Inductees

LITTLE LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

By RON SMITH

It’s hard to believe it was 50 years ago that the Brockville team captured the Canadian Little League baseball championship and competed in the World Series.

But, for those that enjoyed the whirlwind summer of 1971, the memories make it seem like only yesterday.

The talented team of 11 and 12-year-olds strolled through the District playdowns, handily won the Ontario championship and then persevered for the Canadian crown to deservedly earn its spot at Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

In a stretch of more than six weeks away from home, the Brockville team made history as the lone city representative to ever win the national title and proudly carry the Canadian flag at the Little League World Series.

Because of their accomplishments, the 1971 Little League all-stars were inducted into the Brockville and Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, the only team to have received that honour.

Coached by the late Fred Blanchard and Dave Wyatt, the team consisted of Dennis Atkins, the late Steve Caldwell, Dan Collison, Gerry Crooke, Larry Crooke, Bernie Edwards, Kevin Kennedy, the late Steve McCaugherty, the late Bobby Morrow, Nick Noonan, James Reynolds, Dale Robertson, the late Terry Spence and John Vanderbaaren.

“The whole experience of going to the World Series, it was a blur. It just went by so fast,” said Collison. “It always gets me to think back, look through the scrapbook and just say ‘wow’”.

Atkins, one of three 11-year-olds on the team, regards that team and that accomplishment as a highlight of his sports.

“It really is. It’s hard to believe I’m 61. Where did all the years go?” asked Atkins. “To be part of that was so, so special.”

Gerry Crooke still smiles when he thinks back to those times.

“It’s unbelievable. 50 years, really? It’s been that long? That’s unreal,” said Gerry Crooke. “It seems like yesterday. People talk to me and I can give them all kinds of stories.”

Right from the time the team was put together, Wyatt was pretty confident it was a group that could win the Canadian championship.

“I didn’t think it. I expected it,” said Wyatt. “And that was the way the kids felt. We didn’t hope to win. We expected to win.”

The players thought that also.

“We knew we were going to win. It was just confidence,” continued Collison. “We weren’t cocky or anything but we had confidence. It was a Brockville thing. We had this aura about us. We were here to play ball and we were going to play smart and hard and we were confident we were going to win. We never showed off. We were always very humble.”

It was a pretty talented team with Collison and the two Crookes as the best players but everyone else had their strengths and contributed to winning the district, the provincials and the Canadians.

Collison was probably the best young pitcher in Canada. The Crooke cousins were top hitters and pitchers, even though Larry was four-foot, six inches tall and only weighed 85 pounds. Everyone else shone by chipping in offensively and defensively at key moments.

 “It wasn’t about three or four players,” said Crooke. “It was all of us, all the guys. They all put in their time too.”

The team practiced morning and late afternoon and had to be chased off the diamonds from playing pickup ball in between at Prince of Wales public school.

There was no summer hockey then. Everyone lived and breathed baseball. The players were described as having baseball smarts, knowing what they had to do offensively and knowing how to make the correct defensive plays.

The playdowns began with a 37-1 victory over Stittsville, then saw Collison throw a one-hitter in an 8-0 win over a combination Aylmer-Hull team with a no-hitter and 17 strikeouts in the six-inning, 9-0 win over Ottawa City View.

Brockville won the championship with a 9-4 win over City View with Collison earning playdown pitching honors while Gerry Crooke was the top hitter with a .687 average.

“We were just playing ball. There was no nervousness involved,” said Larry Crooke. “It was just like playing out in your backyard and we did that every day.”

Then, it was off to Chapleau. A scheduled 10-hour train ride ended up taking 16 hours when the train engine caught on fire. That just prepared the team to arrive in Chapleau to see snow on the ground in early August.

Brockville blanked Windsor 2-0 and edged Noranda 3-1 in a game that was stopped on four occasions due to rain in 45 degree Fahrenheit weather. Brockville defeated Toronto Parkedale in the Ontario championship by an 8-1 score. Collison earned the pitching win, striking out 15 and hitting two long home runs while Robertson, the team’s tough little catcher, drove in two runs.

That earned Brockville the opportunity to fly from Timmins to St. Laurent, Quebec for the Canadian championships, the first time the players had ever experienced flying.

Brockville’s first game in the Canadians was probably one of the most controversial, a 1-0 victory over Sherbrooke in front of 3,000 fans, according to The Recorder and Times report by sports editor Don Swayne.

In the bottom of the sixth inning of the scoreless game with Brockville runners on second and third, Vanderbaaren hit an infield grounder. Larry Crooke headed home from third and so was the infield throw. Crooke jumped over the catcher, touching the plate.

The umpire called Crooke out for intent to injure… even though there was no contact… and tossed him out of the game.

“I just jumped over him and landed on the plate,” recalled Larry Crooke. “The next thing I know I was called out and thrown out of the game. I went back to the dugout and I was crying and wondering what just happened. Everybody was confused. Even the Quebec fans were booing the call. It was nothing I had ever experienced before.”

Collison had moved to third on the play. When the Sherbrooke pitcher threw a ball past his catcher, Collison came home to score. However, the ump ruled that time had been called as Crooke was still in the dugout and Collison was sent back to third. With the fans yelling and screaming at a fever pitch, Gerry Crooke then followed with a line drive hit to score Collison for the dramatic win.

“It didn’t matter who we were playing we were going to get our hits,” said Collison. “No matter what happened, we just knew, one way or another, we were going to come out on top.”

Brockville then dropped a 10-7 decision to North Vancouver. Brockville beat Alberta 8-3 to earn the spot in the double-elimination finals, needing to beat North Vancouver twice for the Canadian title.

Brockville beat North Vancouver 7-3 in extra innings with a three-run homer by Gerry Crooke as the decisive blow. In the championship 2-0 win over North Vancouver, Collison fired a no-hitter, striking out 10.

“I think after we won the Ontarios and got to the Canadians, I think we thought anything was possible,” said Atkins. “I was just happy to be there and cheering us on.”

While the Brockville team had to fly from Montreal to Williamsport, local fans flocked to the World Series site by bus and car.

Brockville dropped a 3-2 loss to Hawaii in its opening game. Collison gave up the three runs on four infield hits in the first inning and then shut down Hawaii after that. Gerry Crooke hit a solo home run in his first at-bat and narrowly missed another one that would have tied the game in the sixth inning.

“I was thinking this is a dream. It isn’t even normal,” recalled Gerry Crooke of his home run.

In the second game, Brockville lost 5-2 to Puerto Rico and Robertson had what would have been a grand slam home run hauled in at the fence in the fifth inning.

In the consolation game, Brockville beat Kentucky 4-1. Collison earned the pitching win while Gerry Crooke hit another home run but Larry Crooke had a .555 average over the three games.

“We walked with a confidence, not with a swagger,” added Wyatt. “It was outrageous fun. They were a great group of kids.”

For the players, it was a disappointing outcome but the Brockville team was still excited as what it had accomplished.

They went to the White House to meet Vice President Spiro Agnew, met astronaut Neil Armstrong (the first man on the moon) and took in a Baltimore Orioles baseball game where they met Orioles first baseman Boog Powell.

Then, that feeling of being discouraged turned to shock and surprise when they arrived home to the parking lot in the former Zeller’s mall to an awaiting crowd of 1,500 people. The team was then celebrated by a tickertape parade through the downtown streets of Brockville in front of 10,000 people with The Recorder and Times putting out a 14-page special edition for the Canadian champions.

“It’s not about playing the game. It’s about who you meet along the way. We were just out there playing ball with our friends. How can you not be happy playing on a field like that (Williamsport)?” said Gerry Crooke. “I still get excited about it. I can’t help it.”

It was a pretty special group of players, the majority of whom went on to play junior hockey, amateur golf at a high local level, Inter-County baseball, spreading out across the country.

Now, they are always connected to each other by that special summer in 1971.