Sports historians excited for fastball museum

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This article was published 21/05/2020 (2052 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fans of a bygone era of baseball have something to look forward to this coming summer, since the Westman Border Fastball Museum is entering its final stages of development.

The museum is the brainchild of Russell resident Daryl Nernberg and Asessippi Beach and Campground owner Rick Goraluk, who are hoping to install this tribute to Manitoba and Saskatchewan men’s fastball by late July.

Nernberg told the Sun on May 10 that they decided to install the museum at Asessippi Beach for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it was the site of a massive fastball reunion in July 2018 that attracted former players from the last 60 years.

Once this get-together wrapped up, Nernberg and Goraluk had collected pieces of old sports memorabilia from more than 35 different fastball teams, which put the wheels in motion to complete a project that’s been in the back of their minds for more than a decade.

“It just seemed like everybody wanted to bring their old uniforms, memorabilia and pictures,” Nernberg said, who used to be involved with teams such as the Endcliffe Royals and Inglis Nightmares. “I made connections with people and started going down the line and it just took off.”

From there, Nernberg’s drive to preserve the history of this rural pastime attracted more and more support, to the point where the Westman Border Fastball Museum officially became an incorporated non-profit organization in 2020.

While this group ensures that the project receives proper funding, Nernberg is still busy collecting a treasure trove of unique fastball memorabilia, which is currently taking up space in his basement.

The plan right now is to transfer all these antiques into an 16-by-2.5-metre shipping container, which will serve as the Westman Border Fastball Museum’s official home.

“We still have to move it down there on the site, put a window and a door in it, put some shelving inside it, hooks for hanging stuff, and it’ll be good to go,” Nernberg said on May 10.

One of the many old ball players contributing to Nernberg’s collection is Brian Zimmer, who started playing the sport in the late 1960s when he was 15.

On May 11, the now 68-year-old showed the Sun some of the relics he’s been keeping in the back of his closet, including a vintage Endcliffe Royals jersey, a photo of his time playing for the Brandon Simplot Blues and the glove that he used to kick-start his career at Asessippi Beach.

“In the early ‘60s, my two uncles Audie and Walter Zimmer used to play for the Inglis Regals, and when I was 12 years old I would go down to the beach and watch them,” he said. “Two of my brothers and a bunch of local kids then formed a team called the Endcliffe Royals, and when I was 15 years old I started pitching for them.”

Zimmer said the Asessippi Beach is, in his mind, the perfect location for a Westman fastball museum, since he and a lot of other local players developed their love for the game at that very spot.

In fact, when Zimmer started playing for the Brandon Simplot Blues in 1971, he managed to convince his coach and teammates to make the more than two-hour trip west to Asessippi Beach based on its vaunted reputation.

Throughout the next decade or so, Nernberg said, Asessippi Beach became the site of some legendary men’s fastball tournaments, which encapsulated the reason why this sport became such a popular pastime for rural residents in the first place.

“Those hills used to be full of people coming down to watch the game, and a lot of those people were farmers,” he said. “They’d milk their cows at six o’clock in the morning, head out to the fastball diamonds and would be back doing their chores after the tournament was over.”

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and the popularity of Westman fastball is no exception.

By the time Zimmer retired from the sport in 1986, men’s fastball was already on the decline in the region, with members of the younger generation choosing to play soccer, golf and hockey in the spring and summer instead.

“When I came to Brandon in 1971 there were 28 fastball teams,” he said. “In 1981 it went down to maybe 16 teams, five years later it went down to five and eventually it just faded away. It was pretty much done in the ‘90s.”

While girls’ fastball remains alive and well in the region, Nernberg said it is really important to establish a proper monument to these old men’s teams before all traces of them disappear forever.

“I just wanted to bring everything out of the woodwork, the things people had in their closets, “ he said. “We want to try and preserve all that stuff before it gets thrown away.”

But for right now, Zimmer is just excited to see how the Westman Border Fastball Museum will turn out, since he feels this sport is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

“All the old guys who played in the late ‘60s are all acting like a bunch of little kids right now,” he said. “Because fastball was a great memory for myself and everybody else.”

Currently, the museum’s grand opening is scheduled for the weekend of July 25-26, although these plans could change depending on how the COVID-19 outbreak develops.

Nernberg is still on the lookout for Westman fastball memorabilia, and anyone who would like to make a donation can contact him at 204-773-3014 or daglnern@mymts.net.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com 

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson