Saturday, June 28, 2014
Belleville Minor Football League-2014 Award Winners
Award Winners
Most Valuable Player-Matt Sherwin
Rookie of the Year-Vanessa MacDonald
Scott’s
Haulage/Diamond Electric Falcons
Offensive Player of the Year-Tanner Feurherdt
McConnell
Funeral Home
Centre Hastings
Defensive Player of the Year-Ben Trumpour
SWE Autoglass Chargers
Offensive Lineman of the Year-Mackenzie Baker
Quinte Pediatric Saints
Defensive Lineman of the Year-Aiden Brownlee
Hotch’s
Auto Parts Razorbacks
Commissioner’s Award-Connor Hodge
Coaches’ Award-Logan Vanslyke
Bancroft
Esso on the Run T Hawks
Friday, June 27, 2014
Halls of Fame 2014
Two halls of fame are
in the news this week. On Monday, the Hockey Hall of Fame announced its
inductee list for 2014. Four players, one coach and one on-ice official made
the grade this year: Rob Blake, Peter Forsberg, Dominik Hasek, and Mike Modano
are the players. An interesting sort, as they all hail from different
countries. Pat Burns was a police officer for 17 years, then hung up his shield
and began coaching. He won the Cup with New
Jersey
The Canadian Baseball
Hall of Fame is now firmly situated in the town of St.
Marys, Ontario , west of Toronto ,
east of Windsor St.
Marys a spot on the international map and have significantly added to the
success of our town”. Cooperstown ,
New York
Last weekend, the
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inducted four members, one player and three
others who have significantly contributed to the game: Tim Wallach, Dave Van
Horne, Murray
At the height of his
playing career, Wallch stood at 6’ 3”, and weighed 220 pounds. He was drafted
tenth overall by the Expos, and began his career in Montreal
“Eli”, as he was
dubbed by his teammates, went on to become the best third baseman in the history
of the Expos. He played there for 13 seasons, from 1980 to 1992. He was
selected to play in five All Star games, and won three Gold Glove awards. He
won two Silver Slugger Awards in 1985 and 1987. He spent the final four years
of his career with the Dodgers and the Angels.
He continues to work
in the game, and is now the Dodger bench coach, alongside Dodger Manager Don
Mattingly. He is a member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame, and the
California State Fullerton Athletics Hall of Fame.
Wallach also leads
the Expos in many statistical categories: games played (1 767), hits (1 694),
doubles (360), and total bases (2 728).
Dave Van Horne was
the voice of the Expos for 32 seasons. His sidekick was Duke Snider for several
years, and in my humble opinion, they supplied the best baseball chatter ever.
Duke was so knowledgeable, and Van Horne knew the buttons to push to keep the
dialogue flowing. 1n 2001, he was awarded the prestigious Ford C. Frick Award,
the Cooperstown nod for broadcasting
excellence. He joins a host of other Expo family members in the Canadian Hall:
Charles Bronfman, John McHale, Jim Fanning, Rusty Staub, Claude Raymond, Ron
Piche, Steve Rogers, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Larry Walker, and
Rheal Cormier.
Good friend Pam
Murray attended the festivities. One of her observations was that there was a
lot of chatter about “bringing back the Expos”. With all of the names I have
thrown around here, you can understand that notion; however, money talks, and
it just ain’t sayin’ Montreal
Maybe some day.
James Hurst
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
Out of the Blocks....
Sprinters know that
you must get out of the starting blocks quickly in order to win races. By no
means is the baseball season a sprint, with each team playing more than 160
games. But it never hurts to get off to a good start, and that is exactly what
the Toronto
They began a brief
visit to Detroit for three games last night,
then return home to play the St. Louis Wellington
A special tip of the
ball cap to Edwin Encarnacion. He has simply played the best baseball of his
life, so far this year. He registered 16 home runs in May. In 1956, Mickey
Mantle also homered 16 times in May. In May, 2001, Barry Bonds hit 17 homers.
In 1998, Mark McGwire had 16 dingers in the month of May. Understandably, the
totals for Bonds and McGwire are suspect, due to the whole “performance
enhancing drugs” scenario. Consequently, Edwin tied the record of one of the
greatest hitters in baseball.
Babe Ruth hit 17 home
runs in September, 1927, plus one game in October. That was the year he
surpassed the totals of Lou Gehrig, and went on to hit 60 home runs.
Encarnacion’s production moved him ahead of teammate Jose Bautista, who had 14
home runs in June, 2012.
As we witnessed last
weekend, Bautista can also play a little defence. A line shot was hit to him in
right field. Instantly, he decided to make a play. He realized that the batter,
Billy Butler of the Kansas City
Billy Butler is a big
lad, standing a little over six feet. But he tips the scales at almost 250
pounds, and usually is the designated hitter for the Royals. Consequently,
Bautista knew he had a shot at him, with the perfect hit. I do believe that his
play was not instinctive, but well thought out in advance. He made the kind of
play that will be etched in the minds of Blue Jay fans for a long time.
Bautista has also
contributed with his bat as well. For that matter, most of the Blue Jays have
done what it takes to provide the offence required to win games. Many of us do
not get a chance to attend a lot of games during the season. We might also have
other things on the go: jobs, Stanley
Mark Buehrle pitched
a gem last Sunday, giving up six hits in eight innings. He is a workhorse, and
his style is appreciated by his teammates. Ken Fidlin talked with Bautista
about Buehrle’s style: “It’s not a surprise that when he pitches, there are
plenty of defensive plays made. He keeps everybody engaged in the game because
he works quick. He gets everybody to relax, and that allows us to execute our
game plan.”
A quote from Billy
Butler: “He frustrates you. He feeds off your over-aggressiveness. And he’s got
a really good changeup. He’s always had that. Back door cutters, front door.
Pounding you with it. Throwing two-seamers, running them back. He’s
crafty.” It appears as if Buehrle has Butler
OK, Blue Jays. Let’s
play ball!
James Hurst
