Curve Balls

Former fastball pitcher, East Ferris Mayor Bill Vrebosch, should have known better when he went to bat for the South Nipissing Team against the polished team of the North Bay mayor and council. He should have expected a curve ball instead of something down the middle of the plate. Inviting Fedeli to a team meeting about a casino and expecting him to show his hand was a little naïve since all Fedeli had on his roster was joint funding for the new Regional Health Centre.

Looking back with 20/20 vision, it is now easy to see how well the North Bay team faked their distaste about Charity Casino gambling when they had a racetrack in their back pocket. They not only fooled Team Vrebosch, but a great number of social workers and concerned citizens who are against the Casino and gambling. The Team North Bay infield were right behind their pitcher while only a few of the outfielders went on record as supporting the Casino based on the job opportunities it offered our area.

Mayor Bill was not the only player showing some naiveté. Councillor Campbell applauded the horse racing concept, perhaps as a traditional sport, while thinking that slot machines were different than horse races. It seems it is all right to wager a bob or two on the ponies pounding around the mud, but not on the races run around a circular slot track by little symbols of fruit. If three of those little cherries tie for first place it’s like winning the Exactor! Maybe addicted gamblers are not attracted to horses as much as they are to dice or bits of fruit.

As to the foul ball hit by shortstop Vaillancourt about North Bay being the centre of his universe, he ought to step back up to the plate and swing again. Without the cooperation of the municipalities around North Bay, the City team may find themselves riding the pine when it comes to joint efforts like the Conservation Authority, DSSAB, the Regional Health Centre and School Boards. There is already a rumour of clouds in the Blue Sky initiative. If there is ever any hope of bringing more jobs to our area, we are all going to have to work together.

If Mayor Fedeli is tied up in the major leagues and has no time for working with our neighbouring townships he could send in the Deputy Mayor as batting coach. Peter could at least SWOT a few flies out to the South Nipissing Team to show them the finer points of the political game in which they are now involved. Maybe he could lay down a few practise bunts to East Ferris who shares Trout Lake with us; pop up some flies for Merrick Township that houses the city dump; hit a few liners straight at Callander and Nipissing who share the big lake where the legendary Chief Commanda II sails; or hit some long balls to the Nipissing Band who were also thinking of a casino.

Maybe all the players should get together and build a combination casino and horse racing track complete with hotels, convention halls and executive golf courses. If they had all been playing in the same league they might have even built an Interpretative Centre nearby that would have housed an Observatory. Who knows, maybe the wind study will find a place to put those wind-powered generators on land that is not in North Bay, but in a nearby township. But in the words of Daymon Runyon, eight will get you five none of this will ever happen.

After hearing the offer by Team South Nipissing to share the expected 5% Charity Casino returns with North Bay if they signed before the deadline, I’m waiting to hear North Bay’s offer to share returns from the race track with Vrebosch. I suspect it will be for all the free horse fertilizer that Bill can carry away.

But I’ve played enough fastball against Mayor Bill to know that he has a variety of pitches, some of which he saves just for opposing pitchers. Watch out for his knuckle ball.