Brantford Red Sox alumni game to honour Corke, raise money for hospice

The Brantford Red Sox Home Run for Hospice alumni game which will take place on Saturday at Arnold Anderson Stadium is a fundraiser for the Stedman Community Hospice, where Intercounty Baseball League legend Jamie Corke (above) spent his final days in palliative care after a Stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis last year. Photo supplied

October 2, 2020

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

Brandon Corke only got to see his father, all-time Intercounty Baseball League great Jamie Corke, play on one occasion.

It was at Cockshutt Park in Brantford when an Intercounty all-star team squared off against a team of barnstorming major leaguers.

“The starter was Ferguson Jenkins and my dad hit a home run in his first at-bat,” Brandon said.

“It was the greatest thing an 11-year-old boy could ever witness. All those things that people had talked about, I could witness with my own eyes.”

The elder Corke was a star outfielder with the Red Sox in the 1970s and 80s, and Brandon said his dad was forever being stopped in the grocery store and the shopping mall by adoring fans who wanted to reminisce about his past glories on the ball field.

“I grew up in a community that kind of idolized my dad,” Brandon said. “My dad was this hero.”

Jamie Corke will be on everyone’s mind when a group of Red Sox alumni gather at Cockshutt Park, now called Arnold Anderson Stadium, this Saturday for an alumni game billed as the Homerun for Hospice.

Along with ensuring baseball will be played this year at the West Brant ballpark, which has hosted the Red Sox since 1911, the alumni game is a fundraiser for the Stedman Community Hospice, where Jamie Corke spent his final days in palliative care after a Stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis last year.

“Unfortunately with my dad, it was a very steep slope from when he was diagnosed to when he passed away,” said Brandon, explaining that his father was diagnosed in early November and was gone a month later, after five peaceful days in the hospice that Brandon called “a blessing.”

“Just the experience we were allowed to have – the comfort, the visiting, the atmosphere that just really allows for those last days of life to not be something filled with a hospital room,” he said.

One night, a group of umpires who worked with Jamie over the years came to see him, and Red Sox players Wayne Forman and Lee Delfino were among the last people to visit.

“They come up Friday early afternoon, and he was gone Friday night,” Brandon said.

Jamie Corke left a legacy in Brantford as a member of the city’s sports hall of fame who in 2018 was named one of the top 100 IBL players of all-time. The year he died at age 64, he umpired 100 games, including the Ontario University Association championships that October.

“He’d gone through a few generations of playing, umpiring and coaching,” Brandon said, explaining that his father was inspired by the active London Majors alumni association to start something similar for the Red Sox.

“He was just tickled by it and said ‘wouldn’t it be great if Brantford did this?’” Brandon said. “At the end of the day, this was his vision, and my vision was to help him make it happen.”

So Brandon reached out to Forman about organizing a fundraiser for the hospice featuring former Red Sox players. That plan was put on hold by the pandemic, but when Randy Meggs, president of the Brantford Minor Baseball Association, also called Forman about having alumni play at Arnold Anderson to keep the stadium’s streak alive – similar to the one-off game held at London’s Labatt Park earlier his summer – Forman saw an opportunity.

“So we kind of meshed those ideas together,” Forman said. “I reached out to some former teammates and the response was overwhelming. So we have two very competitive teams that are going to play nine innings on Saturday.”

Opening ceremonies for the Homerun for Hospice alumni game start at noon on Saturday, with first pitch at 12:30 p.m. Restrictions on gathering sizes mean attendance is by invitation only, but the IBL will live stream the game on its YouTube channel.

Former Red Sox owner Paul Aucoin and former manager Adam Clarke will pick the teams, which will be stacked with players who helped the Red Sox clinch seven IBL championships in eight years between 2006 and 2013, including six straight wins.

That group has stayed close over the years, Forman said, and the competitive fires still burn.

“I came down to the field house tonight to take some swings, and John Mariotti’s throwing a bullpen, Mike Bonanno’s hitting down here. Everybody’s kind of seeing where they’re at,” Forman said.

“It’s going to be pretty competitive. There’s been a lot of smack talk already back and forth through Messenger,” he laughed.

Several players from Jamie Corke’s era will also be in attendance, he added.

The game is free to watch online, but donations to the hospice are welcome either by visiting sjlc.ca or sending an e-transfer to brantfordredsoxalumni@gmail.com.

“We’re absolutely thrilled,” said Julie Powell, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Lifecare Foundation, the fundraising arm of the hospice.

“We have struggled a little bit throughout the pandemic with our fundraising, so the timing was perfect,” she said. “They’ve done a great job of putting this event together, and we’re excited to be chosen as the charity they’re supporting.”

Powell noted that the Corke family also participated in the virtual Hike for Hospice over the summer. Brandon explained along with his father last year, his aunt passed away at the hospice seven years ago.

Hospice care “gives the family an opportunity to be the husband or the wife and not the caregiver,” Powell said. “It just lets them be with their loved ones and spend those final days with them. People are very appreciative that they have that opportunity.”

The alumni set a fundraising target of $5,000 for Saturday’s game. Powell said donations will fund services at the 10-bed hospice in Brantford along with community outreach programs offered to residents throughout the region who opt to receive end-of-life care in their homes.

“The donations coming through this event will have a huge impact in helping us to keep the hospice up and running,” she said.

Powell is one of the lucky invited guests who will take in Saturday’s game from the bleachers.

“I’m very excited. They’ve just done an incredible job of putting this whole event together, and I’m really excited to be there and be a part of it,” she said.

The alumni are already looking forward to organizing another game next year to benefit the hospice – hopefully with a packed stadium cheering them on.

“We really wanted to be able to put fans in the stands, and I’m sure that our fanbase from all those years really wanted to come see us play,” Forman said. “This is something we’d like to do annually moving forward, just to keep guys in touch. We want our kids to come see us play.”

Forman, who hails from the Canadian baseball hotbed of St. Marys, was a fixture on the championship Red Sox teams and at baseball clinics he ran for city youth. He recently moved to Brantford and is glad to be helping the hospice continue to provide care and comfort for families in need.

“Lee and I got to see (Jamie Corke) in the hospice, and it was difficult to see, but the hospice is a nice place to go and spend time with somebody who’s passing away,” Forman said. “We want to help them maintain that integrity if not make it better.”

Jamie Corke may not be taking the field on Saturday when his dream of a Red Sox alumni game comes to fruition, but Forman suspects he’ll be there in spirit.

The clue is in the weather. On a day dedicated to the beloved outfielder who wore number 12, the forecast for first pitch is a crisp 12 degrees.

Just right to play ball.