Baseball lovers in Quebec are growing in numbers.
Between 2005 and 2015, the number of people who registered with Baseball Quebec jumped 63 per cent. Last year there were 31,000 people who had signed up to play the sport.
Some of that growth is in Montreal’s West Island.
“We’ve seen the numbers double in the last several years,” said Mark Paterson of West Island Baseball. “We’ve had to split our novice practices in two, which we never had to do before.”
For players like brothers Luke and Jackson Gonzalez-Annett, the extra effort to make space for young players is appreciated.
“I love baseball,” said Jackson Gonzalez-Annett at his brother’s Monday practice in Pointe-Claire. “I play for the Yankees West Island. I love batting, I love catching, I love everything.”
Conor Angel, who has been playing since he was two years old, now helps with coaching duties.
“I would never give it up,”said Angel.
The increase in players coincides with fewer places to play.
There are 58 fewer baseball diamonds in the province than there were in 2005, but that hasn’t stopped cities from encouraging new teams to form.
“We are very lucky,” Paterson said. “Pointe-Claire and Dorval encourage us and find us places to play on the diamonds that do exist.”