(Starting Dec. 22 and ending Dec. 31, GuelphToday will count down its top 10 stories of 2017. )
It was a sad day for baseball fans in Guelph early in the summer when Guelph Royals owner Jim Rooney announced he was folding the baseball team, which had been a member of the Intercounty Baseball League for 99 years.
"This decision was not arrived at quickly," lamented Rooney, who had tried for a while to sell the team, without success.
Struggling attendance, struggling in the field and struggling to make the books balanced, the team dropped out of the league 16 games into the 2017 season.
A couple of months later, a white knight rode into town by the name of Shawn Fuller, a Guelph native and Kitchener-area businessman who purchased the team, announcing that Mayor Cam Guthrie would be his partner.
“To be clear, this is a passion project. I don’t see it as a money maker, I see it as doing something for the love of the game,” said Fuller.
Guthrie would later have to step away from the team as an owner after conflict of interest concerns were raised at Guelph City Council.
Fuller has big plans for the team as it enters its 100th season.
He started off with a bang, announcing that former Royal Dave TeBoekhorst would be returning as manager, bringing along with him three former all-star players in Sean Reilly, Justin Interisano and Josh Garton.
