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ptffweekendeh uune24m995 st catch me if you can third baseman debbie rennie left reaches for the ball in an effort to tag out riccis sports bar baserunner jean peardon in a softball game played at the town park diamond on monday photosjoero witteveen thexycle floalis annual bike tent sale 2 weeks only brand names bianchi khs diamond back raleigh denali monaoose miyata save up to 30 helmets price with vry bik pwrchas bike tuneups start 1999 5762 highway 7 in markham i mile mmm mm iweifofmarkhamrd 471 i960 i s 2 1 hwy7 i hwy7 its been a different ball season for the buridiolder family sport notes laying fallow and waiting for rain thats the book on former stouffville sports personali ty of the year howard burkholder these days as he tends to the familys stouffville area farm dur ing this hot dry june howards taken the year off from coaching after guiding the stouffville mer chants junior mens fastball team through four eventful seasons including a third- place finish at the canadi an junior mens champi onship in 1991 its always been tough trying to juggle farm chores with coaching his three sons chris rich and ryan and the rest of the ball players that talented trio have grown up with this season however with howard wearing only his farmers hat the pres sure has been lessened a little but while its a year away from the ball diamond for howard his three boys and most of the other mer chants have scattered far and wide with the break up of the team that occurred when howard backed off and several key players graduated from the junior ranks chris burkholder the old est of the three is playing for the greenbank gam blers mens fastball team along with former mer chants pitching star byrpn baranieski the pair who played key roles in the merchants near ontario junior champi onship threepeat a few years back have added their substantial talents to the greenbank outfit which always seems to be able to attract the higher calibre players ryan and rich burkhold er are with the port perry junior squad which plays out of the oshawa city and district fastball league brent bonner and bob ferguson the uxbridge residents who played win ter ball in australia after the merchants season ended last fall are mem bers of the oshawa junior outfit which also plays in the oshawa loop the biggest surprise of the year has seen scott evans who departed the merchants after their 1990 ontario championship sea son to play out west reap pear with the claremont rebels evans established himself as the top junior mens pitcher in the country while playing for canadian cham pionship alberta teams in 1992 and 93 the pefferlaw resident is throwing for the rebels during the week then heading off to midland michigan to play with an american softball associa tion mens team on week ends evans is joined on the rebels squad by old mer chants teammates rob par- cells jason yoshida and jamie showers the addition of evans resulted in the upgrading of the rebels from the north durham fastball league to the north york fastball league so far he hasnt disap pointed while the former mer chant teammates have scattered in little clusters the players still manage to make occasional contact with each other at the ball park rich and ryan burkhold- ers port perry squad squares off against fergu son bonner and the oshawa juniors in an oshawa league game every now and then and recently an unlikely encounter at a toronto park involved rich burkholder and baranieski when rich arrived to watch an exhibition game between the internationally renowned toronto gators and the waterloo twins he saw baranieskis truck in the parking lot assuming his former teammate was also in attendance at the game he went looking for him so the two could sit together to richs surprise bara nieski was suited up with the waterloo outfit even more amazing was how the tall righthander came within a couple of outs of shutting out the awesome gators as he and the waterloo boys settled for a 21 win the gators would go on to drop both games of the nights double header a shocker to be sure while gleaning this tidbit of fastball news from howard and rich as they took a lunch break from farm duties at a local burg er joint thursday i asked howard if he was praying for rain to help the crops along a devout christian he responded that he chooses not to engage in such self- indulgent prayer requests but we decided that if by some chance the skies should give way with a colossal downpour over the upcoming july 1 canada day weekend at least one of us would be able to find something to smile about after all when youre lay ing fallow a rain storm that sends ball players scurry ing for cover is just another act of nature correction on golf date an article in the june 17 weekender sports section erroneously stated that the mayors golf tournament would be held this past wednesday june 21 at the sleepy hollow golf course the tournament is actually scheduled for thursday july 21 the tribune regrets the error