St. Catharines » Pro Baseball in St Catharines
One of the great eras here in St Catharines, Ontario was the period from 1986-1999 when we were home to the Class “A” NY-Penn League affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Future Stars I saw play here include:
2006 ML All-Star Game MVP Michael Young (then a Jays prospect)
Cy Young Award winners Pat Hetgen, Roy Halliday and Chris Carpenter
Derek Bell
Carlos Delgado
Vernon Wells
Rich and Rob Butler
Despite being on the bottom rungs of Pro Baseball it was great entertainment. For the most part these were kids straight out of High School. Watching some of them, it was obvious they weren’t going to progress much higher in baseball. But they tried. Every night. Because they had something to prove.
And some kids you just knew were going to do big things. It was great to be here “when it all began” for some of these future stars like Carlos and Vernon.
A large part of the NY-Penn League was instruction. Teaching these raw kids to think and play like professionals.
2 of the funnier incidents I witnessed.
During a game against the Geneva Cubs, a Blue Jay hit a sky high pop up to first base. The ball lingered in the air for ever. The first baseman settled under it…a routine play. The batter threw his bat in disgust and just stood there, knowing he was out.
Except.
The Geneva first baseman settled under it glove poised to make the catch…and the ball dropped beside him landing in fair territory. Our batter seeing this, suddenly started running towards first. The first baseman, casually picked up the ball and stepped on the bag forcing him out.
If he had run, the batter would have beaten out the play and been safe. Instead he hung his head and went to the dugout. I was watching the dugout. The manager stood in front of him and obviously pointed out in rather stark terms, the errors of his way. The lesson was, run out every play no matter what. Very basic. While I couldn’t hear the coach, he was clearly yelling, in the guys face.
Next time he came up to bat, he did the exact same thing. And you never saw someone run so hard to first on a pop up. He had learned a valuable lesson.
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A few years later, a St Catharines batter hit a long fly ball right down the third base line, clearing the fence. He proudly did his home run trot around the bases, high fiving the third base coach as he passed. He stopped at home, picked up his bat and sauntered into the dugout. Then the laughter started. All over the park. The opposing team was hysterical, calling him their hero. The umpire was chuckling.
Sheepishly, the batter came back out. You see his line drive curved foul at the last second. He was the only person in the park who didn’t realize it. Nobody bothered to tell him. The poor guy had to compose himself and go back up to bat. He was laughing himself. Next pitch, he struck out…as the opposing bullpen chanted “We’re not worthy!”
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Attention Baseball Fans! Help Buck O’Neill get in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard Buck’s story. This 94 Year Old veteran of the Negro Leagues deserves admission. Allegedly he may have missed by 1 vote. Read about Buck here.
Sad news: Buck O’Neill passed away. You can read about it here and here.