Page 9 - Book Eleven Havelock

SPORTS
Long after everyone had gone to bed the night silence was broken by the sound of small footsteps upstairs􏰀 􏰁Somebod􏰂􏰃s out of bed􏰄􏰅 said Momma quietl􏰂􏰀 Then louder􏰅 􏰁Who􏰃s out of bed􏰆􏰄
Joel􏰃s 􏰇er􏰂 small 􏰇oice replied􏰅 􏰁I 􏰈ant to pla􏰂 􏰈ith Dadd􏰂􏰀􏰄 Age 􏰉􏰊
Joel must have known that his Daddy always wanted to play, especially on some team. I only rarely had organized hockey planned for me when I was young. I usually had to organize a team then find the opposition and then arrange a game and then figure out transportation and manage the team usually all by myself. I was small for my age but needless to say I always made the team. I can remember only two games of hockey I played during all my seven 􏰂ears in Ha􏰇elock that I didn􏰃t have to originate myself. Our Trail Rangers did okay in a 2-2 tie at home against the Keene Trail Rangers despite my pratfall when I had a breakaway. We lost the other game 8-0 in Keene.
Most of the softball games I played in Havelock I had to organize too. Transportation was easier in summer because we could go to games, mostly to Norwood, on our bicycles. Allan was always at the farm in the summers. No teams ever came to play us so our whole season was away games.. I recall one big game we played at Preneveau. There was a huge controversy, almost a brawl, about the ages of some of their players. We were very upset so I guess we lost.
I was in my glory when the Air Cadets went to camp at an RCAF station for a couple of summers and they set up a schedule of fast- pitch softball games among the various Squadrons at camp. The first year I organized our team. I put myself in at first base. First basemen are usually tall and often left-handed. I was neither. In fact I was the shortest one on our Havelock Air Cadets team. However, I decided that was where I wanted to play because that was the only position besides the catcher where the guy got to wear a glove in those days. As if my first base position had anything to do with it we did win the tournament the first year.
In the second year when our Air Cadets went to camp m􏰂 organi􏰋ational skills 􏰈eren􏰃t quite con􏰇incing enough to get the glo􏰇e and pla􏰂 first base􏰀 Carlton Longmuir 􏰈as a lot taller and he 􏰈as a sergeant and I couldn􏰃t get the glo􏰇e a􏰈a􏰂 from him so I put myself in at bare-handed shortstop. After wrecking both my pinkie fingers on a spinning pop fly and making a bad error, I moved Larry Hubble into shortstop and sheepishly but deservedly retired to play left field for the rest of the game. We didn􏰃t do so 􏰈ell the second 􏰂ear. Probably my error at shortstop had something to do with it!
Our family arrived in Havelock in 1937 after the men􏰃s softball season was over, but I saw some great games played by the Havelock McCutcheon􏰃s Wreckers team in the 1938 season. I remember a few of their players. Bill 􏰁Beatt􏰂􏰄 Brunton was the main pitcher. We all tried to copy his unique windmill delivery but nobody else could come close to his velocity and effectiveness. His windup pre-dated the present-day windmill delivery that all fastball pitchers use today and which was unknown in Canada until the late 1940s when Charlie Justice came from Michigan and introduced it to the Toronto Tip Top team that won the world championship of fast-pitch softball in 1949. We just called it 􏰁softball􏰄 then because nobody had introduced us to slow-pitch softball yet either.
I remember catcher Jack Ketchen and the left fielder and the second baseman. I witnessed that left fielder making many spectacular catches chasing down impossible flies and grabbing them bare-handed. That left-fielder was none other than Harold Hunter, author of 􏰁Havelock Through the Years􏰄􏰀 Harold was probably too modest to write much about that team that did so well in the OASA provincial play-downs. Harold did write that the Havelock men􏰃s team had to fold after that. The depression was ending, war was threatening and most of the players dispersed to look for defense jobs or to join the
armed forces.
One of those dispersed players was second-baseman Johnny Voyer whom I spotted about two years later playing his usual dependable game in his usual position for a team in Niagara Falls in a very competitive league.
Written 2019
Page 7
HAROLD HUNTER ca.1985 Outstanding ball player in the
1940s, Many years Principal of Havelock Public School, Author of 􏰁Ha􏰇elock Through the Years􏰄 1990,1993 (Photo from his books)