In 1951 the Chatham
Minor Baseball Association was formed and in 1953 the
Branch 431 Legion Bantams became the first CMBA team to
win an Ontario Baseball Association championship. The team
was coached by Jack Fairs from London who was assisted by
Ross Babcock and Alex Montague.
Fairs was hired jointly by the Chatham Memorial Community
Centre Commission and CMBA on an experimental basis for the
summer of 1953. He directed the minor baseball system,
coached all travel teams, and operated schools for the
coaches of the house league teams. During the winter, Fairs
coached at the University of Western Ontario. The team
consisted of the best players from the Branch 43 1. Legion
Bantam City League. During the regular season the team won
14 games and lost 4, but in order to be crowned Ontario
champions, the bantams had to win five elimination series.
In the Western Counties Baseball Association semi-finals,
they defeated Sarnia in two straight games and then went on
to face Windsor for the WCBA championship. They defeated
Windsor 15-0 in game one but then lost game two 12-10 by
falling behind 10-0 after four innings. Game three turned
out to be no contest as Chatham won 254.
In the all-Ontario quarter-finals, Chatham played London,
the Inter-county League champions, in a best of three
series. The teams were evenly matched as Chatham lost game
one 14-13 after leading 10-0, won game two 7-5 after leading
7-2, and won game three 9-8 after leading 9-2. In the
semi-finals, the bantams played Hamilton in a sudden death
game. The game, played in London in a steady downpour of
rain, was won by Chatham 19-6. In the finals, Oshawa
provided the opposition in a sudden death game played in
Brantford. Chatham went Front row, left to right - Chris
Mitchell, Don Craven, Larry Babcock, Lloyd Howard, Danny
Maruoka, Glenn Mills (batboy), Allan Hinnegan, George
Montague, Ray Reaume, Tom Burke ahead 5-0 after six innings
but Oshawa scored four runs in the seventh to get close. The
final score was 64 in favor of Chatham who, as a result,
were Ontario champions.
.jpg) The victory is even more significant when it is realized
that it occurred prior to the OBA implementing a
classification system in which teams played against cities
of comparatively the same size. In these play downs, the
1953 Bantams competed against cities much larger than
Chatham and beat them all. As a result of the Bantam's
success, the Recreation Department decided to continue the
practice of hiring a full-time coach and for many years
after that, Chatham Minor Baseball teams had unprecedented
success in winning OBA championships and developing players
who went on to play baseball professionally.
- Team
Members
- Lloyd Miller (sports representative for Br. 431
Legion)
- Alex Montague (assistant coach)
- Larry Mills
- Jim Crawford
- Lou Holly
- Larry DeKoning
- Jack Fairs (coach)
- John Isreals
- Eddie Kucera
- Bill Everitt
- Grant Dickie
- Archie Harrogate
- Ross Babcock (assistant coach)
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