Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Baseball: On this East Vancouver sandlot, everyone is a kid again

EVBL builds on Isotopes punk band heritage and rivalry with Black Sox
evbl baseball
Pitching for the Black Sox, Adrian Sinclair delivers the heat as Ryan Ruin, a player with the Mount Pleasant Murder, stands in the infield to officiate a pre-season exhibition game of the East Vancouver Baseball League at Strathcona Park April 10, 2016. Photo Chung Chow

Strathcona Park, in East Vancouver, is a weedy wet sandbox of a ballpark.

Two diamonds square the western edge of this 10-acre park, a greening project on the False Creek Flats after the city dump closed on this property in 1939.

With overgrown outfields, tennis and basketball courts shrinking the centre fields, and aluminum bleachers backed by squatting camper vans, the constant visitors here are territorial crows and can collectors. On the horizon is a paint manufacturing plant while the backstops are border by Prior Street, a fire hall and the backside of vegetable warehouses. These two diamonds make the perfect setting for the inaugural season of the East Vancouver Baseball League. Opening weekend begins Friday night.

 

More to know than who’s on first 

An adult league for recreational baseball unlike any other in the region, the EVBL plays without a pitcher’s mound or an outfield fence. And uses shortened base paths. But make no mistake, this is hardball: overhand fastballs and inadvertent sliders, lead-off steals, three outfielders, regulation leather-wrapped baseballs and wooden bats. Pitches don’t arch and should never bounce off home plate. The Bad News Bears have grown up, and the sandlot is reserved for adults.

“It’s basically making baseball fun again,” said Jasmine Coble, who was wearing suspenders when she cracked a two-run double to push the East Van Black Sox over the All-City Ringers in a pre-season game in early April. “There are a lot of boring moments in slow-pitch and not everyone knows what ‘ortho’ is but there are a lot of people out there who enjoy the game and don’t just want to play because they’re bored with their office jobs.”

Full disclosure: I play for the Ringers. Like a few others in the EVBL, I’ve never swung a wooden bat.

In Vancouver, there are a half dozen recreational adult leagues offering some form of the three-strikes-and-you’re-out game. They all play variations of softball or slow-pitch, which uses a larger ball (coloured bright yellow or white), can limit the number of fouls a batter is allowed to hit, and is characterized by a lob that drops slowly toward — ideally right on top of — the plate from a flat pitching platform. The Twilight League famously drew together artists, writers, journalists and other creative nomads, such as Sarah Silverman (once, allegedly) and as well as Canada’s and the Vancouver Canadians poet laureate, George Bowering, to play ball beginning in the 1980s and now shares some recruits with the EVBL. In orthodox baseball, often called “ortho,” pitchers deploy an underhand windmill similar to competitive softball, a distinct sport sometimes distinguished by the name fastpitch and typically played by women at a highly competitive level such as the Olympics, but only before it was dropped in 2008 after four Summer Games.

You might know the baseball MLB or Little League or whiffle ball, but as you can see, this game has plenty of variations — all of them argued for and against by purists. (Who really hate change.)

Nonetheless, all versions hold true to the poetic, iconoclastic tenets that make baseball what it is: there is no game clock; the defence controls the ball; players, not the ball, score points.
 

evbl baseball
Mount Pleasant Murders' Chris Williams, in red, steals second under the tag of Black Sox baseman Adrian Sinclair but is ruled out seconds later after Sinclair fakes the throw back to his pitcher in a pre-season exhibition game at Strathcona Park April 10, 2016. Photo Chung Chow

 

Failing on the way up, up outta here

For its first season, the East Van Baseball League counts five teams plus the Ringers, a 26-member roster of rotating subs available for exhibition games or when core players are on the D.L. — likely caused by hangovers or band tour schedules and since, as one league director, Sean Thomas said, “You have to be fit to play baseball but you don’t get fit playing baseball.”

The EVBL, its directors and players pride themselves on an East Van identity just sincerely enough to lampoon it. A Facebook thread asked who will be getting a tattoo of their team emblem. The love is real, but don’t limit this league and its players to stereotypes. Someone answered that he’d ink “EVBL” across his knuckles. At least four members of the Isotopes are branded with team colours.

The majority of players work in the arts and run or contribute to small-businesses, dedicating their lives to crafting, creating and performing. They take risks, which suits the “punk rock temperament and vibe of the league,” said Thomas, exclaiming, “and East Vancouver!”

Success is hitting the ball and reaching base just once out of every three (or four) attempts at the plate.

“It’s a game where you have to be OK with failing,” he said. “The only way to get better is to fail a lot and that is very true to many small businesses, any musician can identify with that, anybody who tries to book a tour, or play a concert, or put out art into the world can identify with that. Baseball is game of failure and learning from that failure. There is not a lot of opportunity to have fun failing — baseball is one.”

Thomas, one of four men on the EVBL board of directors, said the league had to turn away players after the five rosters (and the substitute list) were filled. They could stack teams with former college and semi-pro competitors looking for more action, but they won’t do that. Thomas plays competitive hardball in the competitive men’s Pacific Coast League with the Vancouver Mounties while fellow director Evan Wansbrough came of age in the heavily scouted B.C. Premier Baseball League with the North Shore Twins.

Thinking ahead like true sports commissioners, they have an expansion play and aspire to replicate the league in cities throughout Canada and Cascadia.

The strong and sudden interest, “surprised the whole of us,” said Thomas. “The response has been more than we could handle. We could add four or five more teams and easily double the size of the league right now.” Instead, growth will be steady and staunchly committed to building community. They named the teams and Wansbrough designed the logos; the emblem for Murder is a crow.

The league has several charming contradictions, the major one being that the EVBL is an organized, governed league with expansion ambition overseeing the childlike spirit of the sandlot.

“We often go back and forth about how much structure we’re putting around this,” said Thomas. “It’s hard not to because ball is a very structured game, but sandlot ball is the truest form of playing in a backyard or farmer’s field or park in an urban setting where there is no league, there is nothing to it but a group of people getting together to play for the love of the game.”

 

Next up, Mr. October

Wansbrough, one of the league’s creators and its spiritual guide, is more widely known as Evan October, the frontman for punk rock band the Isotopes.

He crafts his bandmates’ stage names so they double as baseball puns. Currently on tour are Dallas Duststorm, Tony Hustle and others. “Justin Safely ain’t bad either,” Wansbrough wrote to the Courier while on tour in Italy. He’s responsible for designing the logos for the EVBL original five and won’t reveal the plan — “No Way!” he declared when asked — for expansion franchises. Unlike almost every recreational league in the existence of adult amateur sport, EVBL teams will not name themselves.

“My vision was to have a league that represents each of the neighbourhoods in East Van in a classic and tough way with a tip of the cap to history where it exists. It's a league of gangs. We wanted to give everyone something to be proud of,” he wrote. “The idea with maintaining creative control over the league is to preserve and ensure quality. You start giving everyone a say and soon you're ordering up camouflage jerseys with ‘Long Dong Silvers’ across the front in hunting orange. There's plenty of leagues where that s*** flies, but not here.”

A teenage prospect with the North Shore Twins, Wansbrough, 31, chose music over sport at a time when he and his teammates were being scouted by university programs.

The Isotopes Punk Rock Baseball Club formed in 2007, taking its name from the animated ballers seen in The Simpsons and regularly padding their ranks to enter slow-pitch tournaments or hold pick-up games with the East Van Black Sox, a team that exists to play the ‘Topes and could otherwise be named the Swindlers after its historical Chicago namesake. The EVBL team has four band members, including a pitcher in Wansbrough, who is named October in honour of clutch post-season performer Reggie Jackson, not Derek Jeter.

From this hybrid posse of athletic artists, community-building punks and closeted jocks, came the EVBL. Not everyone makes the cut.

“I know 35 dudes who could strike me out who I haven’t invited out to this,” wrote Wansbrough, who told Vice magazine he didn’t graduate high school because he refused to play Led Zeppelin for his music credit. “We want to attract folks who are creative with a passion or nostalgia for baseball in its purest form. The way you remember it from when you were a kid.”

In one pre-season inning, three batters were beaned. In the same game, at least two bats shattered and there were also two balks, only one of them caught by the self-officiating teams. Players discussed Black Flag writing credits and popped cans of Postmark, the official beer sponsor of the EVBL. Post-game events are held at league sponsor What’s Up? Hot Dog!, the East Hastings Street restaurant and unofficial clubhouse. The trophy case sparkles with hardware topped with a pink, Homer-coveted, doughnut.

 

Pastime for the ages

At Strathcona Park during a springtime dust-up between the Black Sox and Ringers, the benches of the southwest diamond are within spitting distance from one another, the same width of one baseman’s gut, an opponent could point out in the spirit of the league’s theatrical trash talk.

evbl baseball
Murders' Ryan Ruin, in shorts, pitches as the Black Sox's Peter Skreeko umps from the infield. Photo Chung Chow

The insults are supposed to fly as if between Hatfields and McCoys, but instead, come game time, the radio manager at CiTR approaches the opposition to say, in his considerate way, “Thanks for holding back on that slide, man.” The runner, when attempting to steal second, slid early and away from the baseman. No Chase Utley rule will be invoked amongst these comrades.

Does trash talking happen? Safely away from the field of play. “I’ve noticed it happening more on the internet than in person,” said Courtney Garvin, a guitarists with the Courtneys who plays for her neighbourhood Mount Pleasant Murder. 

In addition to embracing proper baseball pants (no shorts despite the Courier cover photo), the EVBL upholds traditions, such as the classic essay that inspired the lead to this story. Strathcona may not be Fenway, and these aging kids are no Kid, but baseball is a timeless sport that builds history each day it’s played. A message from the official league email address arrives from “Honus Wagner,” not the real man, it should go without saying, but still a historical figure and sports legend. Wagner, a shortstop who played 21 seasons of professional baseball, was among the first five men inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.

History rules the young league.

Just ask Roy Madison.

Madison, a fictional character more enjoyed in fantasy than known in reality, like Santa Clause, is an L.A. beat writer taking a break from the Dodgers to cover the EVBL “on a personal assignment […] in an attempt to rediscover the thrill of the game.” His writes about Vin Scully, loves sandwiches and may have tried to kill himself before turning finding meaning among East Van’s baseball misfits.

Thomas won’t reveal the identity of the scribe who calls Strathcona Park a “glorious little heap of grass.”

 

My boy’s gonna play in the big leagues

When they expanded the league from informal dust-ups between the Isotopes and Black Sox, Thomas said he heard several common phrases from EVBL players: they hadn’t played baseball since they were 13; they had only played slow-pitch; they wanted something other than aggressive, obsessive men’s hardball.

For women, the story was a little different.

Somewhat like the Isotopes Punk Rock Baseball Club, pop punk band the Courtneys formed a slow-pitch team and play in a recreational summer league. “We did it because we already had the hats,” said Garvin.

Hardball is a new game for the athlete who grew up near Victoria playing softball and soccer and who saw herself as a “weirdly freaky jock, the kid on the team wearing all-black,” but a jock all the same. She is adapting to the heavier bats and faster pitches. “I got up there and took my first swing, and I swear it was five seconds after the ball crossed the plate.”

A 34-ounce slugger is too heavy, she said. “I can see why so many people play softball now. It’s so much easier, but actually baseball is more fun. It’s intense, it’s kind of thrilling.”

Jessica Sands played competitively with the Burnaby Oakeys and also made the Softball B.C. team as a teenager in Delta. She was scouted by a U.S. university, but unlike many of her teammates, she turned down the invitation because the sport didn’t present a future after graduation. “There was no end game,” she said. “It even stopped being an Olympic sport.”

Sands pursued her career in music touring with various bands and also produces a sports comedy podcast, the Real Good Show. She applauds the incremental increase in athletic opportunities for girls, and is fan of multi-sport talent Mo’ne Davis. And really, who isn’t?

“I love to see all of the girls playing baseball now,” said Sands. “I came in just before all of that happened, so I’m happy to see there is more of a culture of acceptance. I would have loved to have played baseball growing up and that’s why I’m so excited to play now.”

Thomas shares a perceptive personal memory about playing baseball in the ’90s with Burnaby Minor. As a high schooler, he’ll never forget one pitcher who didn’t just rack up strike-outs, but could also hit the lights out. That head-turner eventually dropped out of baseball to pursue a career in soccer, and today Canadians celebrate her as one of the world’s all-time goal scorers.

“It was Christine Sinclair,” he said. “She was an unrivaled baseball player and athlete. It always stuck with me why there weren’t more girls playing. Clearly, athletic women can play hardball.”

Coble, she of the suspender and walk-off double from way back at the beginning of this article, played competitive women’s fastpitch and is accustomed to a speedy windmill delivery with movement, which she finds much more rewarding to hit than the “oh, just another rainbow” seen in slow-pitch.

She might have played hardball with male peers, but growing up in Vernon there weren’t options and now, as an adult, she knows senior men’s leagues aren’t renowned for their inclusivity. Occasionally picked up to play for the Isotopes before joining the Black Sox in the EVBL, she said baseball “is a nice adjustment to back to the fast swing.”

The EVBL seems to put a smile on everyone’s face.

“This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my dad’s eyes, being the one who gets called up for teams,” said Coble, who was voted the MVP for her game-winning hit. “Being a little bit of a ringer in my own and the fact that it’s hardball, it’s really blown his mind.”

The East Van Baseball League regular season begins Friday, April 15 and 16 at Strathcona Park.

The East Vancouver Black Sox play the Vancouver Isotopes at 6 p.m. Friday, April 15. On April 16, the Mount Pleasant Murder play the Railtown Spikers at 12 p.m. followed by the Strathcona Stevedores versus the Black Sox at 3 p.m.

mstewart@vancourier.com

Twitter: @MHStewart

 

evbl baseball
Bruce Dyck, with the Murder and drummer for the band B-LINES, watches from the dugout after he hit the first home run of a pre-season exhibition game against the Black Sox at Strathcona Park April 10, 2016. Photo Chung Chow
 
evbl baseball
The Mount Pleasant Murder strategize. Photo Chung Chow

 

evbl baseball
From left to right, Chelsea Brown, Robert Watt, Ted Phillips and Paul, who wouldn't give alast name, discuss how the game has changed over the years during an EVBL pre-season exhibition game at Strathcona Park April 10, 2016. Photo Chung Chow

 

evbl baseball
Photo Chung Chow

 

evbl baseball
Adrian Sinclair slides back to first base before the Murders' Michael Jorgensen can tag him during a pre-season exhibition game at Strathcona Park April 10, 2016. Photo Chung Chow

 

evbl baseball
Chris Williams at the plate for the Mount Pleasant Murder in a pre-season exhibition game at Strathcona Park April 10, 2016. Photo Chung Chow

 

evbl baseball
Wood bats, lined up in the dug out in a pre-season exhibition game at Strathcona Park April 10, 2016. Photo Chung Chow. Photo Chung Chow