This Scarborough baseball game has lasted nearly 5 decades and it's still growing
A group of friends recently reunited to celebrate a baseball game that's spanned generations
Some people say it started in 1973, others remember it being 1968, but the original players all know one thing for sure: it's a baseball game that's spanned generations.
Conservatively, the first year has been pegged at 1978, which would make this the 45th season of the weekly Dorset Hardball baseball game. It's a game that began with a group of high school friends in Scarborough and has been carried on by some of their adult children.
On Thursday night, some of the original players were back at Dorset Park for an alumni game. Daniel Re Jr., whose father is one of the game's founders, said he remembers being a toddler watching Daniel Re Sr. throw pitches. This time, he was now back at the park with his own son.
"I have a grandmother who lives across the street still — she's 86. My father's 65, so I grew up with this," he said. "In an era where so much changes and people move around and everything, to be able to come here at my age and do this... it's meaningful."
WATCH | Old timers and new faces brought together at league's alumni game:
The game has grown beyond the group of friends who first took the field when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's father led the country. Today it includes newcomers to Canada who are more familiar with cricket and a couple Japanese students who are still learning English.
'We've all hung out for 50 years'
In the early days, the game was played on different fields before the group got an official city permit to host it at Dorset Park. How exactly the game began is a bit fuzzy, which is obvious from their shirts that say "Dorset Baseball, est. 1978ish."
But Re Sr. puts it simply.
"It's got to be 45-50 years ago anyway, but the guys just got together. We all hung out anyway, we've all hung out for 50 years."
Dave Walton, whose son Matthew has kept renewing their city permit for the game, says passing it down through family is what the league's all about.
Walton says the attendance of the games went through cycles as families got started.
"For some reason, we would lose guys once they got married," he said. "But even some of them came back once in a while."
Looking back over the years, Walton remembers some of the traditions that accompanied the game, like beer Sundays.
"One of the worst injuries I ever got was on beer Sunday because you start to get a little bit stupid," he said.
The idea was to buy a bunch of beer, bring it to the park and play two games to finish out the season.
Walton says the day is best summed up like this, "We used to bring beer and water. By the second inning, the beer was gone and there was all kinds of water."
'Hopefully another 50'
These days, he said it's been fantastic to see the game expand to include people new to the country.
"We always welcomed anybody that wanted to play," he said.
The dugout grew after the pandemic, when the game needed new players. Re Jr. took to social media to find them.
Among them is Mitsu Uchida, who's been in Canada for three months and a player with Dorset Hardball for two of them. Uchida never played baseball before coming to Canada; on Thursday, he stepped up to the plate, shouted, "Home run!" and then he hit one as a chorus of cheers rained across the park.
"I like to hit and get a home run," he told CBC Toronto.
After nearly five decades and with an influx of new talent, Re Jr. thinks Dorset Hardball is having a bit of a rebirth.
"I'm hoping, just like the last somewhere between 45 and 50 years, we keep on going for another five to 10, hopefully another 50," said Re Jr.
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With files from Dale Manucdoc