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Page 22 THE HERALD Jane IMS From snow to Dome Whitt tells Blue Jays saga By VINCENT EGAN The opening of the SkyDome in Toronto the first sports stadium to have a fully retractable roof is a remarkable tribute to Cana dians love of major- league baseball Since the advent of the Montreal Expos in and the Toronto Blue Jays in the game has flourish ed to such an extent that both cities have had to meet the demand for bigger and better Just one player on the Blue Jays has been with that organization since it won an expansion fran chise and no one is better equip ped to relate the story of the Toron to team at first hand Emie besides having top seniority has the insights that come from playing the pivotal position on the team catcher His absorbing new book written with Toronto editor Greg Cable is call ed Catch A Major League Life McGrawHill 271 pages THREE DIMENSIONS The structure of Whitts book is a chronological account of the Jays 1988 season one chapter per month Within that framework Close games for tykes Two close games were played in the GBA Tyke league on June 13 On one diamond Team I played Team III For Team I Mike and Mike Kitchen both had doubles and Matt hit a homerun Good pitching from Danny Mike and Matt For Team III Mark pitched two good innings Stuart Scotford had a great catch in the outfield which started a double play Chris Gosselin stole home to score the winning run On the other diamond Team beatTeamlV76 For Team V Khris Bishop hit two RBIs and had a good fly ball catch Blair Jackson and Sam SouthworUi turned in some good pitching For Team II doubles were scored by Shawn Barnes Darren Mansfield and Adam Jackson Scot Connell had two Good pitching by Stephen Gibbons Garrett Norman and Daniel Estevan On June 15 Team played Team I for another close game with Team I winning Far Team I Kyle Springer hit a double and Mike a triple Pitcher Mike Walinga made a nice throw to catcher Mike Kit chen for an out Paul Farmer made a good play at first for the final out For Team II Garrett Norman and Shawn Barnes had doubles while Daniel hit a grand slam Shawn Barnes had two while Scot Connell and Dar ren Mansfield had one each Canada Day bowls July 1 By KEN BAKER Herald Special July marked a major event for lawn bowlers across Canada On that day we united in support of the Child Amputee Program or CHAMPS funded by the War Amputees of Canada which provides assistance to help more than 1200 child amputees and their families meet the daily challenges of amputation Once again this year the Georgetown Lawn Bowling Club will be hosting its third annual Canada Bowls Challenge tourna ment In what has become a very successful event locally area service clubs have been invited to send representatives to bowl as part of a team in a fun day of bowling Funds from the day and any donations received are used to assist in the acquisition of specialized sports limbs for children in the CHAMP program Last year with the generous sup port of the participating clubs as well as area businesses such as Bellamys and The Copper Kettle who supplied prizes was As well as assisting an ex tremely worthwhile program it provides people with a positive introduction to the sport of Bowls Additional information on this particular chanty event or on the sport itself is available at the greens on Edith Street or by tacting any club member or by calling Ken Baker at 8770939 however he has added two other dimensions reminiscences about past years team highlights and lowlights of course in which he was involved and an autobiographical account of his longterm development as a tough smart highly paid ballplayer an offseason entrepreneur and a father and husband from Detroit with no claims to perfection writes plainly and simply with what appears to be complete honesty and a willingness to admit his own shortcomings He is no less frank in discussing his teammates Nearly 200 men have worn the uniform of the Toronto Blue Jays since that snowy opening day April 1977 including about 20 catchers None but Ernie Whitt has earned the place of honor that goes to the last of the originals He was a 24- yearold unknown with the Boston Red Sox in late 1976 when Toronto a 1977 expansion entry made him its selection in the draft of players from existing teams UPS AND DOWNS was to put in a few seasons of ups and downs between the dreadful Toronto team of the late 1970s and the minorleague farm teams where he never earned more than a month for a fivemonth season One reason he languished was that the Jays first manager the totally ineffective Roy had simply decided that Whitt would never be a majorleague player The unfortunate sfield after being fired by Toronto at the end of the season couldnt find another baseball post He took a job in an Atlanta printing plant only to lose part of a finger inan industrial accident Whitt reached fulfilment as a catcher during the era of Bobby Cox the only manager of big- league calibre that the Jays ever had In the last of his four years in Toronto Cox led the Jays to the championship of the American League Eastern Division only to suffer defeat in the league- championship series against Kan sas City Royals vivid ac count of that rollercoaster ride br ings back bittersweet memories Toward the end of the Jays season suffered a painful disabling injury in a homeplate collision and the team fell short of winning the divisional title to which it had seemed to be heading WHAT IT TAKES To be a majorleague catcher writes you certainly have to be tough and learn to take punishment of all kinds But its a position that I wouldnt change for anything A catcher has to know how to with his pitchers per sonalities and talents how to assess the strengths and weaknesses of opposing batters where to position his teammates in the infield and outfield and what kind of relationship to establish with the umpire who is leaning over his shoulder Although fans think of umpires as the natural enemies of Whitt has praise for such veterans as Larry Bamett Ken Kaiser and Steve On the other hand he rates Joe Brinkman as in competent charging that the um pire hates the Toronto club and of fers some highly persuasive evidence from games that Brinkman has officiated As for the 1988 season which pro vides the framework for the book confirms what the fans could see from the bleachers that team spirit was low to nonexistent that certain pampered players were ex erting only a minimum of effort and that even thenmanager Jimy Williams and the coaching staff seemed to have turned defeatist by August Somehow the team caught fire in the final month of the season but by then it was too late to catch up In a couple of days Whitt will reach the age of 37 Thats an ad vanced age for a player who takes the physical battering that a cat cher endures and yet some cat chers Carlton Bob Boone and others have lasted into their A reading of Catch makes Era e Whitt seem like a good friend Most buyers of the book will therefore hope that playing in the SkyDome and under a new manager Whitt will achieve his ambition of roun ding out his career with the Blue Jays and extending that career in to the next decade Vincent Egan an avid baseball fan is a columnist with Thomson Newsservice Georgetown Inc 1 99Guelph Street Georgetown 4A8 Telephone 416 8775285 Toronto 8460910 Norm Armstrong Sales Manager I RITERION ARPET RUG CO LTD See Our New Summer Hours MonSat pm Closed Sunday LANDSCAPE DESIGN