Baseball

Baseball began in the Buck Lake district, before towns even existed. There was a commitment of our American settlers to the great game of baseball. A team in Gray was ‘a given’ until the late 1980’s and in spite of the small size of our community, these teams had significant success.
The local teams of the 1950’s to 1980’s era (as they represented the Community of Gray) were inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020.

Gray Sports Day - July 4

The first ever was organized by the Gray Grain Growers Association and held July 17 1912 on Walter Dunning property (northwest corner of town). Committees were recruited to sell tickets, operate a refreshment booth, obtain a band for entertainment, arrange the ball-games and small sports, manage the horse races and coordinate a tight wire acrobat act (a relative of the Howlett family). A huge undertaking and a great day!
We don't know what year the pioneers chose to begin hosting the annual event on July 4 - in partial deference to their baseball-loving forefathers from the USA. Until the mid-1980's July 4 was 'penciled in' as Gray Sports Day.
Here are a couple of concession summaries (1957 and 1973 from United Church Women refreshment committee reports - available for viewing at Gray Rink) of the number of volunteers (and pies) required to host a successful sports day.

Gray Sports Grounds

Sports Days were held on Dunning property until 1921 when the new sports ground was developed at the southeast end of town.
There was a platform constructed above home plate for the scorekeeper and announcer to oversee and call the action. Dugouts were added in later years.

The Booth

The booth was purchased from the defunct Milestone Agricultural Fair Board in 1936 and hauled to Gray. The octagonal structure served the community well. In 2024 the structure was painted (four sprayed coats soaked right in). A volunteer crew pressure washed the used tin, then removed shingles and cladded on a couple very hot days in July. The tin was initially on the Carl and Joan Gillis home in Avonlea and cladded by Dave Moats. Dave was called to remove/replace after hail damage the next year. This tin was reused on Dave's farm and brother Lee's. Lee saved the same tin when he removed some old wooden bins and offered it to the project. All we purchased was the paint and some new red screws. Add in 75 volunteer hours and it looks 'good as new'.
The pie shelf – homemade pie slices were well sought after – has been cleaned up and is now on display in the museum area at the rink.

Some recollections;

At a Riceton Sports Day "Smoky" Johnston was pitching with Pete Kawuza at catcher. The opposition (Gray) had Wylie LaFoy pitching with Wayne Lafoy defending the backstop. They knew each other's teams very well and with two of the best pitchers in southern Saskatchewan the score was 0-0 in the bottom of the 11th. Wylie must have made one of his 'rare' mistakes pitching with Paul Kawuza at bat because when the ball was hit, Wylie just took off his glove without looking back and walked off the field. He knew it was 'gone'! (Submitted by Manley LaFoy May 16, 2011)
Wylie LaFoy once punched the base runner as he approached home plate - knocking him on his duff.
Wylie LaFoy remained very involved in Gray baseball throughout his life - often heading to practices and in his later years taught a young Ken Steve how to throw a curve.
Ray Carnegie umped for years.
Gerald O'Brien was a long time scorekeeper/announcer.
In the 1920's a lot of Lafoy representation; George, Dutch, Wylie, Wayne, Jerry...
Stories often revolved around 'getting there' - sometimes being stuck in our local 'gumbo' mud and the whole team having to pull/push/whatever to get out. Then washing uniforms in a creek and hanging out the car windows in hopes they would dry enough to wear when they arrived.
Catchers over the years included; Morris Husband, Don Lewis, Dave Helstrom, Bill Carnegie and John Burwell
First baseman Mac Paton liked to recount the story of when pitcher Bill Gillis was making best efforts to keep a runner at first - looking him back more than once. He released his throw so quickly that the ball hit Mac right in the chest - he never made the mistake to not have his glove up and ready for a missile coming his way again.
A little-leaguer (Bill Carnegie) remembers watching the Sox... Don Lewis was in right field and chose to risk life and limb to catch a foul ball that was heading towards the ring of parked cars. Good news he made the catch. Bad news, he spiked the car on his way down. Probably more damage than the ball would have caused (although angles suggest - it may have missed the cars all together). Still, a great effort!
A Bucs version of uniform included a 'pillbox' ballcap (not sure the correct terminology). A 'star' crest was added for each 'dinger' (homerun)!

Quad Town The Forum article (May 21, 2020) recognizing Gray's induction into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Forum - Gray Baseball

Nomination for 2020 induction to Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.
Due to COVID - Induction re-scheduled to August 21, 2021

An era of some success for Gray baseball was in the late 1950’s. The Gray Sox were playing well and advancing to the final games at many Sports Days. One July they ended up playing 36 games in 31 days. In 1957 it never rained – there was no summer-fallow to work – let’s play ball. That year they attended as many tournaments as they could schedule. One very interesting weather weekend in July had the Milestone Sports Day on the 1st being so cold, the temperature didn’t make it over 4C all day. Coach John Lafoy learned his lesson and wore long underwear two days later to the Rouleau Sports Day. As luck would have it – it was 30C by noon. Needless to say, John found the outhouse to make a quick change. It was also some time in the late 1950’s that Gray ended up playing a young Riceton squad (a lot of their regulars couldn’t make it and it was a bunch of pick-up players). After just three innings with a lead of 18 – coaches decided to rest Dean Boesch and Bill Gillis arms and to put in Carl Gillis (who hadn’t done much pitching, but did manage to hang on for the win).

In 1959 a team from Plentywood Montana had seen Gray play at a number of tournaments and asked if they’d come down for an invitational game. Players were thrilled to have a chance to play ‘under the lights.’ The Saturday night game was a big deal for each and every player that attended. It is recalled that they lost by one run scored off of a Texas blooper – an off-field hit just over second base. The roster included Carl Gillis on first – he especially enjoyed his position when Manley LaFoy (a renowned player at the time) was at shortstop and Don Lewis was on third. Neither of them ever missed the glove. In fact, when Carl lost one of Don’s throws in the lights (after a great third baseline pick-up), he took a chance and just put his glove where the ball usually was and an ‘out’ was made. Gary Ford, one of the younger guys on the roster, played second. Dean Boesch (one of the hardest fastballs around) and Bill Gillis (Brock Burwell did not travel to Plentywood) each pitched some innings to Morris Husband at catcher. The outfielders were Norton Frei, Morley LaFoy and Ron Lewis. As the stories go, it was a magnificent trip - recollections included a lot of tales that didn’t take place on the ball diamond – Gary was not quite legal age to ‘attend’ all the post-game festivities, how many beer cans do you need to build a pyramid? the tales go on and on.

In the early 1960’s a couple good additions from the Riceton area (their local team folded at that time) were first baseman Mac Paton - at 6’4’ his reach saved many double plays and made his mitt ‘hard to miss’ for the infielders - and Danny Diekrager in the outfield. The ‘youngsters’ that began joining over the next several years were Bill Carnegie, Larry Ford, Grant Gillis, Dave Helstrom and Greg Kelly. Long time coaching was provided first by Ken Gillis (who played in the 1920-30’s) and John Lafoy and then by Ken’s son Bill and Morris Husband when their playing days were over. It was the mid 1960’s group that changed the team name to the Gophers (rumour has it that a few players were sitting around and saw a gopher and thought it was time for a name change). The next generation of players included; Cal Carnegie, Brian and Dwain Drew, Daryl Hannan (extremely good left-handed pitcher, won a lot of games when he pitched), Dale Henry, Bob Lewis, Herb Lewis, Don Mack, Larry Shostal and Armand Thompson.

Baseball was a commitment, and players took that seriously. One story suggests that a talented shortstop didn’t hesitate to commit to a day of ball when his wife was due. As it turns out he was able to drop her off at the hospital on his way out of town for the early game. Later in the afternoon while the players were having a post-event beverage one of the other wives asked “Don’t you think you should phone or something?” Manley replied “I’ve heard it takes a bit of time.” He finally phoned and discovered his son Marc was born at 11:00 a.m. and his wife was neither impressed with his response time, nor in hearing how the team had done.

Some players recall that no matter where they were traveling, Gray always seemed to get the 8am draw against the home team. A Gopher highlight in the mid-60’s was beating Lang in the first game of the Lang Sports Day – the result being that the home team would not be in the final that night. Lang had historically always been in the final (and usually won). The Gophers became quite competitive in the late 1960’s – this may have been in part because Riceton put together a team for a few years and they would play each other twice a week, in addition to the regular schedule of games and Sports Days.

As small-town teams often find, more than one generation is required to provide the manpower needed to field a team. As each new rookie (sometimes at 15 or 16) was joining the team, the ‘older’ guys would ensure mothers that their little boys would be well taken care of. So where one generation a Burwell mentored a Kelly, maybe the next generation a Kelly mentored a Boesch, and so on. Several of the retired players would still wander down for practices to play catch and hear the latest stories. Wylie LaFoy is remembered well, as he could throw with either hand – that must have been something for batters to deal with!

The end of the Gophers era included players that then became the Bucs in the mid-70’s; Kris Boesch, Steve Boesch, Chris and Jeff Bohlken, John Burwell, Greg Diekrager, Randy Frei, Doug and Ken Gillis, Duke Gooding, Mark and Terry Hendrickson, Don Henry, Rod and Todd Lewis, Doug McGillivray, Don McMorris, Murray Sinclair (moved to Gray to be the elevator agent and was an incredible pitcher, quite an addition to the team) and Ken Steve (an extremely talented left-handed pitcher, not many losses when he pitched). This era was coached by Larry Shostal. In these final years – 1970-1984 – the team perhaps didn’t have the success of the earlier versions, but still competed in the Soo Line League and attended the myriad of sports days around the area.

Gray Sports Day were ‘all-hands-on-deck’ to host the baseball and softball teams that were coming to town. Everyone got involved; grounds and booth clean up, volunteers scheduled, pies were baked, concession food ordered, carnival games planned, announcers and umpires recruited. People came from far and wide for the July 4th celebration.

We couldn’t mention everyone whoever donned a Gray baseball uniform. There were many people over the years that played ‘a bit’, others that were recruited by friends and family to complete a small-town roster, each of these participants helped to secure the legacy of baseball in Gray! Thanks to all.