. with a nine-dash card at Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park.
The $2,900 feature has Doctor Royal on the outside against a tough field that includes the likes of Mick Dundee, Revenant, Euchred and Adkins Hanover.
Tonight Mohawk hosts the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association final for three-year-old fillies and the final for sophomore trotters.
Sunny Dee (by Sunshine Beach) hopes to extend her win streak for trainer Bob MacIntosh in the $165,200 final against the likes of Better Single (Trev Henry) and Freya Seelster (James MacDonald). James drove four winners on the Monday card at Mohawk to break the 2,000-win plateau. He heads to Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday for the World Driving championships along with Doug McNair and Yannick Gingras from North America. We will send pictures for next week’s column from Sweden, so stay tuned.
At Yonkers tonight, Mark MacDonald handles Captain Malicious in the first elimination of the $380,000 Art Rooney for three-year-old pacers and then slips over to The Meadowlands where he handles trot standout The Veteran in the $50,000 first leg of the Graduate for trainer Paul Kelly, who campaigned millionaire Obrigado.
While I was in Ontario last week, I got the news of the passing of longtime horseman and political activist Reg Affleck, a colourful figure and longtime taxi cab owner. He was the brother of popular Charlottetown horseman Terry Affleck and an all-around great guy. My condolences to all connected to this gentleman.
Up-and-coming Island stars Austin Sorrie, Ryan Desroche and Drew Neill are staying in Ontario where they are driving plenty at Western Fair, Hiawatha and Flamboro. Summerside trainer Terry Gallant has 16 head racing in Ontario and plans to stay there for the rest of the year.
Summerside kicks off its first card of the year, Monday at 1 p.m.
Fred MacDonald's column appears every Saturday in The Guardian. He can be reached at [email protected].
Related links
P.E.I. Junior Islanders begin baseball season Sunday at Memorial Field
