James D. Golightly of Eatonia will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame, Individual Category, as a Player/Builder, on Saturday, Aug. 18, in Battleford, for his contribution to Saskatchewan baseball history.
Golightly was born in Eatonia April 16, 1938. At the age of 14, he began playing senior men’s fastball. He played for four years in Mantario. In 1955, Ken Jackson, manager of the Eatonia baseball team, asked Golightly to try out for the team in 1956. So began his baseball career of 39 years.
Jim played junior baseball in 1956 and 1957 with the Eston 44s junior team, losing in the 1956 Northern semi-finals to the Saskatoon Monarchs. Bob Stevenson coached those years. Other players on that team included Garnet Hanson, Wally Jackson and Garry Anderson. In 1957, the Eston 44s won the South Saskatchewan title but lost to the Saskatoon Optimists in the provincial final game. As the regular catcher was not available for that game, Golightly volunteered to catch and did well in his first outing at that position. Garry Anderson pitched a no-hitter in that game.
The Eatonia baseball team had an excellent season in 1957 with 45 wins and three losses. That year they were finalists at the Saskatoon Exhibition tournament. Ken Jackson had assembled a strong nucleus of young ball players along with the able pitching of Gene Graves from Visalia, Calif. Golightly was the centre fielder and batted clean-up. He hit one home run in many of the tournaments, two in four tournaments that year.
In 1968, Golightly played with Eatonia, in the SaskAlta League, and was selected for the all-star team that entered and won the Saskatchewan senior playoffs. In the second game of a three-game series of the provincial finals against Prince Albert, Golightly hit two singles and a two-run double off Dave Pagan (who later played MLB), which drove in two runs to win the game, only to lose the rain-shortened final game 3-1.
Golightly played in the Saskatoon Exhibition four times with Eatonia and once with Kindersley. In the Medicine Hat, Alta. Optimist tournament, Golightly played four times with Eatonia and once with each of Leader, Oyen and Sibbald. He played with Eatonia once in the 1959 Lacombe, Alta. tournament.
Golightly was a switch hitter with equal power from both sides of the plate with a batting average of well over .300 every year.
Golightly assisted with coaching the Eatonia senior team for five years and eight years with the Sibbald Alsask team, as a playing coach, with the team winning the 1979 East Central Alberta League championship. From 1976 to 1995, he played twilite baseball with the SaskAlta team, the team that won many championships.
Golightly served his community for many years, in many ways and has been a member of the Lions Club for 50 years.
Golightly farmed from 1956 until he retired in 2017. He married Yvette Dahl in 1974 and they lived in Mantario then Eatonia. Yvette died in 2007, but Golightly continues to live in Eatonia and Yuma, Ariz.
