After much debate within the area and amongst the Saskatchewan Baseball Association, the four Yorkton Minor Baseball players (Mason Kelley, Derek Marshall, Jordan Bieber and Kholton Shewchuk) applying for the right to transfer to Melville's Midget ballclub was allowed in Queen's Bench Court as the party of four boys and their parents and the Saskatchewan Baseball Association were given an understanding this week.
With no Yorkton team and two of the Yorkton players playing in Melville last season, it was assumed that the four would be able to play for Melville's Midget AA baseball team this season, but with the Saskatchewan Baseball Association feeling that the four players would be enough to field a 10 man Yorkton club.
However 10 ballplayers is hardly a team given the need for relief pitchers, pinch hitters and depth considering not every player can travel to every game, but SBA executive director Mike Ramage went ahead in making the decision that the Yorkton ballplayers would not be allowed to play in Melville due to living outside of their zone and preserving the best interests of Yorkton's future in minor baseball.
Yet with the timing of the decision coming during the season and with the four ballplayers having their eyes set on attempting to get an education with their baseball careers in an important year for developing their talents and drawing the eye of college teams in Canada and down south, this decision was bound to get tricky and it ended up needing a court decision to get a agreeable discourse between the parties involved.
The ruling has allowed all four players to join Melville's AA team for regular league play as well as for provincials, provided that Melville keeps all of their players for the rest of the season and bump up to AAA Provincials with the addition of Kelley, Bieber, Shewchuk, and Marshall.
Further decided was that in 2014, all four would once again have to reapply for a zone transfer to Melville's baseball program if Yorkton did not have the means to field a team, and once again it would be at the discretion of the Zone Governor.
For now, a messy debate between ballplayers wanting to play the game they love and the SBA trying to preserve fairness in Yorkton appears to be settled. The Yorkton four are excited to be back on the diamond. All that is left now is what the four wanted to be doing all along. Play ball.
