Pat Payton
Sports Editor
The 2009 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum induction weekend in St. Marys, June 18-21, consists of four full days of activities. There is entertainment for young and old alike.
The festivities start this Thursday evening with the Hall’s Celebrity softball game. It features 2009 Hall of Fame inductees Larry Walker, Ernie Whitt and Baseball Canada’s Bernie Soulliere along with Fergie Jenkins, Jim Fanning, Gilbert Dionne, Mike Torchia, John Haar, David Corrente, Billy Atkinson, Miss Canada competitors, John Upham, Ron Stead, Sean McCann, London Knights’ Daniel Erlich, Jared Knight and Colin Martin, and St. Marys Mayor Jamie Hahn.
Admission is free, and there will be a barbecue and refreshment tent. Game time is 7 p.m.
On Friday is the 13th annual Celebrity Golf Classic at St. Marys Golf and Country Club, followed by the banquet.
On Saturday, Walker, Whitt, Soulliere and former National League pitcher Roy ‘Doc’ Miller (1883-1938), of Chatham, will be enshrined, starting at 11 a.m. An autograph session follows the ceremony.
Bill Young and Danny Gallagher will also be on hand to sign copies of their book ‘Remembering the Montreal Expos’, which includes a chapter on Walker.
Saturday also features a doubleheader (9 a.m., 1 p.m.) between Stratford Jr. Indians and Kitchener-Waterloo Jr. Panthers at St. Marys Cement Plant Field.
On Saturday evening, the ‘Party of the Year’ features the band Tara Tuma. Doors open at 8 p.m. and tickets are $10.
On Sunday, the Canadian Children Artists of the Year, Splash ‘N Boots, will perform. Doors open at 3:30 p.m., show starts at 4 p.m. Tickets are $5, free for children under 2.
• Christine Mair, of Stratford, captured a national bowling title with Ontario’s Ladies team recently at the 2009 Canadian Open 5-Pin Bowling Championships in Saskatoon, Sask.
Ontario defeated Alberta 8-0 in the final. The team won 15 of their last 18 games, including the final.
Mair was also named to the tourney all-star team and received a medal.
She rolled the Ladies’ High Single (418), High 4 (1,204), High 5 (1,541), High 6 (1,794) and High 7 (2,030) for the week. Her 418 single was just shy of the national all-time Ladies’ record of 433.
• The first induction ceremony for Stratford Central’s new athletic hall of fame takes place this Friday afternoon, June 19. The public is invited.
The first induction class, to be announced at 2 p.m. Friday in the cafeteria, will include five individuals and six teams.
Nomination forms will be available at Friday’s ceremony. Due to exams that day, people are asked to enter from the back parking lot.
• At the 16th annual boys fastball tournament at Packham Road this past weekend, the Memorials Bantams finished fourth overall, going 2-2 in the one-day event. They posted wins against Milverton (8-4) and Baden (5-1), but lost to Wingham (2-0) and Fullarton (10-5).
The Memorials Peewees, meanwhile, finished third in the same tournament, also going 2-2. Stratford defeated Kitchener 7-3, lost 8-1 to eventual tourney champs Stouffville, defeated St. Catharines 10-1, and lost a tough 4-3 decision to Owen Sound.
• Tara Chadwick clicked for three goals in a decisive 7-0 road win over Cambridge Vibe last Sunday in Southwest Region Soccer League action.
The victory improved the Stratford Boar’s Head Ladies’ record to a perfect 5-0 atop the Premier Division standings.
It was Chadwick’s third hat trick of the season, and she was selected player-of-the-game. Laura Brennan recorded her first shutout of the summer.
Boar’s Head hosts Waterloo Athletics this Sunday at Packham Road, starting at 6 p.m.
• The Avon Thames Tsunami Aquatic Club (ATTAC) held its year-end awards banquet June 11. Madelaine Duff, 13, and Jesse Anderson, 14, have qualified for the Long Course provincials in Etobicoke next month, while Anderson also qualified for nationals.
• Crabby Joe’s and Boar’s Head sit atop the Stratford Men’s City Soccer League standings.
After seven games, undefeated Crabbys are 6-0-1 while Boar’s Head is 6-1-1. Both sides have 19 points. Both teams were in action last night (June 17).
• Two solid results were turned in by Junior dragon boat teams recently at the Cambridge Dragon Boat festival.
The Junior mixed team (ages 11-18) won the ‘D’ Division and finished 10th overall, while the FAG Bearing Arms adult mixed crew placed second in the ‘B’ Division, fifth overall.
Both Stratford teams competed in 250-metre races.
