July 08, 2009
GREG MERCER
GUELPH MERCURY

Right in the middle of Ontario’s corn belt, little Wyoming is so flat it seems you could smack a high fly ball to centre field and watch it soar forever.

It’s here in this tiny farming village, right off Broadway Street, you’ll find an increasingly rare sight: Prime green space in the heart of the town that is reserved for baseball diamonds. The soccer pitches, meanwhile, are tucked out on the edge of town, behind the big metal barns on the agricultural society grounds.

That makes Wyoming charmingly out of step with its neighbours in Ontario.

Most municipalities in the province, and indeed, across the country, are increasingly choosing soccer over baseball when it comes time to build or maintain their sports fields. And no wonder: minor league soccer is a growing sport, and minor league baseball simply, and sadly, isn’t.

That was spelled out clearly at a city council meeting this week in Cambridge, where councillors approved without debate a sports field master plan that would plow under old baseball diamonds and replace them with new soccer pitches.

Further down in the article …

Guelph is no different from Cambridge, and there are calls for similar decisions here. On many weeknights, our baseball diamonds lie quiet and overgrown with weeds, while our soccer pitches are full of running tykes and proud parents.

It goes on to say more, but I just can’t bring myself to even think about this!!

The article can be read in it’s entirety at the GuelphMercury.com website.