DOMINION DAY CLASSIC

Yeah, I was there that night, but let's back up a bit.

Back in the summer of '78, the phones would start ringing as soon as the boys began getting home from work most weeknights, or the FAT CATS were done their daily routine. No cells, texts or emails back then - you pretty much had to hang out in your kitchen to find out what was going on. 
 
Your ball glove and your bat was almost always in the car.

Most nights, we'd end up at The Elms public school over on Golfdown Road, or at Rexdale Public School which would one day in the not too distant future be renamed CASE FIELD. We'd choose sides, and if we didn't have enough guys, we'd play Workups or Cut Throat. It didn't matter.. We'd play until Lil complained he couldn't see the ball anymore. Then unless a game of WTTCDA donut tag broke out, we'd head down to the 'Line for a tray of 25 cent draughts if the boys had the cash, or else to McDonald's for shakes if they didn't.

One warm June night after ball and burgers it back to Bert and Frannie's on Hallow Crescent, where the pool was cool and the stubbies cheap. 

It was one of those nights that nowadays just about everybody and their brother swears they were at, but there couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 of us. 

Nobody seems to recall whose idea it was to have a ball tournament, but a few Colt 45s later, there we were drafting teams.
 
The Red Machine, The Boys, Beasley's Tree Service and Galliagres Girls would start it all.

We settled on the Dominion Day weekend which gave us a week or two to print up some cheap t-shirts and tell all the boys what was going on. Don't know why we chose the Rexdale Public School ball diamond, but you can bet that Case and Mrs. P both had something to do with that.

It didn't take long for the ragging and chirping to start up.  I remember a camp out at Ronnie Rothfuchs empty field the weekend before the tourney - the first time we saw the youngster Cote in DOM DAY form (had he turned 17 yet?).

I do remember how competitive the games themselves were, almost as many arguments as innings - it was all about the bragging rights, not as much the comaraderie as years later.

The after-party at Bobby's was a barn-burner, and it produced the first crop of DOM DAY romances if I am not mistaken. We also had the title game the day after the party....how dumb was that?

The whole weekend came and went so quick though, it's all a blur now. I don't think we ever meant to be an annual event, but when it was all over there was no doubt we'd be doing it again ... and here we are many years later.

- Slade Digby - DOM DAY 35 Grammie