SYDNEY, N.S. — The Sydney Sooners first chance to host the Canadian Men’s Senior Baseball championship will have to wait after the tournament became the latest sporting event cancelled as a result of COVID-19 precautions.
Baseball Canada cancelled all of its national championships earlier this week because of the pandemic, including the one set to play out at the Susan McEachern Memorial Ball Park in August.
Sooners alumni member Brad Jacobs was disappointed to hear of the decision to cancel, though he understands the reasons.
“It is a huge opportunity to host in your home community and, selfishly for me as an alumnus, we were all looking forward to gathering,” said Jacobs, who played for the Sooners from 1989-93. “We don’t have many opportunities where we do it.”
Besides being a former player, Jacobs was part of a group organizing a fundraising golf tournament to support the national event in Sydney. Sooners players from the past 20-25 years were set to take part in the golf tournament to show their support for the Sooners and their longtime manager Jim (Rico) McEachern.
“From my perspective, I feel terrible for Rico. Here’s a guy who has put his entire life into a program and one of the big crowning achievements was to have an opportunity to host the nationals. You hope it goes ahead the following year, but I don’t know what the plans are.
"I feel bad for Rico and I feel bad for the players.”
The Sooners had previously bid to host the men’s nationals in 2017, 2018 and 2019 without success.
“It’s satisfying that we’re going to bring that level of baseball to the community for our very faithful fans and those fans that will travel in I’m sure to watch it,” McEachern told the Post in a November 2018 interview, just after the tournament was awarded to the Sooners.
In a press release, Baseball Canada president Jason Dickson said the decision to cancel all 2020 national championships under the Baseball Canada banner came after "extensive discussion" and "careful consideration" among its executive committee and board of directors.
“Although this decision will be disappointing to many across the Canadian baseball community, we felt it was the best decision to make given that the health and welfare of our members is paramount in these uncertain times,” Dickson said.
The decision to cancel national championships does not mean a cancellation of local baseball seasons, according to Baseball Canada. Individual provincial members will decide the course of their seasons and associated provincial tournaments.
