U18s donate pieces to Hall of Fame

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

When the U18 Oshawa Legionaires travelled to Cuba for a bout of spring training, it marked the first time a club from Oshawa had travelled to Caribbean soil. Now, the trip will be commemorated in the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame.

Prior to Oshawa’s home game on May 17, several items from the elite club’s trip south were donated to the Hall of Fame during a ceremony at Kinsmen Stadium. Baseball Oshawa legend Jim Lutton and Dan Walerowich, the hall of fame’s chair, were on hand to accept the items, which included the ball thrown for the first pitch, and the ball that garnered Oshawa its first base hit. A Canadian flag signed by both teams and a helmet belonging to the Cuban team’s shortstop will also find their way into the hall’s collection.

Team manager Daryl Macklem says it was the final day as the kids were saying their goodbyes that the Cuban player came forward with the offer.

“Players were exchanging a bunch of different baseball items – hats, jerseys, stuff like that – and their shortstop, who’s a very good player, expressed through a translator that he would like his helmet to come to our sports hall of fame,” Macklem says.

Despite the fact that Oshawa lost all four of their games to the strong Cuban team, Macklem says the trip will go down not only as a part of Oshawa sporting history, but will stand as a testament to the hard work of the players and parents to make it happen.

“I just think it commemorates the trip and what our players went through to make this happen and our parents went through to make this happen and it shows that Baseball Oshawa is interested in making memorable experiences for players,” he says.  “It’s not just about getting on the field and playing the game, it’s a little bit more than that.”

Following the ceremony, Oshawa would go on to lose a tight 5-4 matchup to the North York Tigers, a result that Macklem says his club didn’t deserve after a strong performance.

“It was a tough one to lose. I thought our guys played well and I thought they deserved a better outcome,” he says.

The Legionaires were also cut short after seven innings (as opposed to the usual nine played by the U18s), when the umpires called the game, saying they had exceeded its time limit.