DESPITE Mother Nature raining on their parade, Redlands Rays Baseball Club celebrated 25 years at Sheldon on Friday night.
After the grounds crew worked all day to prepare the field following Thursday's rain, the final heavy shower at 4pm undid all the work and ended hopes for the scheduled division 1 game against Padres Grey.
The anniversary celebration on Friday evening was a huge success and was attended by past and present committee members, political representatives, players from the first A grade Redlands and Beenleigh teams.
The comprehensive display of newspaper articles, club uniforms, team photos, club memorabilia and historic photos of the club grounds was set up by the organizing committee.
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Special thanks go to foundation members Helen and Andrew Arnold for providing the majority of the historic photos.
The club's first president Tony Street cut the anniversary cake with Denise Murray, wife of the club founder John Murray, whose vision it was to turn a closed dump at Sheldon into a baseball complex.
Political representatives included Cr Adelia Berridge, former Cr Toni Bowler and Capalaba MP Don Brown, who donated a signed Brisbane Bandits shirt to be auctioned at a later date.
Former Mayoress Carolyn Santagiuliana, wife of the late Redlands Mayor Eddie Santagiuliana, and granddaughter Lilly also attend the celebrations while Jim Bibby, first secretary of Redlands Baseball Club, donated his time to provide the musical entertainment throughout the night.
All junior games were played as scheduled on Saturday and players from both sides were treated with a sausage sizzle and a piece of anniversary cake after their games.
Rays division 1 Little League remain top of their ladder after a resounding win over Mount Gravatt Eagles, while Rays senior league division 2 caused an upset with their 8-7 win over first place Ipswich Musketeers.
Rays women's team fought hard against top of the ladder Sunshine Coast to lose 2-5 on Saturday while the Rays masters game was brought forward from Monday and resulted in a 15-6 win over Southern Stars Teal.
Friday's rained-out division 1 game was played in a double-header on Sunday afternoon with Rays winning both games 7-0 and 8-2 respectively.
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