Team Ontario and Windsor Selects coach Marc Picard won 13 national titles.

September 19, 2022

Marc Picard and Harv Bailie, two coaches who are not strangers to winning gold medals and national championships, Baseball Ontario’s first employee Gwen Turner and outstanding umpire Don Gilbert make up this year’s Baseball Ontario Hall of Fame class.

The Induction is takes place Nov. 19th in Guelph.

Former coach and administrator Harv Baillie

Harv Bailie, Mitchell, Ont.

After getting his start coaching minor ball in Byron, a London neighbourhood, he went on to win four OBA championships and 11 league championships. As a founding member of the Byron Optimist Sports Complex committee, he was given the greatest honour having Diamond 2 renamed the Harv Bailie Diamond in 2005.

Bailie served as president of Byron Optimist Baseball and the London District Baseball Association for more than 20 years, as well as being president of Baseball Ontario (1981-82) and a vice-president of Baseball Canada. Over the years, he represented Canada at the World Congress international meetings and at major tournaments in Amsterdam, Milan, Kobe, Seoul and Havana, in addition to being the administrator for the Canadian National Team and the chef de mission for the 1988 Canadian Olympic team in Seoul Korea. He was inducted into the London Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

Don Gilbert, Windsor, Ont.
Gilbert began working as an umpire in Baseball Canada’s national program in 1978 and was given his first national assignment two years later. From 1980 until 2009, he served as either an umpire or supervisor every year at the national or international level. He has umpired or supervised every level of Baseball Canada national championships from 15U to Senior, including the Canada Summer Games and Blue Jay Cup.

Internationally, Gilbert has worked World Youth, World Cup, World University Games and Pan Am games. In 2004, he officiated at the World University Games in Chinese Taipei as well as the XXVII Olympic Games in Athens, working the gold medal game in both tournaments. Selected Baseball Ontario Umpire of the Year (1992), Baseball Canada Umpire of the Year (1997), and International Umpire of the Year (2004), he was so accurate and respected in his calls that the Baseball Ontario Program of Excellence Umpire of the Year for Level 4/5 is presented annually in his honour. Gilbert was supervisor of umpires for Baseball Ontario from 1995 through 2000 and for Baseball Canada from 1996 through 2008. Gilbert was elected Vice President of Baseball Ontario from 1998-2000. He was elected to the Windsor/Essex County Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

Marc Picard was also part of Sam Dempster’s (Kingston, Ont.) crack staff at Durham College.

Marc Picard, Windsor, Ont.

Picard has been a player, scout and coach for over 45 years. He grew up and played in Windsor, was an amateur scout for the New York Yankees then coached Windsor, Team Ontario and Durham College -- while based in Pickering -- and returned to Windsor again. Now he is in charge of baseball skills at Central Park Athletics for the F. J. Brennan Academy in Windsor. No less than 13 times did Picard manage or coach a team to a Canadian national championship. He won six times at the juvenile level (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990), the Canada Cup four times (1990, 1991, 2011 and 2012), Canada Summer Games (1997), the junior level once as an assistant coach (1991) and national 15U as an assistant (2015).

He coached future major leaguers Joe Siddall, Stubby Clapp, Chris Leroux, David Davidson and others. Picard also coached Jason Wuerch, the first Canadian ever selected in the MLB draft in 1991 once Canadian high schoolers were eligible to be chosen, as well as future NHLer Jason Woolley. “I will be sure to congratulate him. He had a big part in my development,” said Clapp, former St. Louis Cardinal, who is now the first base coach with the Cards.

Gwen Turner, Flesherton, Ont.

Turner was the first full-time employee of Baseball Ontario (1976 to 1994) working as OBA office manager when its office was in the basement of Ron and Cathy Pegg’s house in Flesherton. Every evening Ron would organize Gwen’s day and she worked on her own while Ron Pegg taught at the local high school.

Turner was responsible for every decision the OBA did -- from player cards to informing the membership of rule changes -- and she did it without computers or fax machines until 1989. As well, Turner edited and prepared the constitutions each year, prepared and ran off all materials for the annual general meetings, which she attended as the secretary.

In her spare time, Turner edited, printed and mailed out the popular “Baseball Bits." Turner prepared the paperwork for the first Best Ever Clinic and those that followed, in addition to coordinating the information for all the umpire and coaching clinics. Turner was responsible for approving player rosters and returning them to various registrars. Those were a few of the everyday responsibilities Turner performed as a most valuable member of the OBA administrative team.

OBA Hall of Fame class of 2022: Baillie, Gilbert, Picard, Turner