Kamloops slo-pitch team refused recognition for ‘offensive’ team name

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops beer league slo-pitch team recently won in their division at a tournament held in Princeton but they never received the credit they'd expected in the local newspaper.  

The Kamloops Kamshine Savages recently competed in the annual Ballbusters tournament and took home first place. Chris Throssell, a player with the team noticed when he read the results of the tournament in the Princeton Similkameen Spotlight, the newspaper didn’t list the team’s name.

“They listed the second place and third place team names but they didn’t list our name because it is not seen as politically correct,” he says.

Throssell says their team name was inspired by WWE star Macho Man Randy Savage.

“If you see the jerseys they are painted in yellow polka dots and the front half is a picture of Randy Savage,” he says.

The article by the Princeton Similkameen Spotlight written by Andrea Demeer points out how offensive names and logos — specifically in relation to First Nations — in sports have been a longtime issue.

“Earlier this year Montreal’s McGill University removed the name Redmen from its male varsity sports team after students and others protested it as racist and hurtful,” Demeer writes in her column.

Thorssell says he gets that. But the team name had nothing to do with offending any group of people. He even says the players who are First Nations on the team did not interpret the team name in an offensive way.

“If anybody was going to be offended you would assume it would be them and nobody cares,” he says.

Throssell adds when the article came out some of the team players contacted the writer of the story to explain where the name came from.

“It all just seems this was blown out of proportion,” he says. “For us, the players, it’s always funny to come up with some silly name and a silly jersey and that’s what we did. Certainly, it was not meant to be derogatory or offensive."

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