Baseball Hall of Fame welcomes new class

The Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame’s inductees for the class of 2026 includes a healthy number of players who played and helped grow the game in western Manitoba. In simultaneous media conferences held in Brandon and Winnipeg, it was announced Nate Andrews of Brandon, Larry Nicholson of Neepawa, Garth White of Neepawa, and Lorna Robertson of Hamiota were being inducted as individuals, with Morris Mott of Brandon made an honorary life member.

The teams with Westman ties going into the Hall are the 2003 Neepawa AA Midgets, the 1987 Oil Dome Bantam A All-Stars, and the Western Manitoba Junior All-Stars that attended the 1973 Canada Summer Games.

“It’s fun,” Andrews said. “The other times I’ve been, you just run into people from years back that you haven’t seen for a while, and it’s just fun to talk baseball with everybody. I still run the ballpark (Andrews Field) here in Brandon, so I stay a little bit connected, but you kind of get away from it. I just always found that the baseball culture I was part of is on centre stage when you’re there, and it’s just fun to talk about old times and stories. “It puts a smile on your face.”

The banquet is being held at the Morden Recreation Centre on June 13. Early-bird tickets are available for $110 plus online fees for adults, while the price at the door is $120 plus fees.

Youth aged 13-17 will pay $40 plus fees, 7-12 are $25, and children six and under are free.

For adult tickets only, $45 is deemed a donation that can be claimed on income tax.

The event helps maintain the operation of the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum.

Here’s a look at Westman’s inductees:

NATE ANDREWS

It didn’t take long for Andrews to connect with the game his father, Neil, did so much for. It started when Nate was a mainstay on a local mosquito team that won a provincial championship in 1986, then part of two Brandon peewee teams that also earned Manitoba gold.

“It was very important,” Andrews said. “Growing up I was a two-sport person — three I guess, I played some volleyball — but I was a hockey-baseball guy. Hockey I was decent at but it was baseball that was my game. It was really just the ability to have a position that fit my bad athleticism back in the day of being a catcher.

“I was always really good at receiving, whether a guy was throwing harder than most or not, I could always catch. As the years progressed and I started to hit the gym, that’s when the hitting started to follow suit and I gained some confidence.

“I just love the chess of baseball.”

In 1991, he won a national midget championship as a pickup with the Portage la Prairie A’s — the only Manitoba team at the U18 level to win nationals — and earned a spot on the provincial team in 1993.

He attended Mayville State for four seasons, with the Comets earning conference championships each year. When he returned to Brandon, he played in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League from 1993 to 2015, mostly with the Brandon Marlins, and was a nine-time all-star, twice the home-run champion, and also the runs batted in leader.

He also won five MSBL championships and played in five Canadian senior baseball championships. He’s also coached and continues to look after Andrews Field — named after his father, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007 — and Sumner Field.

Nate was also inducted as part of one of the 1999 to 2008 Marlins teams, and the 1991 Portage A’s team.

“It’s awesome,” Andrews said. “I’ve been coming to these things a few times with teams I’ve been inducted with and, of course, my dad and people I know who got in, so to be part of that is a pretty big honour.

“You never play the game years ago thinking that’s your goal, to get inducted into the Hall of Fame, but based on the calibre of ball we used to play and how good some of the players were before these summer college leagues popped up, it’s a real honour to be part of that group.”

He said when he was watching the Toronto Blue Jays in the playoffs last month, it was easy to see how much they cared for each other. That reminded him of the camaraderie during his own playing days.

“It took me back to the golden years of the Marlins teams we had,” Andrews said. “It’s obviously different levels of baseball but the same passion that everybody had, and the same care. Baseball allowed me to go to different places. I spent a year in Australia playing baseball, and I’ve been in multiple cities in Canada with nationals, and even my college career took me all over the U.S.

“If I wasn’t part of that baseball community, I wouldn’t have got to see and do all those things.”

LARRY NICHOLSON

Nicholson was taken aback when he got the call he was being inducted.

“It’s an honour, it really is,” Nicholson said. “I played with some of the best ball players and against some of the best ball players and they’re all down there (in the Hall of Fame in Morden). It was a shock.”

Nicholson, who grew up on a farm near Neepawa, was one of those rare pitchers who could throw in both baseball and fastball. In the mid-1970s, he began playing baseball for the intermediate Neepawa Farmers and, in 1981, starred on a team that won the provincial intermediate title and finished fourth at the Western Canadian championship.

“The same 12 guys I started playing baseball with, I don’t how many years, from the early ’70s, are the same group of guys we hang around with,” Nicholson said. “There is a table full of us coming down who are being inducted, so it is nice. Garth White was a big part of our team, keeping us all together, and the wives were a big part, scorekeeping, organizing. It’s nice.”

After the Farmers joined the MSBL in 1982, Nicholson was a top pitcher and power hitter for the club for seven seasons. In 1983 he was picked up for nationals by the Riverside Canucks, and in 1986 the Farmers won the MSBL pennant. They also won the prestigious July 1 MSBL tournament in Birtle, with Nicholson earning three straight victories on the mound.

After he retired as a player, he then coached for a decade. Now it’s just the small matter of what’s expected of him in June.

“I’m looking forward to the ceremony, but the speech stuff, I’m not real sure on that,” Nicholson said. “My son, I think, is coming from B.C., and some family members, so it’s going to be nice. I’ve never been down there. I have a lot of friends and people from Neepawa who have been inducted there, so I’m looking forward to it.”

LORNA ROBERTSON

She is quick to tell you the spotlight is not what she’s after.

“I’m not much of a people person,” Robertson said. “I would just as soon sit in the back and coach.”

For 70 years, Robertson has tirelessly volunteered her time in Hamiota, earning a Woman of Distinction Award from Westman YMCA in 1985 and a Queen Elizabeth Platinum Award for Community Service and Involvement in 2012.

While she was active in many sports, she was busy with baseball from 1961 to 1990, as she and her husband Al did a little bit of everything for the MSBL’s Hamiota Red Sox. Her jobs included organizing canteen supplies and staff, arranging for batboys and ball chasers, selling 50/50 tickets, taking money at the gate, and providing post-game meals at her house.

“I was involved in coaching even before I got to being a parent,” Robertson said. “We had a band and I was one of the Majorettes, so back in Grade 9 I got to be leader. I got involved in everything.”

At the same time she was active with the senior team, Robertson helped organize the junior Red Sox program and coached teams that won at least seven provincial championships.

In her capacity with the junior squad, especially when she was president, she ordered uniforms, arranged for coaches and umpires, scheduled the American imports who ran minor baseball practices, oversaw the canteen, and supervised construction of three new diamonds.

Despite her incredible contribution, she was touched by the honour.

“It’s really exciting,” Robertson said. “It’s good news.”

GARTH WHITE

White is already looking forward to visiting with some friends in Morden next summer.

“I think it’s good,” White said. “It’s really nice to meet all the people when you go down there. It’s like a big baseball family.”

White played for the Neepawa Farmers of the intermediate Yellowhead League in the 1970s and early 1980s, winning a provincial Intermediate championship in 1981 and heading to western Canadians.

The team joined the MSBL in 1982, and after playing for a few years, he became coach in 1986 and held the job until 2010. He was chosen as an all-star in 17 of his 24 years, with the Farmers winning titles in 1992 and 1994. He was also part of the staff of MSBL all-star teams that attended several Western Canadian championships.

During that time, he and his wife, Gail, also fundraised, recruited and billeted players and looked after the field.

He also had a personal connection in minor ball.

“I coached my son Bryan right up until I didn’t coach him for a couple of years in midget,” White said. “Then he started playing with the Farmers, and in 1997 or ‘98, he was Manitoba midget player of the year. Our twin girls played fastball, and Gail coached them right up until they started playing in Brandon with the Magic.”

Two of his grandsons won western Canadian championships this year, so the next generation of Whites have certainly arrived. Even with his impressive résumé, White was quick to downplay his efforts after hearing the news.

“That’s pretty nice,” White said. “I’m overwhelmed for sure. I never expected it at all. I just coached and drove the bus for years.”

The 1993-97 Farmers were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. Unfortunately, White knows what that means.

“It will be good,” White said. “I don’t like getting up and speaking, but I’ve been down to quite a few already. Our team was inducted, and quite a few of our players have been inducted over the years.”

MORRIS MOTT

Back in 1995, Mott was asked to help form the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame, and he joined the first board of directors a year later. Since then, he’s served on a variety of committees and as board chair from 2013 to 2020.

In fact, he’s played a role in all 28 induction banquets and, at Monday’s announcement, was made an honorary life member.

“I’m very grateful for it,” Mott said. “It’s like all these organizations, you become part of them and the years go by so fast. You don’t realize what’s happened until you wake up 30 years later.”

Mott mostly played in his home province of Saskatchewan, but after moving to Manitoba as an adult, he stayed in the game as a player and coach. He said the Hall is important because the game is important.

“The Hall of Fame is a focal point for people who are interested in the history of baseball and especially what it meant in the summertime in a province like Manitoba or Saskatchewan, where I grew up,” Mott said. “In the small Prairie towns, especially the agricultural communities, that was the sport we played, and to some extent it still is.

“… Baseball or softball, if you’re in a small town, those were the games that people played in the evenings and Sunday afternoons and drew the community together.”

The three Westman teams that earned the nod were:

• NEEPAWA AA MIDGET TEAM 2003 — After a 1-7 start in their own league against teams from Russell and Hamiota, they won a regional tournament to qualify for provincials and then took gold there too.

At the Western Canadian championship in Altona, they went 4-0 in round-robin play and beat North Battleford 5-0 behind Greg Hockin’s one-hit complete game.

They were later named Baseball Manitoba’s grassroots team of the year, and Hockin was chosen as midget player of the year.

• OIL DOME BANTAM A ALL STARS 1987 — The squad of 14- and 15-year-olds, which was coached by Craig McKinstry and Larry Nicholls, had players from Killarney, Lauder, Wawanesa, Pierson, Baldur and Souris, with pickups from Morden and Dauphin for the Western Canadian championship.

They were undefeated at provincials and attended western Canadians in Kelowna, B.C., where they were again unbeaten in the round-robin. That meant Alberta had to beat them twice to win the event, and while they lost the first game, they took the second game 13-1 to become champs.

They were later chosen as Baseball Manitoba’s team of the year.

• WESTERN MANITOBA JUNIOR ALL STARS A Westman all-star team was formed in 1971 from junior-aged players in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League, with Glennis Scott and Al Robertson as coaches. After winning back-to-back provincial championships, they went to the 1973 Canada Summer Games in Burnaby and New Westminster, B.C. They went 2-2 in the round-robin but beat Nova Scotia in the semifinals to advance to the gold-medal game, where they fell 5-2 to B.C. They are among four Manitoba teams to win silver at a Canada Summer Games. Manitoba has never taken gold.

There were also some individuals and teams from outside Westman that were recognized.

• ED KULYK — The Winnipegger has been an organizer and builder of the Elmwood Giants, while also serving as coach and manager. The Giants 22U AAA team has been a Manitoba Junior Baseball League finalist for 10 straight seasons and champions six times.

• DARRELL McELROY — The Darlingford product was a pitcher, catcher, infielder and dangerous power hitter who was a Border League all-star in 17 of the 20 years he played.

• GUY YERAMA — The Gilbert Plains product won provincials with his hometown team and nearby Grandview and later played and coached in the Manitoba Senior Baseball League and several other loops. From 1990 to 2010 he coached several Manitoba provincial teams, was the founder and first president of the Winnipeg Intermediate Baseball League in 1990, and helped form the University of Winnipeg team that played until 2017. In 2010, he moved to Toronto and continues to coach, having now helped more than 100 players reach college-level baseball.

• AL KINLEY — The Winnipegger was made an honorary life member for his work as a player, coach, administrator, and supporter of many sports, including football, hockey, lacrosse, and baseball. He joined the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame’s board of directors in 2004.

• WINNIPEG SOUTH CHIEFS AAA PEE WEE/BANTAM TEAM 2008-2010 — The club put together three remarkable seasons playing in the AAA Winnipeg Amateur Baseball Association and beyond at the peewee and bantam levels, compiling a record of 63-0 in league play and 134-13 in Canada. They won three WABA championships and two provincial championships, represented Manitoba at two nationals, and advanced to the medal round in one of them. They were twice honoured as Baseball Manitoba’s high-performance team of the year.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com