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----^ • 4 - Oroao Weekly Tiroes, Wednesday. July 19, 2000 Hwy 115 girls pull off last at-bat vittory Stacey Knight made her Other defensive gems in walks added three to her presence felt both offensively included two unassi sted put- total while Sarah Carter tallied and defensively last Tuesday outs in the first by third base- two, Henderson, Brenda Burt, night. At the plate, she was man Tricia Rylance. Gimblett, Rylance and Poole issued three walks scoring on In the second, Marley had one each, each. But it was her line drive Gimblett pounced on an Sarah Carter and Michelle single in the bottom of the infield hit throwing a strike to Henderson handled most of final inning that counted the Rylance at third for the second the pitching keeping Solina most enabling Hwy 115 to out of the inning. batters off the base paths for pull off a come-from-behind On offense, Katie O'Neill much of the game while 14-13 victory over Solina. was both lead-off hitter and Brenda Burt', Jenn Henderson Defensively, Knight made leading hitter going three-for- and Tricia Rylance were solid a heads-up grab in centre field four with a single and two behind the plate, firing it in to Katie O'Neill at triples driving in five mns. The girls play two games second who successfully Jennifer Henderson, Katie next week and two the week tagged the Solina 'runner try- Poole and Rylance all crossed after, both Monday and ing to stretch a single into a the plate twice. Tuesday evenings with three double. Knight, who leads the team of the four here in Orono. Orono sports in the good old days By Dean (Weiner) West For some time now, I've been meaning to put down on paper what it was like to play baseball and hockey in Orono back when my teammates and I were young--in the 40s and 50s. So, these are a few of my recollections. First I must say, that in both sports, my teammates and I always played as a team. We never ever thought of one, two or three guys being the best on the team. It was always an all- out team effort. And, like every other team, we too had our ups and downs. But throughout the years, we had an awful lot of fun and won ■ championships at the same time. Dane Found, (our great friend, manager and publicist in hockey) and Pete 'Oil Can' Mercer (manager of our baseball baseball team with Bill Carman) loved to watch us play and always called us 'their boys'. I have never written about our ball years until now, but I'll say this--we had a damn fine team for many years, winning winning two Intermediate 'C' championships in 1954 and 1957. Each year in the spring, we would always go down to the ball park and dig up the grass from around the bases so we'd have a good all-dirt infield. And, before every game, 'Oil Can' would take the Ford tractor tractor and drag the diamond before we'd mark it out and put the bases down. Now-a-days, field preparation preparation is done for the ball players--we players--we had to do it ourselves. One October during playoffs, playoffs, we travelled north-west to a place called Durham. Dane Found came with us and on the way up we stopped at a cemetery 30-40 miles south of Durham. We walked with Dane through a couple inches of snow trying to fipd the grave site of his mother or father. After that, we drove into Durham and located tire ball park. The infield was covered with sawdust which was used to soak up the water left by the melting snow. They shoveled it all off then raked the infield before we played and the diamond diamond was fairly dry. Another time during the first round of playoffs, we met up with a team from Coe Hill (south of Bancroft), They got a bye into the playoffs and game one was in Coe Hill. We found their diamond at the fairgrounds. WHAT A DIAMOND! We had to play on a grassy ball field equivalent equivalent to a pasture field! Needless to say, we won that game by a huge margin margin and Coe Hill never did return to Orono to finish the series. Now, switching to juvenile hockey in the 1946/47 season, we played a team from way up north in Possowan. We rented a bus (spectators came too) from Clare Gartin of Gartin's Coach - Line. We left Orono around eight in the morning and reached Possowan around eight that night. The bus was old and rickety compared to a school bus today and the roads leading there weren't very good. There was also a lot of snow on the ground. The game was played on a natural ice surface. They all were back then. They flooded the icé after the first period. It was so cold out you could do that. Another thing, the ice was smooth like glass and it was so clear you could see through it. We had to sharpen our skates before the second period started. It .was during that game in Possowan that I recall being on centre ice and looking back for. our goaltender, Pete Chamara. He wasn't in his net. I was surprised and wondered- where the heck he was, Pete always wore what we call a Russian fur hat. It must have fallen off or something because he left the net wide open when he went to retrieve it from somewhere near the boards. Nonchallantly, he picked it up and put it on as he skated back to his crease. Funny things happen in games of sport! Possowan eventually beat us out in a three game series. We used the Gartin Coach Line again when We played junior hockey. They were always very good to us. When we arrived home from a game, the bus driver would drop off every player and their girl friends too--right at their doorstep. The old arena where we played, was situated at the present site of the new Orono Arena and the dressing room was downstairs. Our players thought it would be a good idea to have a dressing room of our own, so, thanks mostly to Dane, we got it. And, before every game at about four o'clock, one of our players would go down to start a fire in the wood stove making sure the room was nice and warm when the rest of the team arrived to change into their equipment. Another thing I remember, was the number of times we played with only eight or nine players when we played intermediate intermediate hockey. It didn't matter matter though, we were always up for a challenge! In those days, our team (the Orono Orphans) was widely known in the Ontario hockey community and we had quite a following. Whether at home or on the road, we always had more faithful followers and supporters than any of the other teams. Because we practiced and played together for so long; we always knew what our line- mates were doing and where ----■in * i ' Î 2000 PONTYPOOL MEN'S SUNDAY LOB BALL LEAGUE Game Results for Sunday, July 16th Slime over Generals I 15 - 7 Blazers over Black Jacks 11 -9 J.P. Sports Bar over Pitbulls (Forfeit) 7 - 0 Mudhens over Titans 9 - 8 League Standings TEAM GP W L T RF RA +/- PTS Mudhens . 10 8 2 0 151 111 40 16 Blazers 10 7 3 0 139 114 25 14 J.P. Sports 10 7 3 0 197 99 98 14 Generals 10 6 4 0 191 115 76' 12 Slime 10 6 - 4 0 104 114 -10 12 Black Jacks 10 5 5 0 140 161 -21 10 Pitbulls 10 5 5 0 85 160' -75 2 Titans 10 0 , 10 0 76 209 -133 0 Schedule for Sunday, July 23rd 2:30 pm Generals vs Pitbulls 4:00 pm. J.P. Sports Bar vs Mudhens 5:30 pm ' Blazers vs Titans 7;00 pm . Black Jacks vs , Slime NOVICE GIRLS Win Loss Tie 4 Toronto Dominion Bank 3 4 1 Ozimek Industries 1 6 1 Hampton 7 1 Tyrone 4 4 PEEWEE GIRLS I Roy's Enterprise ■ 3 4 MacDonald Plumbing 2 4 1 G rayon Industries 1 6 1 Tyrone 6 2 Orono ' 7 ' 1 Hampton 2 4 BANTAM/MIDGET GIRLS Grant Morris Travel 9 1 * Hwy 115 Truck & Auto 7 1 Solina 1 5 5 Lange's Photo 5, 5 Solina 2 4 4. Tak Masters 4 5 Bowmanville Kinsmen 2 8 Frontier RV 1 8 they'd be. We developed a sys- respected in hockey circles of tern for scoring goals and got that time and our exploits were really good at it. I would skate well documented in the behind the net with the puck Toronto Star, the Statesman and whistle or yell "net". and our own Orono paper Then, one of my brothers • thanks to Dane. Even OMHA would be out front and I'd life member, Jack Christie either wrap around and poke it remembers Dane Found and in or pass it out front then the Orono Orphans, bang--in the net... most of the' In closing, I'd like to say I time anyway: We perfected it don't remember everything, long before Gretzky was bom but one thing I know for sure who made it his trademark. is, that sports in Orono in those Our system worked so well it days was the best--and I'm never failed to frustrate our sure that fans and players of opposition. As a result, the the day would agree to that! Orono Orphans were well '