(5)
A plan to halt the barrage of softballs plunking soccer players in the head at Keelesdale Park is no home run for ball players tossed out of the park by it.
We reported several times last year on the conflict between adult slo-pitch teams and soccer players and spectators at Keelesdale, near Eglinton Ave. W. and Black Creek Dr., where beefy hitters were hammering softballs over a fence and onto a soccer pitch next to it.
Kids in evening soccer games were too often struck by a well-hit ball – along with coaches, parents and a few car windshields – resulting in flare-ups between the groups and a prickly problem for Toronto's parks department.
An outfield fence that separated the two fields wasn't nearly high enough to stop the balls, so the city doubled its height last summer. But heavy hitters were still able to crack too many balls over the top of the chain-link monster.
A kids' soccer coach told us last year two of his players had been hit in successive weeks. He said every time there was a bingo, it prompted a heated confrontation between soccer parents and slo-pitch players that nearly came to blows.
Since the fence only challenged the best hitters to crank the ball even higher and harder, parks officials had to find a better solution.
Kevin Bowser, who's in charge of west district parks, says the slo-pitch leagues have been moved this year to ball diamonds in other area parks, ending the conflict.
When the Keelesdale diamond was created decades ago, it was mainly used by fast-pitch leagues where hitters had a lot harder time connecting with the ball, compared to the fat beach balls hit so hard by slo-pitch players, said Bowser.
By next year, the ball diamond will have been turned into a soccer pitch, he added. It will likely please the soccer crowd, but will strike out with ball players who say they were there long before the soccer.
Paul McGarroch, who first alerted us to the issue, called recently to say "our baseball teams have been ordered to leave, but if you go down there on a Wednesday night, nobody is using the (soccer) fields. Very poor planning on the part of the city."
What's broken in your neighbourhood? We want to know. To email us, go to www.thestar.com/thefixer and click on the submit a problem link. Or call us at 416-869-4823.
