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Senior baseball players win big
11/12/08
BY TREENA MIELKE
Red Deer Express
Four local seniors who played some hard, competitive, tough baseball against teams from all over the world have come home winners.
Bob Stevenson, Len Zemlak and Al West from Red Deer and Lyle Lorenz from Lacombe played on the Canada Vision Air Snowbird team in Phoenix, Arizona who won the championship trophy in the 65 plus age-class division of the 2008 World Series of Men’s Senior Baseball.
The Snowbirds defeated a team from the Virgin Islands to capture the championship game of the tournament held at the end of October.
Player coach and manager Lyle Lorenz said the Snowbirds picked up players from Saskatchewan and Ontario as well as Alberta to round out their team.
“It was exciting and very competitive,” he said. “Our team did very well. I thought we would be very competitive. I knew we had a good team, but on any given week, we might not play that well. We did very well though, with a perfect 7-0 record.”
He said the local players made major contributions to the championship run.
West belted two triples, led the team with 10 walks and pitched a one-run complete round-robin game victory over Arizona, he said.
“He was clearly the best catcher in the tournament.”
Zemlak was solid at first base and batted .320 with eight runs batted in.
Stevenson played errorless ball at second base and batted .500 with 11 runs batted in, four doubles and eight walks.
Lorenz, himself put in an excellent performance batting .667 with four doubles, 15 stolen bases and 17 runs scored. He pitched a complete nine-inning final game, giving up one run on four base hits.
The player coach said winning the championship was exciting.
“It’s a very difficult championship to win.” he said. “We were all excited, some people were even jumping up and down, just like kids.”
Lorenz said he has been playing ball since he was about 10-years-old and loves the sport.
West, who has also played baseball for more than 50 years said the tournament is a “whole lot of fun.”
“It’s a good time, but it’s competitive; very competitive ball.”
As well as a trophy, individual team players on the Snowbirds will all receive world championship rings engraved with their name, position, uniform number, team name and team record.
Lorenz, Zemlak, West and Stevenson also played in the 60 plus division held the previous week of the tournament, losing in semi final action to the Rhode Island Salty Dogs.
Other local players on this team included Frank Bonham, Ralph Kachor, Colin Trevors, Garry Kreye and Blair Hanna.
The nine players all play for the Red Deer Vision Air Snowbirds in the Red Deer Senior Men’s Baseball League.
tmielke@reddeer.greatwest.ca 403-309-5452
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