Years ago, before the Yorkton Yankees and WMBL Yorkton Cardinals, the City of Yorkton played host to a senior league team known for their aggressive approach at the plate as well as their stingy defence and strong pitching.
They were known as the Black Sox, and they wore black and white and played tooth and nail baseball each and every game.
However, a couple of years after a 2004 SESBL league final defeat to the Dauphin Brewers the team folded and no one heard from them again... until now that is, as the team was revived for the 2015 Twilite Maxi Provincials co-hosted by Yorkton and Melville from July 3-5. 鈥淲ell with Yorkton hosting the tournament (2015 Twilite Maxi Provincials) we felt that now would be a good time to bring the team back,鈥� said former Black Sox middle infielder Roby Sharpe who, due to a broken leg, had to adopt the coaching role instead of taking his usual spot on the field. 鈥淪o we made a few phone calls, called in a few favours and got the guys back together for this weekend.鈥�
The weekend started off well for Sharpe and the Black Sox as the team that had not played a full game together in nearly a decade put together an impressive performance to defeat the Estevan Drillers in their opening game of the Provincial tournament by a score of 11-4. 鈥淲e played well against Estevan right from the first pitch,鈥� offered Sharpe, suggesting that while their bats were strong it was the pitching that really powered the team to the win. 鈥淲e had a couple of guys that hadn鈥檛 pitched in quite a few years but were all-star pitchers back in the day in Trent Szabo and Brook Andres. They showed why they were all-stars and shut down Estevan.鈥�
The following game for the Black Sox was one that they would like to have back as a shocking injury on the first play of the game allowed their opponents, the Regina Ghosts, to take advantage of a stunned Black Sox team for a quartet of runs in the opening inning resulting in an eventual 6-4 loss. 鈥淟ee Rusnak, one of our Black Sox guys forever who also played hockey with the Terriers, got injured the first play of the game,鈥� Sharpe told Yorkton This Week. 鈥淗e blew his knee up and it was almost like we were in shock for a minute. It took the wind out of our sails and we were down four runs before we knew what hit us.
鈥淭hen we kind of gathered our senses and it was a heck of a baseball game. We battled from start to finish but came up short.鈥�
The loss knocked the Black Sox out of the 鈥楢鈥� Side and down to the 鈥楥鈥� Side where they ended their tournament early, falling to the Lockwood Braves 14-4 in the first round of 鈥楥鈥� Side action. 鈥淲e had some guys that dug down deep but we鈥檙e all 40 years old and we haven鈥檛 played in years,鈥� mentioned the Black Sox bench boss. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 do it every day or you鈥檙e not practicing regularly then it takes a toll on the body and at the end of the final game we were all feeling it.鈥�
And while the Black Sox didn鈥檛 find the success they were hoping to find on the weekend, they still managed to leave the ball park in good spirits. 鈥淲e had so many laughs over the weekend. It鈥檚 good to get together with the guys again and share stories of things that happened 20 years ago,鈥� laughed a smiling Sharpe. 鈥淲e talked about old games, old coaches and had a few laughs and a lot of cold ones over a successful weekend.
鈥淪ure we might not have won anything on the field, but we got back out there and had a great time again.鈥�
Members of the 2015 Yorkton Black Sox are as follows: Brooks Washenfelder, Dave Jones, Brian Russell, JP Simpson, Dwayne Wandy, Brook Andres, Neil Schell, Cory Sharpe, Jeff Ronn, Rob Kozak, Jeremy Lang, Dean Sliva, Kirby Stewart, Trent Wonitowy, Jeff Sperling, Damian Sarota, Trent Szabo, Steve Cole, Terry Dennis, Ryan Effa, Jason Beatty, Jason Trost, Lee Poncelet, Darren Shumay, Lee Rusnak and coaches Roby Sharpe and Tim Szabo.
