National baseball tournament bunts corn festival to more southern park in Tecumseh, Ont.

The Tecumseh Corn and Music Festival is on the move this August.

It's shifting from its usual location of Lacasse Park to McAulliffe Park for this summer.

That's about a 10-minute drive south down Lesperance Road south of the E.C. Row Expressway near Country Road 42, close to Tecumseh Vista Academy.

Tecumseh is hosting the men's senior level national baseball championship at Lacasse the same weekend in late August.

The festival has been around since 1975 and returned to Lacasse last year after missing a few years due to COVID-19 and the town's centennial.

Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara says McAuliffe Park was selected as an alternative location because it offers appropriate drainage and hard surfaces required to safely and effectively run the "treasured event."

"It would certainly be minimal damage to park grounds," he said. "We're very cognizant of the primary user groups there at McAuliffe. And, we'll take good care and preserve [it]."

Work to renovate Lacasse Park has been ongoing for the past two years at a price of roughly $5 million, according to the mayor.

"Completely revamping the grandstands, the dressing rooms themselves. The field, the buildup of the diamond, new dugouts, as well as a completely new plaza there and scoreboard. There's a whole host of landscaping still underway as we speak."

McNamara says hosting the tournament is "huge" for the town with 10 provinces in attendance.

"We're going to have guests from coast to coast to coast coming to our beautiful area. And, it's going to be a very busy time. Folks can go and enjoy the festival have some of the best sweet corn in Essex County and then go to the park and enjoy some really, really good baseball."

Continuous shuttle service will be offered between both parks and alternate routes, he says.

"We're asking folks to be patient obviously. The increase in traffic but I think there's a tremendous opportunity for guests coming into our region also our own residents to have an action-packed weekend."

Let's play ball!

Baseball Canada is holding the Men's National Championships at Lacasse Park in Tecumseh from Aug. 21 to Aug. 25.

Spokesperson Adam Morissette says tournament goers can expect a "very high calibre" of baseball and should be happy and entertained with what they see.

"Oftentimes you'll find players that have a lot of college experience," he said.

"In some cases professional baseball experience. Now, they're still kind of competing in their communities, at a very high level."

Morissette says the age of players ranges from early 20s to some well into their 30s.

"It's up to each individual province to determine how they select their provincial representative. In some cases, you'll have teams that won their respective provincial leagues. Previously, in other cases, like in the province of Ontario, they hold an elimination tournament, a few weeks prior to the nationals where they determine their provincial representatives."

The national championship has been held since 1969.

Tecumseh receives an automatic entry for hosting this year's event.

"They've got a proud tradition in that community of very competitive teams that have earned their right to the national championship by winning the elimination tournament and the province of Ontario. And, they have actually won the national championship on a few occasions."