The 1997 Diamonds ranged from age 18 to age 40 but came
together as a team and had an incredibly successful year.
For the 5th consecutive year they won the Western Counties
Championship with an overall record of 29-1. They won the
prestigious Whitby tournament with 4 straight wins, 3 of
which were over teams from the strong Metro Toronto
League. They won the Ontario Elimination Tournament in
Windsor beating East York 6-4 in the semi-finals and
Windsor Stars 5-1 in the finals to qualify for the
Canadian Senior Baseball Championships in Mt. Pearl,
Newfoundland.
Team members were Bill Atkinson, Kelly Beausejour, Bob
Bush, Chris Bushey, Jason Chickowski, Mike Crumb, Ron Day,
Steve Donald (captain), Bill Flavell, Andy Johnston, Jeff
Laidlaw, Trevor Langstaff, Jeremy McGowan, Jeff Michaels
(North York), Terry Oulds (captain), Willie Parker, Shane
Quinn (North York), Gary Roberts, Darren Smith, Jeff
Stead, Jeff Stephenson, Brad Twigg, Bill Twigg (manager),
Buddy Wright (coach), Lenny Parker (trainer), Sam Prohaska
(super fan).
The Diamonds picked up 2 players from North York, but
were basically a team of Kent County products. They went 3
and 2 in the round-robin to end up second and advance to
the Gold Medal Game against Red Deer (Alberta) Riggers who
had beaten the Diamonds 13-6 in their opening round-robin
game. In a back-and-forth championship game Chatham lost
to Red Deer 5-4 to settle for 2nd place and a Silver
Medal. Bill Flavell was named top hitter in the
tournament, Trevor Langstaff was top fielder, and Steve
Donald and Gary Roberts were named to the All-star team.
|
