THE SASKATOON OUTLAWS BASEBALL TEAMS, SASKATOON, SK. will be inducted into the “Team Category”, of the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame, Saturday, August 15, 2015, at Battleford, Sk.
The Outlaws were an original member of the Saskatoon Senior Baseball League in 1980. After 33 years the outlaws are the only original member still playing in this league. The team, then called the Bad News Outlaws, got off to an inauspicious start as their wins were few and far between. In the province they were known as the “Tournament Team”. If there was a tournament/sports day and the town needed an extra ball team to complete the draw, the Outlaws were often asked to compete, including many in the Coteau Senior Baseball League.
As the years went by, and with the addition of new players and the maturing of the founding players, the Outlaws began to improve then became a force to be reckoned with. It took 8 long years for the Outlaws to go from last to first place.
It took 17 years for the Outlaws to reach the highest point in their history, when, in 1997, the team, captured what is considered to be the “Triple Crown”. That year they took the Saskatoon Senior Baseball League Championship [SSBL], the Provincial Title and the Western Canadian Title, in Regina. The Outlaws went on to capture the Provincial Senior Title for ten consecutive years from 1997 to 2006, and also two Western titles and four second place finishes. One more Provincial Title was added in 2010.
The 1997 team was the only “Outlaw” team to win the “Triple Crown”.
The 1997 Outlaw team consisted of a majority of veterans sprinkled with several younger players that created the Karma that propelled that team to their wins that year. The Provincial championship team gave up 5 runs in 5 games. Solid pitching and defense, as well as clutch hitting enabled the team to advance to the Westerns in Regina. For these Western Canadians the Outlaws were able to pick up a 35 year old pitcher and a 38 year old outfielder/coach. It turned out to be the right mixture as they were able to win in Regina, against a talented pool of teams from Western Canada, including the Regina Canadians who were allowed to pick up a lot of players for the championship as the host team.
Some of the teams after 1997 might have had as good or better talent, but, according to Pete Fylyma, the team player/manager for 28 years, the mixture of veterans and young players resulted in the Karma necessary to win the “Triple Crown”.
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