What started as a little experiment to blow off some tension from days of high intensity migrant justice organizing with No One Is Illegal and maybe also as a way to find a space of commonality between my normie friends and my radical pals, the Insurgency Recreation Softball Team emerged. In the old days I’d write recaps of the games as though we were all guerillas in the mountains of Chiapas fighting against the forces of power and capital. Little did I know that our team would come to be engaging in a political experiment, one that actually includes folks who have worked directly with the Zapatistas.
These last 11 years have gone by so quickly that I didn’t even know that I was approaching my 300th career hit this weekend. So when I stepped into the box in the top of the 6th and launched a screaming line drive that was nearly caught by my former Humber teammate and pal, Laura Pin, I touched 1st base with a feeling of nostalgia for the decade + of baseball-making that I’ve done with all of you. Some of you have been on the ride since the very first season – I see you Ryan Hayes and Johann Juarez – and others like Jill Aoki-Barrett and Samira Banihashemi are playing along for the first time. Our team has had legends like Saeed Basiri – who played wearing war-paint while drinking a perrier and smoking a cigarette in the outfield. Like Adrian Rodill – who once shared a diamond with former National League MVP Joey Votto, but spent the better part of six season helping crush our opponents with incredible power and defense. Like Kim Lehmann – who gave us such great teachings about thinking of play as a site of politics and relationship-building. Like Andrew Thompson – who was the first to introduce short, short, short-shorts to the league.
We play among legends.
So to celebrate this milestone, I thought it would be fun to give a small snippet of history for each 50 hits leading up to 300. Here they are:
50 – It was in the summer of 2008 when I reached my 50th hit. It was our second season and after playing 2007 as the Insurgency and the Resurgency we made the decision to switch our name to “The Movement”. Only Ryan Hayes, Rocio Velasquez, and Johann Juarez remain from that team and we only played 6 games that entire season. We played teams that season like the “Sex Panthers” and “The Hangovers” and probably heard a lot of Hot Chip and Vampire Weekend, but perhaps the most memorable game that season was the torrential downpour game in Moss Park where a muddy and soggy group of us rose to the occasion – and won! I’m pretty sure that I did not get my 50th hit during that game, however, as Jenny Chan had come to watch and I was so nervous I was tripping all over the field.
100 – It took another 4 years to amass the next 50 hits, when hit 100 dropped in the second game of the 2012 season. This team included current dreamers Natalia Saavedra, Johann Juarez, Ryan Hayes, Jenny Chan, Yogi Acharya, and sub appearances from Joseph Bautista and Terrance Luscombe who had helped to facilitate our first political baseball project, the now defunct Autonomous Baseball League. This league brought us our first skillshares, our commitment to balancing competition and cooperation, and our realization that anarchy without organization is actually…chaos! Ahaha…so many injuries. But the Insurgency team lived through that summer as well and it was Ryan Hayes who led us with a .789 batting average and Jenny Chan who was second on the team with 12 hits!
150 – Hit 150 came at the end of the 2014 season, with the now retooled Uncertainty. This team included such dreamer luminaries as Rachel Small, Terrance Luscombe, Lainie Basman, Lj Robinson, Nav Sidhu, Noah Adams, Jenny Chan, Johann Juarez, Ryan Hayes, Merle Davis Matthews, and Jo Jefferson. Our nexus and core was solidifying – as were our politics around gender and masculinity. We all did a lot of soul searching that season, trying to think through how we might play in a different way. This was the year of the pink/purple/lavender jersey. The year of Terrance’s first career home run. The year that Merle picked up a game they never thought they would play and went along a pathway to being a co-captain and coordinator. It was a year marked with conflict (internal and external) and we lost sooo many games, but we grew so much as a team!
200 – Hit 200 dropped somewhere in the grass of Little Norway Park in the year 2016, the final year of the Uncertainty. We had been dreaming for over three seasons about what a league of our own would look like and myself and our teammates and subs Devin Clancy, Karl Gardner, Colin Hastings, Annelies Cooper, Robyn Letson, Andrew Stokes, Peter Demakos, Natalia Saavedera, Richard Peters, Janine Caster, Laura Pin, Stuart Schlusser, TH Vega, Rocio Velasquez Guzman, Rachel Small, Terrance Luscombe, Lainie Basman, Lj Robinson, Nav Sidhu, Noah Adams, Jenny Chan, Johann Juarez, Ryan Hayes, Merle Davis Matthews, and Jo Jefferson had created strong relationships, a 70 person strong petition, and the will to wade through and fuck up the City of Toronto Parks Department to make it happen. But we had a season to play! We worked with each other, learned new skills, learned that Annelies and Peter had some significant speed, Colin and Devin brought lefty bats, Karl and Richard could hit the ball a mile, Janine would bring life and energy to every play, Andrew Stokes knew his way around a triple, Laura brought some key baseball smarts, TH and Stu could supply the wit…and they all joined our project in a season that saw the Uncertainty die and rise from the ashes to become the Field of Dreamers.
250 – This was the first hit milestone I reach as a Field of Dreamer in our inaugural 2017 season. I’m so proud to have played the first season on the Humber River Hustle. We brought some funk to the league, we brought some thump to the league, and we felt whole in the watershed of our collective flow. Hit 250 was the only home run I’ve actually hit into the bushes of the park and didn’t have to run as fast as I could to make it around the bases. It is probably also around the time that I realized my body did not run as well as when I got hit #1 – 10 years earlier – so aging…it’s a thing pals!
300 – And now here we are in 2018! I’m a member of the Rouge River Blush, playing alongside radical political organizers and some of my oldest pals from my accountant bad boi days. It feels in many respects full circle. Red jerseys, plucky spirit, and rushing home to input the stats on a warm summer night. But in many other respects I look back and see the way each of you and many others who have since gone on their own basepaths has transformed this space of play, has transformed me, and for that I thank you. Here’s hoping to many more milestones of making baseball together.
With love,
#51 Craig Fortier