Elliott: Annis, McKillop, Nantais, Sarnia Drawbriidge Jrs. enter OBA Hall
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
It was the second summer after our Centennial year and the small-market Kingston Centennials had the Intercounty All-Stars in trouble.
Doug McIlroy and Mac Druce had singled with a run scoring on an infield error in the bottom of the 11th to tie the score 7-7. Intercounty manager Ken Benjamin had Clyde Harris walked intentionally to load the bases at Peterborough.
Kingston was 90 feet away from representing Ontario at the 1969 Canada Summer Games in Halifax.
What now? London Majors’ RHP Rick Birmingham had started, Kitchener Panthers’ Court Heinbuck and Galt Terriers’ Gord Peterson had each worked in relief. Future Hall of Famer Ron Stead had pitched earlier in the tournament.
Benjamin pointed at catcher Bob McKillop, who was at the mound meeting. McKillop had squatted the first 10 1/3 innings. He shed his gear and after falling behind 3-1, he struck out David Gilmour for the second out on a 3-2 pitch. Then, he escaped trouble by getting Don Goodridge on a comebacker.
Then, with one out in the top of the 12th he doubled home Ron Smith with the winning run. In the bottom half he faced only three Kingston hitters.
So to recap: 1 2/3 innings for the save, he knocked in the game winner with his 12th-inning double, two other hits and two RBIs.
You could say it was a Hall of Fame moment ... one of many.
And Baseball Ontario selected McKillop to its Hall of Fame along with
_ Lee Nantais (Windsor, Ont.) as a builder. He was an Honourary Member and a Past President.
_ Past president Spiro Annis (Peterborough, Ont.) as a builder. Annis was a former OBA president.
_ And the Sarnia Drawbridge Inn juniors as a team, which included former New York Yankee and current Philadelphia Phillies coach Rob Thomson (Corunna, Ont.). They won the Canadian junior titles in 1983 and 1987.
* * *
McKillop had many moments like that day in the shadow of the Quaker Oats plant in Peterborough.
McKillop was a minor league infielder for four seasons, all in the Chicago White Sox chain.
A Toronto native he was signed by the White Sox. He made his pro debut in 1961, going 2-for-16 for the class-C Clinton C-Sox and 14-for-72 with a double and triple for the class-D Daytona Beach Islanders. He was at Clinton again in 1962.
Next he hit .276 for the class-A Sarasota Sun Sox leading the Florida State League with 95 walks and was tops among third basemen in assists (206), double plays (24) and fielding percentage (.954). He finished his minor-league pro his career in 1964 with Sarasota and the class-A Tidewater Tides. In all, he hit .245 with 46 doubles, 12 triples, two home runs and 127 RBIs in 374 games.
Returning to amateur ball, he was named Intercounty MVP four times for his play for with Kitchener.
He made eight All-Star teams and three times he won home run titles.
McKillop played for Team Canada in the 1967 Pan American Games but was banned after two games -- along with Ron Smith (Galt, Ont.), John Elias (Montreal, Que.), Stead (Toronto, Ont.) and McKillop -- due to prior pro experience. He later managed Kitchener and then was an OBA executive.
Rep
14U and Above
Player of the Year
Scott Austin, Kincardine, Ont.
Pitcher of the Year
RHP Carson Lumley, London, Ont.
Coach of the Year
Marco Bianchi, Toronto Playgrounds
13 and Below
Player of the Year
Jorja Sandilands, Whitby, Ont.
Fergie Jenkins Pitcher of the Year
Jackson Wright, Cambridge, Ont.
Coach of the Year
Kyle Hollinger, Listowel, Ont.
Team of the Year
13U Cambridge Cubs
Level 5 Umpire of the Year
Blair Hains, Milton, Ont.
Select
13U and Below
Player of the Year
Mary Green, Flesherton, Ont.
Pitcher of the Year
Milo Brezina, Toronto Playgrounds
14U and Above
Player of the Year
Gabriel Fuoco, Vaughan, Ont.
Pitcher of the Year
Caleb Sawkins, Delaware-Komoka-Mount Brydges
Coach of the Year
John Clement, West Mountain
Team of the Year
West Mountain 18U Cougars
Dick Willis Memorial Umpires of the year
Senior
Annette Hoggarth, Goderich, Ont.
Junior
Alex Hall, Cambridge, Ont.
Life member
Tony Jasinski, Mississauga, Ont.
President’s Award
Mary-Ann Smith, Cambridge
Jack Middlemass Memorial Volunteer of the year
George Brown
Barry Salt Director of the Year,
Glenn Ostrosser, Stoney Creek, Ont.
Baseball Ontario Association of the Year
(Under the JLESS ... the Jim Lutton Easy-to-follow Scoring system)
Eastern Ontario
Milestones
50 year
Jim Lutton, Oshawa (1970)
45 years
Ron Pegg, Flesherton, Ont. (1975)
35 years
Howie Birnie, Leaside, Ont. (2017)
Bernie Soulliere, Windsor (2015)
30 years
Linda Lewis, Chatham, Ont. (2017)
25 years
Randy Pickle, Oshawa, Ont. (2018)
David Huctwith, Mississauga, Ont. (2017)
Don McKnight, Newmarket, Ont. (2016)
20 years
Ed Quinlan Stoney Creek, Ont. (2018)
Mary-Ann Smith, Cambridge, Ont. (1999)
Ted Willianms, Newmarket, Ont. (2017)
Tom Moy, Mississauga, Ont. (2017)
Allan Ebert, Sarnia, Ont. (2016)
Mark Orton, Oshawa, Ont. (2015)
15 years
David Black, Toronto, Ont. (2018)
Cathy Lamarucciola, Vaughan, Ont. (2018)
Glen Ostrosser, Stoney Creek, Ont. (2016)
Dirk Drieberg, Vaughan, Ont. (2016)
Ric Duwyn, Simcoe, Ont. (2015)
Paul Ames, Cottam, Ont. (2015)
2019 Hall of Fame
Spiro Annis (Peterborough, Ont.) builder.
Bob McKillop (Kitchener, Ont.) player.
Lee Nantais (Windsor, Ont.) builder.
Former OBA players of the year:
Year Junior and Senior Players of the Year
1994 Chris Green, Mike Kusiewicz
1995 Paul Brown, Shawn Pearson
1996 Dan Hansen, Doug Vandecaveye
1997 Scott Thorman, Jason Mandryk
1998 Bradley Gould, Patrick Nailer
1999 Chris Emanuele, Tanner Watson
2000 Derek Lowe, BJ Richardson
2001 Dan Zehr, Chris Robinson
2002 Kate Psota, Jamie Romak
2003 Ian Choy, Cherie Piper
2004 Trevor Barton, Davey Wallace
2005 Cain Monaghan, Kevin Long
2006 Tanner Nivins, Greg Densem
2007 McCalla Sturgeon, Robert Cooper
2008 Geoffrey Seto, Larry Balkwill
2009 Nicholas Dimpfel, Ryan Zimmer
2010 Josh Naylor, Jake Lumley
2011 Connor May, Byron Reichstein
2012 Jason Stott, Matt Smith
2013 Noah Naylor, Justin Gideon
2014 Noah Roberts, Zachary Fascia
2015 Colin Mandarich, Jake Brennan
2016 Joe Kuin, Tyrell Schofield-Sam
2017 Carson Lumley, Josh Arce
2018 Brett Talbot, Carter Arbuthnot
2019 Jorja Sandilands, Scott Austin
Bold denotes major leaguer