From it’s inception, softball has had many different variations of the game and in Canada the first official softball league was formed in 1897. The Slo-Pitch variation of softball achieved formal recognition in 1953 when it was added to the program of the Amateur Softball Association. With the technological development of metallurgy or composite materials over the past 20+ years, the game of slo-
pitch moved from its original intent of a true defensive game to a tournament of offensive power and exorbitant scores. Tired of watching the ball continually being pounded over fielders heads by overpriced loaded bats in small ball parks, “Cricket” and “Shades” put their heads together during the winter of 2009 to discover options of moving the game back to the original intent of playing for the fun and true enjoyment of the game. The result was the founding of East York Men’s Wooden Sticks Slo – Pitch League for the 2010 season for players 45 years of age or older, aimed to keep the ball in the park by using only wooden softball bats, restricted flight softballs and penalizing any “over the fence” home runs. Games are played on Mondays (including holidays) at the John Shelton Diamond ( #1) in Topham Park East York. The season starts the first Monday in July and consists of 12 games through to September followed by up by round robin playoff on the following Saturday. The league morals are lead by safety, fair play and sportsmanship as a priority.
