“We may not have won many games, but we never lost a party.”
The quote of the night went to former Saskatoon Outlaws manager Peter Fylyma when accepting the plaque for the team’s induction Saturday night.
The Outlaws were one of the 18 inductees into the hall over the weekend, which included players, teams, communities and families.
After a two-hour social period in which all in attendance reminisced about past games and shared stories, everyone was ushered to their seats by master of ceremonies David Dekker.
The individual category inductees where then paraded in to the sound of bagpipes, played by Jim Ramsay, while everyone in attendance stood and applauded.
A moment of silence was then held for inductees that have passed away since last year’s induction dinner. A toast to the queen was delivered by Gil Bellavance before Bill Gergely said grace.
After dinner, Battleford mayor Derek Mahon took to the podium to welcome everyone to the ceremony.
“A big thank you to Jane Shury and all the organizers who put on this event, one of the largest events the Alex Dillabough Centre hosts every year,” he said.
This year’s guest speaker was Brian Keegan, who played from the 1950s to 70s, but was involved in Saskatchewan baseball until the 90s.
“I think it’s just fantastic to have over 400 people all together in one room,” he said. “Some of you may have been dragged here by baseball enthusiasts, but you’re here anyway, and we’re going to talk a little baseball.”
Keegan began by speaking to the memories that can be brought up when bringing together that many baseball minds.
“A lot of stories were talked about, but not a lot of strikeouts were mentioned,” he said as the crowd laughed. “Nobody committed any timely errors in the field, we started out the evening as .300 hitters and ended the evening as .400 hitters.”
The importance of baseball in Saskatchewan cannot be overstated, Keegan said.
“I think all of the inductees are incredibly proud to be a part of the storied history of baseball in Saskatchewan. Every time you go into the Hall you find new stuff. As a matter of fact, Jane had to chase me out last time I was there because I found something at the last minute. It really reflects the cultural aspects of Saskatchewan that small towns were really the hotbeds of baseball, and a lot of the best players came from those communities.”
Being at the podium gave Keegan the chance to discuss his own experiences playing baseball in Saskatchewan.
“I remember one of my first year’s playing, Indian Head had a great big sports day, and when we were playing a game, the umpire just stopped the game,” he explained. “There was a horse racing track around the ballpark, and he told us we weren’t allowed to leave the field to go and place bets.
“The legendary Satchel Paige came to work in the prairies and made his head base in Spy Hill. He would tour to different parts of the province and play some of the teams in Swift Current and Moose Jaw. I had the opportunity to bat against him nine times, and I never got a hit. I was at bat once and one of his teammates came on to pitch and I heard (Paige) say to him, ‘he can’t hit the deuce,’ and he was right. That’s why I never got a hit off him, because he had such a good curveball.”
Paige was a five-time Negro League all-star, two-time MLB all-star and World Series champion with the Cleveland Indians in 1948. He is the oldest player to ever debut in the Majors when he made his first appearance at age 42. He was also the first player from the Negro leagues to be inducted into the baseball hall of fame.
The inductees have had experiences with each other as well, as Keegan explained.
“I remember one such instance when we were playing in the Lacombe tournament, and we had already lost out,” he began. “We were sitting in the stands and Wayne Commodore was playing for the Edmonton Tigers. His first time up he hit a home run, so the person sitting next to me says, ‘bet you $50 he can’t do that again.’ Next time up, he hit a second home run, so the guy says, ‘bet you $100 he can’t do that again.’ Third time up he said, ‘let’s make that $200,’ and Wayne hit another home run. He hit four consecutive home runs that game.”
The Lacombe tournament brought up another vivid memory for Keegan.
“My wife and I have been married for 45 years now, and, I guess after what describe here it might be amazing that’s continued,” he began, to uproarious laughter. “When we went on our honeymoon, and in my mind the Lacombe tournament was a major, major tournament to play in. My wife says, ‘you know, we have some nice presents we haven’t opened yet,’ so that had us going back to Moose Jaw and she opened the presents, and I went to the Lacombe tournament. Thankfully we went on to win that tournament.”
To people who don’t play the game, baseball might seem like a commitment that takes up your entire summer, but Keegan says players don’t see it that way.
“Some people say you’re really making a lot of sacrifices,” he said. “Playing in the evenings and practicing in the evenings, playing in tournaments and things like that. I didn’t feel that way, that was a significant part of baseball for me. When you look at the summer, the best days are played in tournaments. It was your social life; you really got to know people when you’re sitting in a car driving from Swift Current to Yorkton. I just know that level of enthusiasm for the game was so important.”
Passion for the game was never more evident than it was before a game Keegan was playing in years ago.
“We had a game on Sunday and it was raining heavily,” he said. “We were out socializing, some people might call that partying, but it continued to rain and we thought we aren’t going to be playing for sure. Finally we left and we were heading home but we thought we’d go check the diamond first. I’ll tell you, there were puddles at all the bases, the dugouts were basically flooded and there was no way there was going to be a baseball game the next day. They called me at 10 a.m. the next morning and said, ‘the game’s on, where are you?’ They put gasoline on the field and burned it off, the pumped out the dugouts and on a hot summer day it would dry off fairly quickly, so we were ready to play that day.”
One by one the inductees were called to the front of the room while a short biography was read about them, before receiving their plaques and their legacy entrenched in the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.
