LMB History Project
Little Mountain Baseball History Notes
By Kit Fortune
1950s Vancouver Jaycee Little League Crest (precursor to LMB)
• 1951: Vancouver Jaycee Little League. The first permanent Little League chartered outside of the United States was formed at Little Mountain, Hillcrest Park (our stadium). It was called Vancouver Jaycee Little League. Subsequently, in the early 1950s it became two leagues: Jaycee National League and Jaycee American League. With other leagues beginning to be formed around the city and the lower mainland, it then became the one league which we have today: Little Mountain Baseball.
• 1953: Little League World Series: If you were at Opening Day of LMB last April, you saw some members of the 1953 LMB team that went to Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvannia. They are now in their late 60s. This was the first team from BC, and is the only Vancouver team that has ever gone to Williamsport. There have been other Lower Mainland teams: Whalley, Kennedy- Surrey, White Rock, Coquitlam, Langley, and Lynn Valley which have made it, but only LMB from Vancouver. From BC, Trail and Whalley are tied with the most visits, having gone to Williamsport 5 times. White Rock, a strong recent up-and-comer, has gone twice in the last two years. Whalley’s first trip to Williamsport in 1973, 20 years after the LMB team went, had an LMB connection: Jerry Atamanchuk LMB coach, played for Whalley and pitched a 2-0 shutout against Mexico, a game in which he only gave up 2 hits. Jerry also came in as a relief pitcher in Whalley’s first game against the US South team (Tampa, Florida), a game Whalley lost 11-2.
• 1953: LMB on film: “Eyewitness No. 54: Ball Stars start Young (NFB)” Daryl Duke, a Vancouver Film producer/director made a short film called Eyewitness No. 54 which included a segment about LMB (then called Jaycee Little League) for the NFB.” The piece was called Ball Stars Start Young. Duke, who became a well known Hollywood film and TV director – “The Thorn Birds”, etc, --originated the first television shows from the CBC in Vancouver, which went on the air for the first time in 1953. The short LMB film focused on a small 8-year-old LMB player, Don Ricketts*, who was used by one of the coaches for a late inning strategy: in a tight game in late innings with bases loaded, Don was put in as a pinch hitter. He was already quite small, but he was instructed to crouch in his batting stance so that it was almost impossible to throw strikes because of the miniscule strike zone. Invariably, Don got a walk which brought in the winning or tying run. The strategy drew some local notoriety which led to this film. This idea of putting a small batter up to the plate was also famously used in the major leagues. In 1951 Bill Veeck, owner of the St Louis Browns, had a midget – who also crouched – come to the plate to guarantee a walk in a tight game. He got the walk on four pitches.
* Don Ricketts was one of those who attended our LMB opening day last April. He had been the 8–year-old batboy of the 1953 LMB Little League World Series team.
“Ball Stars Start Young: In Vancouver's Little League, baseball players, diamond and equipment are junior size, but not the boys' coaches or the eagerness of teams and fans.”… promo for the film.
Images From the movie:
Don Ricketts at bat in the late innings (2 photos).
Unnamed pitcher captured for the film .
Fans at LMB in the early 1950s
(1500 fans attended the inaugural opening day in 1951. 3000 fans attended the 1952 opening day!)
** Note: According to Jake Kerr, co-owner of the Vancouver Canadians baseball club, he remembers that Little League games from Little Mountain were broadcast on the radio back in the early 1950s!
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The yet-to-be-famous who played at Little Mountain Baseball:
• 1960s: Starting in 1963, and for a number of years, Dave McKay, presently 1st base coach for the St Louis Cardinals, grew up in Mt Pleasant and played youth baseball at Hillcrest Park.
Dave was the Toronto Blue Jays' starting third baseman in their first-ever game in franchise history in 1977 – he went 2 for 4 that day, in the snow. He also played infield for the Minnesota Twins and the Oakland Athletics.
Dave McKay 1977 Topps Baseball card.
The 2008 season was Dave’s 25th consecutive year as a major league coach, a tenure spent with two teams: the Athletics (1984-95) and St. Louis Cardinals (since 1996). He has been associated with Tony LaRussa since the 1986 season, and has coached on five pennant-winning and two world championship teams — the 1989 Athletics and the 2006 Cardinals.
He was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, along with Expo great, Gary Carter.
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Dave McKay as first base coach for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2008
NHL greats played at LMB!
• 1981: LMB hosted the Canadian Championships in 1981. The team representing the Ontario Little League – Rouyn, had three players who played at LMB that year and later became famous NHL hockey players: Pierre Turgeon (Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens,…) drafted 1st overall in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, Eric Desjardins (Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers) who in the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals scored all of Montreal's goals in a 3–2 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings, a game also marked by Marty McSorley's illegal stick penalty, and Stephane Matteau (New York Rangers,..) who scored two overtime winning goals in the 1994 Eastern Conference finals against New Jersey and played an important role in the New York Rangers Stanley Cup win over the Vancouver Canucks in 1994.
Current Major League Players who have played on our field at Little Mountain
#1 Jason Bay
• 1991: Major leaguer, Jason Bay of the Boston Red Sox (previously Pittsburgh Pirates NL Rookie of the year, 2004), played Little League in Trail, BC, which you may know. However, you may not know he played at our LMB diamond in the 1991 Canadian Championships. See photos. In 1991, Bay’s Trail team won the provincials at LMB, but lost to Glace Bay for the Canadian Championship to go to Williamsport. Interestingly, Bay actually did get to the LL World Series the year before in 1990 when he was an 11-year-old, as Trail represented Canada at Williamsport that year.
Ti
** Note: This is the first in a series of current and past major league baseball players who have had a connection to Little Mountain Baseball.
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Other stories on LMB history to come in future newletters, or on the website:
• the debate on the claim as to which Little League was the first in Canada.
• A feature story on the 1953 LMB team that went to Williamsport for the Little League World Series.
• Interesting facts from Little League and the LL World Series: Questions: Who has won the most world series? Has Canada ever won? When were girls officially allowed to participate in the world series? What Canadian major league baseball players have played in Williamsport? When were aluminum bats introduced? Scams and deceptions in LL world series history…and more.
Post Season Notes:
• Little Mountain will be hosting the 2009 9-10 BC provincial Championships next July. This will be a big event and plans and preparations are presently underway. Last season’s 9-10 LMB
all- stars did a great job and made it to the final of this tournament in Victoria.
• The 2011 Canadian Little League Championships have been awarded to District 5 Little League (North Vancouver). It’s a ways off, after the Olympics, but this will be a great event to look towards in our backyard.
Kit Fortune is LMB’s historian. He played himself at LMB 50 years ago and presently coaches here. He continues to coordinate the LMB History Project and asks that anyone who has any historical material they would like to share: stories, photos, memorabilia, etc. to contact him at fortune@vcn.bc.ca
Nov 18, 2008
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