The 32nd annual Grand Forks International baseball tournament (GFI) is gearing up for another year in Grand Forks from Aug. 29 to Sept. 3 at James Donaldson Park.
An international tournament, the GFI has seen teams come into Grand Forks from across Canada, the United States, Australia and even Japan. This year’s tournament will have 26 games spread over six days.
GFI co-ordinator Gerry Foster noted that everything is pretty much set up, including finding replacements for the last minute withdrawal of the U.S. Military All-Stars.
“It’s not unusual to have teams withdraw and it has happened before,” he said. “With last year’s recession in the U.S., global events and players spread out, it does happen; however, there are a lot of great players and I’m really excited.”
Foster is excited with the line up of teams, baseball players, umpires and coaches who will be participating at this year’s GFI.
Kelly Hunter, who was an umpire at the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, will be the first woman umpire to officiate at the GFI.
“She has also been an umpire for the 2010 Women’s Baseball World Cup in Venezuela and right now she’s in Edmonton, Alta. for the 2012 World Cup,” he said. “Ron Barnes, who is the first Major League Umpire to work at the GFI, will join Hunter as one of the eight umpires.”
There are other notable players and coaches who will be coming into town, such as Aaron Cotter who graduated from Mt. Sentinel High School in South Slocan, and UCLA Bruins Alumni coach Gary Adams who has 984 wins and a total of 1,172 victories in his college coaching career.
As the games set off, the GFI and the Boundary Country Regional Chamber of Commerce will have a “Meet and Greet Tourism” booth set up at the park.
“From Christina Lake to Rock Creek, there will be a kiosk there (at James Donaldson Park) and we’ll always have somebody there where visitors to the community can find out more about the Boundary area,” explained Foster.
Another new initiative is the Grand Forks International passport program that aims to promote local businesses by having guests visit various stores around the city. For each participating business, there will be a spot in the passport for it to be stamped.
“Once they get the passport filled up, we’ll have a draw towards the end of the tournament and we’re going to have two draws of $150 and possibly a third draw for 2012-2013 tournament pass,” Foster added.
Foster noted that the sponsors this year have been very supportive.
“The support from the community really bolsters the GFI. It’s also the reason why we’re able to increase the GFI Prize Money which hasn’t changed since 2001,” he added. “This year is also the first year we’ve had the Toronto Blue Jays as sponsors.”
The 12 visiting teams include the Lewiston Paffile Truckers, Seattle Studs, Trail Orioles, Langley Sr. Blaze, Canada West All-Stars, San Diego Stars, Parkland Whitesox, the UCLA Bruins alumni, Northwest Honkers, Kamloops Sun Devils, Team Canada, and Thurston County Senators.
For more information, contact Foster at 250-442-8323 or visit grandforksbaseball.com.