“Like all games, softball has its ups and downs and a present eclipse does not mean that the game is dead. The tide always turns.”
That these words should apply so well to present circumstances perhaps gives Bianca Pyle solace, but the fact is they were written 40 years ago.
They come from an article discussing the early days of softball in Powell River, part of a book called Powell River’s First 50 Years 1910 to 1960. She discovered it at Powell River Historical Museum and Archives as she was trying to discern how long women have been playing softball here.
Over the past five years Pyle has watched the Powell River Women’s Softball league lose players. Only three teams played in the league last year.
She asked Teedie Kagume, coordinator at the museum, to help her find out about softball’s local roots.
Pyle is vice-president of the league. “I’ve got friends who have parents who played in the 70s,” she said. “So I knew it was at least that old.”
When they found the article they knew they had the answer.
“We had a eureka moment,” she said. “We discovered it would be 74 years this year.”
Now Pyle is hoping for the tide to turn. “We’ve got to make it 75 years,” she said.
Women were playing softball in the 30s and 40s but it didn’t really get going until 1949 after the war.
“When I saw the picture of the Riverside Girls [playing softball] in 1938, the first thing I noticed is that they were wearing pants, which is a big deal,” said Pyle.
After World War II, softball was “the largest spectator sport in the district and dominated summer sports activities.” The Rhythmettes, one of the women’s teams, won the BC Senior “B” championship in 1949, the only provincial title won by a local softball team.
Some of the more recent photos Pyle found from the 1970s she posted to Facebook, to a great response.
“A lot of these people still live here,” she said.
Powell River Women’s Softball is running a “Save the League Camp” from 9:30 am to 5 pm on Sunday, April 7 at Cranberry field.
It is free for any women 16 years or older who want to play ball. Coaches will teach softball fundamentals. Organizers will cook a free barbecue lunch for participants.
“Attendance at this camp is how we are going to decide whether or not to run the league,” said Pyle. “To see it go down would be such a shame.”
