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