In the first inning of Saturday’s Memorial Drag Ball Game, to astonished cheers, a player dressed as Mario and playing shortstop caught a ball from the opposing team while in a wheelchair.
“I always do that. I’m really good,” said the drag king, who goes by the name Blaze of Glory, after the inning, grinning from ear to ear.
It might have been a bit of hyperbole — Blaze of Glory had just learnt how to play softball six months ago — but it’s on par with the tone of the Memorial Drag Ball Game, one of Victoria Pride’s signature events.
Victoria Pride Society vice president Ace Mann said that the ball game is always “a phenomenal time.”
“We have drag royalty from all across the Southern Island and they come and play an absolutely lawless game of baseball,” Mann said.
No matter how far ahead a team is on points, the game has always somehow ended in a tie — another tradition in the softball game, which began in 1993.
About 3,500 spectators watched two softball teams perform acts of athleticism and theatre on the field at Vic West this Saturday.
Some head to the bat ready to sprint in heels.
Others take it less seriously. Blaze of Glory, who played on the Kings team this year, was pushed around by a corresponding drag performer dressed as Luigi.
“I’m expecting a lot of cheating from the Queens. The Queens like to cheat, but I’m planning on cheating as well to even the scales,” Blaze of Glory said.
The game was first held in the Heywood ball field in Beacon Hill Park and was eventually relocated to Vic West.
David Tillson, a past president of the Victoria Pride Society and longtime event emcee and scorekeeper, said that the game was never meant to draw a large audience — or any kind of audience at all.
It was founded by drag performer Kevin Harney and started as a way to remember those lost to HIV/AIDS — a day to forget about reality and politics and to play a game.
“We just wanted to get away and hang out with our friends,” Tillson said. “I never thought it would be big.”
Tillson, who stepped away as emcee last year, is now watching a second generation of drag performers and activists step up to help run the event. This year, the game was emceed by Shelita Cox and JBird McLaughlin.
“I’ve had the discussions about purpose, and what this means, and how its starts. I’ve had all those discussions with them and so I feel really comfrotable handing it over to them,” Tillson said. “It’s so community-based, and everyone’s picnicking, there’s no commercialism about it. It just about people hanging out enjoying themselves.”
The game’s concession stand is run by the Eves of Destruction, a non-profit roller derby group that runs a full-contact speed skating league at Archie Browning Rec Centre.
The game is one of their largest fundraising events. “Last year, we ended up having to send people out for more hotdogs halfway through because we were just going through them,” said Lianna “Gravy” Teeter.
By 12:30 p.m., the crowd had become even larger than what it was last year. When asked about whether they had enough supplies for the day, Teeter said they were prepared for the possiblity of running out.
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