Tom Henke, shown here in 2011 when he was indutced into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont., was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame on October 23. One problem Henke could not find his passport to reach Toronto for the banquet.

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Four days before the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame inductions, we spoke with Tom Henke, the former Blue Jays reliever.

“I’m coming, I’ll be there, it’s a great honour,” Henke said as he drove his grandchildren home from a “shot gun shoot.” (What were they shooting? Clay pigeons.)

“I spoke to the people with the banquet who were kind enough to honour me,” Henke said. “They won’t let me wear my camo tuxedo, but I’ll have my camo tie and a piece of camo in my jacket pocket.”

Yet on the night of the banquet, Henke was a no-show. Since the Back2Back 25th Anniversary reunion dinner of Joe Carter’s home run to win the 1993 World Series was also in the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto the same night there were plenty of theories as to what happened with Henke’s passport ...

_ It had expired.

_ It was lost.

_ Or he reached the airport in St. Louis only to find he had forgotten it at home.

In his welcoming remarks Ontario Sports Hall of Fame president Mark Gravett suggested Henke check his underwear drawer.

So, what happened?

“I lost it, I had it with me when I was there in August,” Henke said. “I lost sleep over it. I feel terrible that I couldn’t make the banquet.”

Henke phoned around and the only government office building where he could renew his passport -- within two weeks to make next week’s hunting trip in northern Ontario -- was a 15-hour drive to Hot Springs, Ark.

“A few hours after talking with the people in Hot Springs, (wife) Kathy found my passport inside a book. I blame it on a senior moment.”

Told that Pat Borders had nicknamed him “Manny Lee Henke” and “George Bell Henke,” who often had visa problems and reported late to Dunedin, Henke responded: “Well, I asked him to accept the award for me and he didn’t -- he’s No Show Borders.”

Sue Schwartzentruber (Conestogo, Ont.), accepted the award for Henke. Schwartzentruber used to live with the Henkes and the reliever has referred to her as “like my oldest daughter.”

Former Ottawa 67’s coach Brian Kilrea (Ottawa, Ont.) was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.

* * *

Once a Dodgers fan, always a Dodgers fan: Being inducted is old hat for Brian Kilrea (Ottawa, Ont.), who gave a great speech when he was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. He highlighted his wife Judy, daughters Linda and Dianne, plus son Billy and his grandchildren: Daniel, David, Jack, Paige, Morgan, Katie and Ben.

Kilrea is already enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Ottawa Sports Hall, the American Hockey League Hall and the Springfield Hall, where he played from 1959-to-1968. Kilrea told Hall of Famer Pat Gillick and RHP Pat Hentgen earlier in the day, how he grew up a Dodgers fan.

Anyone who has spent any time around Kilrea knew he was a Dodger fan and would recite the lineup quickly: “They had Roy Campanella and Bruce Edwards behind the plate, Gil Hodges at first, Jackie Robinson at second, Billy Cox at third and Pee Wee Reese at short. In the outfield they had Gene Hermanski in left, Duke Snider in centre and Carl Furillo in right.

“On the mound they had Don Newcombe, Preacher Roe, Ralph Branca and Johnny Podres. Don Drysdale came later. The manager came to the mound once and said ‘Let’s walk this guy intentionally.’ And Drysdale said, ‘I can put him on in one pitch -- I’ll hit him.’”

Peter Gaw, a former Ottawa 67’s forward, fell in love, married and headed south. He ran the souvenir shop on the golf course at Vero Beach, Fla. returned to Ottawa bearing gifts. Gaw gave Kilrea an autographed ball signed “To Brian” from Sandy Koufax, a pennant signed by a Koufax and another pennant from the Dodger coaches. The shy Koufax signs only a couple of days a year.

Kilrea had kind words for his dear friend Don Cherry (Kingston, Ont. _ Canada’s first capital) and recalled the first day that Cherry walked in the room to play for the Spingfield Aces and coach Pat Egan, as Eddie Shore ruled with an iron hand.

Kilrea scored the first goal in Los Angeles Kings history and in his 35 years with the Ottawa 67’s, he has 1,193 career wins.

Besides Kilrea, the other inductees were hockey coach Father David Bauer (Kitchener, Ont.), hockey and lacrosse player Jack Bionda (Huntsville, Ont.), Al Charron (Ottawa, Ont.), gymnast Elfi Schlegel (Toronto, Ont.), NHLer Scott Stevens (Kitchener, Ont.) and Henke.

Cincinnati Reds 1B Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) won the Syl Apps award as Ontario’s athlete of the year.

* * *

Pinch hitting for No. 19 Joey Votto … No. 20 … Mark Capone: Chosen the winner of the Syl Apps award as Ontario Athlete of the Year for 2017 was Cincinnati Reds 1B Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.).

Unable to make the dinner, Votto bought a table for the Etobicoke Rangers seniors. Rangers attending the banquet were: AJ Iafrate, Kyle Angelow, Adam McBride, Adam Raitby, coach Jon Kielb, Daniel Murphy, Michael Ferracutti, Kevin Breitner, Bill Thompson and Mark Capone.

Seeing Capone in the lobby we told him to keep his speech to under 20 minutes. His eyes widened and he said “Sure.” It was not a speaking role or so we thought.

CBC’s Scott Russell (Oshawa, Ont.) introduced a clip from Votto in which he said when he “and his father went to Jays games, Tom Henke was their favourite player” and then Russell introduced Capone. They posed for pictures and then Capone headed to the microphone.

Capone, a dang fine hitter in his own right as the all-time hit leader with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, explained how in the previous off-season the Rangers contacted Votto looking for a phone number or a contact with a uniform supplier so that they could buy new uniforms for their senior team.

“Joey graciously said he would pay for the uniforms,” Capone said, but explained that the senior players would have to show a way to get involved in the community.

So, after kicking ideas around the Rangers decided that they would help out the Etobicoke Eagles of Special Olympics Ontario with their challenger program.

A number of Rangers players would show at Eagles practices to work on batting and fielding balls.

“It was truly an amazing honour,” Capone said. “We’ve gone to see them on Tuesdays and they’ve come to our games at Connorvale on Fridays. They learned from us, but we learned it from them.”

Turned out Capone had told Sportsnet’s Scotty Morrison and Russell the story before the banquet and their reply was, “Oh, you have to tell that story.”

Capone did an excellent job.

So did the Rangers this summer helping the Eagles.

And pre-banquet material lists the cost of one table at $3,000 plus HST. So, good on you Joseph Votto.

* * *

And … in other cateegories: The other award winners were:

The Sandy Hawley community service award _ to Hazel McCallion (Mississauga, Ont.), my former mayor, for her involvement in women’s hockey.

The Brian Williams media award _ to Harnarayan Singh (Calgary, Alta.), Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi broadcaster.

Prentice Family Legacy Award _ to The Conacher Family.

Charlie, the Maple Leafs first superstar, was rated the 11th best player in team history; Lionel (The Big Train) was voted Canada’s athlete for the first part of the 20th century, excelling at football, lacrosse, boxing and 12 NHL seasons, winning two Stanley Cups with the Montreal Maroons and Chicago Blackhawks. Roy was the first rookie to lead the league in goals, on the last Bruins team before Bobby Orr. Margaret Conacher’s son, Murray Henderson, played eight years for Boston.

* * *

Voice of an angel: A highlight was Louise Pitre and her song stylings. Pitre received a Tony nomination for her Broadway performances in Mamma Mia.

Elliott: Ontario Sports Hall honours Henke, Kilrea, Votto