TOP OF THE TENTH
The main news this time is a report on Scott’s whirlwind trip to Cooperstown’s Induction Ceremonies. Over to him:
“I met and chatted with past inductees Pedro Martinez, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Fergie Jenkins, Pat Gillick, Roberto Alomar, Claude Raymond, plus legendary announcer Bob Costas. I also spent time with Justin Morneau and his dad George, Bill Lee, Curtis Pride, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Brad Wilkerson and all the ExposNation folks.
I also renewed acquaintances with Hall of Fame staff including President Jeff Idelson, Senior Curator Tom Shieber and Director of Collections Sue MacKay. (I now know who is behind stage during the induction ceremony handing the correct plaques to the President!)
Having VIP access for the weekend allowed us to interact with certain individuals and walk past certain doors and we couldn’t have done that with the kindness of the Hall of Fame President and his staff. Thank you! I must also mention Rich McCaffery and say a big THANK YOU for opening your home once again and allowing me to stay for the weekend.
Henry Pacheco and Adrian Burgos Jr., who are behind La Vida Baseball, were glad to hear about all the Latin players we have honoured in our Hall of Fame. (Check out a mustachioed Pedro Martinez on the home page of their website: https://www.lavidabaseball.com/ )
It was also great to finally meet Tim Kuncis who designed amazing wooden home plates. I wasn’t the only one wearing Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame merchandise as I saw a few of our t-shirts in the crowd.
During the awards ceremony the Ford Frick winner Bob Costas spoke very highly of our 2016 inductee Tony Kubek. Sheldon Ocker, winner of the Taylor Spink Award, mentioned our 2017 Jack Graney award winner Alison Gordon and her great work.”
Back at home, just prior to the Cooperstown weekend, our students and volunteers moved the 3D items from the office to the new Museum addition, so a bit of progress there. With over 200 boxes of archival and research papers, including the famous Simmons collection, we are anxious to start going through this material.
We set up our BBQ tent in Stratford at the Stratford Minor Ball organized Slo-pitch tournament, as we do annually, and participated in the St Mary Heritage Fair, with our customary array of merchandise outside CBHFM’s main street storefront. Also locally, the St. Marys Museum is keeping us in the public eye by featuring items from our collection in the St. Marys Independent newspaper.
Since his return, Scott’s resumed his Thursday chats – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the Jays – with Mark Cameron on 101.1 Big FM in Barrie. Episodes are available en ligne .
Looking ahead, there’s lots of action on our site here in St. Marys with three tournaments in August including a WOBA Mosquito boys baseball tournament with 18 teams August 10-12, plus a Huron-Perth Midget/Junior Girls Fastball year-end tournament August 17-19, as well as the St. Marys Mens Slo-pitch year-end tournament August 23-26.
Book offer: As many readers know, baseball great Felipe Alou has told his story in a recently-released book entitled “Alou: My Baseball Journey”. The South Florida Chapter of SABR has made a generous offer to readers of this column who might want an autographed copy. Details are below:
One signed book: $20.00 by Mr. Alou, et the author Peter Kerasotis
Shipping from U.S. to Canada $16.00 + Processing Fee (Envelope, Gas, etc;)
Payment: Bank or postal Money Order pour $40.00 US Dollars payable to: SAMUEL ZYGNER (No Checks please). Mail to: PO BOX 16-4335, MIAMI, FL 33116-4335
The deadline for Receipt of Payment is August 17, 2018 and the book will be mailed on September 24, 2018.
***PLEASE notify Mr. Zygner first that you are interested in purchasing book(s) in order to have a book reserved while awaiting payment) via an email to [email protected] . Include in your email how many books you want, your name, email address, and mailing address. You will be notified via email when payment is received.***
Inductee birthdays this month: August 1 – George Sleeman, 4 – Doc Younker, 8 – Doug Melvin, 11 – Ron Roncetti, 12 – Bob Prentice (brother of CBHFM founder Bruce Prentice), 22 – Pat Gillick, 25 – Dave Van Horne, 28 – Goody Rosen, 31 – John Ducey.
