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tribune september 21 1988 c9 by bruce stapley the stouffville cardinals are planning a reunion 30 years after capturing their ontario hardball championship in 1958 coorganizer gord eckardt reports he is confident there will be close to a 100 per cent turn out for the event which will be held at the home of murray stewart in lincolnville oct 1 stewart was one of the coaches of the cardinals all the players had probably been thinking about it says eckardt of the planned get together i ran into bob stover who played on the team down at the park at the fireworks during the strawberry festival and suggested we get the team together he said lets go for if eckardt who played first base and catcher on the team sat down with stover and stewart to put the plans together we sent a letter out to all the players he says everyone said theyd cancel everything they had planned so they could be there he reports that only one player lyn taylor is uncertain taylor who played second base on the award winning team of 58 resides in british columbia but i wouldnt be surprised to see him show up smiles eckardt the event will consist of a barbecue at four oclock for the players and their wives folowed by a period from eight oclock on where friends and members of other old stouffville ball teams like the red sox will be welcome to come over for coffee and corn on the cob were going to try to put together as much memorabilia about the team as possible says eckardt i understand bob stover still has his uniform mine is missing unfortunately i gave it to someone who said they were putting a ball team together a while back and i dont remember who it was its gone now he hopes to gather old tribune press clippings and feels the papers editor jim thomas will share in the enthusiasm of such a project because of his own per sonal involvement with the team jim would do the announcing for our home games from behind thescreen he recalls he says all the players will be contacted again before the reu nion to confirm that theyll be there he is hopeful there may be a few surprises such as a surviv ing film clips of the cardinals in action i remember one woman taking some film footage of us but she is dead now so i doubt the film would have survived eckardt asks anyone who either has some film or knows someone who does to contact him or the other organizers of the reunion eckardt says a team photograph will be taken at the reunion with each player and coach in the same position they were in when the team was photographed by ted cadieux after they won the championship in 58 im sure none of us has changed so it should look just about the same he laughs apart from taylor most players live within striking distance of stouffville- with several still living locally harold hodgson a coach with the team lives in stouffville as do third baseman ross madill outfielder ted suzuki and stover and eckardt pitcher harry barber will be coming from elora and murray holden who also pitched resides in campbellford outfielder john little lives in peterborough lawrence wideman is in belleville erik barber calls ux- bridge home and don haynesis from toronto it should be a lot of laughs concludes eckardt i rekai johnson barristers solicitors 49 main street east 2nd floor stouffville ontario 6408100 or 6493555 sports leasing todays easy way to drive larry cotter leasing 6404541 all makes and models a metroland community newspaper player remembers by bruce stapley this year marks the 30th an niversary of the season the stouf fville cardinals won the ontario junior c hardball champion ships bob stover who played se cond base and right field for the team that captured the provin cial title with an exciting two games to one series victory over wheatley still has both his memories and his uniform the loretta crescent south resident provided us with the ac companying team photo and some of his recollections of the gritty cardinals in a recent interview it started in 1953 we were a midget team recalls bob of the collection of ball players who would go on to make up the car dinals in that championship year in 1956 we won the north york championships and went to the semitihals in the ontario baseball association playoffs v the group stuck together go ing up the ranks from midget to juvenile then on to junior where they became the car dinals the team would eventual ly make the step up to the in termediate level under roger todds leadership carrying on until the mid 1960s when hard ball disappeared in stouffville the cardinals were made up of a bunch of guys who wanted to win and play ball well accor ding to bob there were no par ticular individuals who stood out on the team we had a lot of fun and really enjoyed playing ball the 1958 champs got solid pit ching from harry barber a righthanded fireballer and mur ray holden a ieftie with a lot of stuff and don haynes was an ex ceptional catcher says bob he was a great athlete and a real team leader he also recalls that second baseman lynn taylor who would be called upon to pitch in relief on occasion was an impec cable infielder the coaches harold ike hodgson and mur ray stewart always maintained high expectations for the club and were always insistent the players show hustle running on and off the field the big season saw the car dinals fight their way to the top of a league that was comprised of teams from such towns as markham unionville thornhill and aurora they would go on to knock off durham newcastle caledon and hagersville before locking horns with wheatley in the pro vincial finals bob remembers the hard time the cardinals were given in hagersville they had us change in an old chicken coop then there were adults flashing mirrors at us from the stands during the game but they managed to prevail and hosted wheatley in game one of the finals which the cardinals lost 20 we werent hitting well at all that game the first run was the result of walks and the the stouffville cardinals circa 1958 the team is holding their 30th anniversary celebrations this october to commemorate the ontario hardball title they won that year from left at rear are murray stewart coach ted suzuki eric barber murray holden john little boss madill harold hodgson coach in front from left are lyn taylor bob stover harry barber don haynes lawrence wideman and gord eckardt second run scored when a stouff ville outfielder tried to make a shoe string catch only to have the ball get passed him y extra batting practice payed big dividends in game two in wheatley with the cardinals running off with the contest 163 we had eight or nine runs in the first three innings says bob we were really on a high the third game was played on neutral turf in port dover it was a much tighter game we won 53 but it wasnt over til the very end bob credits coach stewart for helping the cardinals become the best team they possibly could he was a good ball player himself he taught us how to turn the double play to and run and to do the squeeze play bob remembers a playoff game where the squeeze was called when he was on third base with slugger ross madill at the plate the pitcher took a long slow wind up i was six feet from the plate by the time he finally let the ball go i was just hoping madill had caught the coaches sign but he just stepped out of my way and i slid in with the run the cardinals would be taken down to maple leaf stadium in toronto to watch the old maple leafs of the international league and to cleveland and detroit to watch major league baseball when they played games in western ontario bob who was 19 when the car dinals won it all recalls that he was employed in his fathers bake shop that year most of the guys were working and i think there were two of them who were heading off to university bob is now employed as a human relations specialist with he york board of education it was a lot of fun he con cludes of his days as one of the stouffville boys of summer the players played good ball and the crowds were always there watching gord eckardt prepares for flood of club championship memories gord eckardt as he appeared with the stouffville cardinals in 1958 by bruce stapley gord eckardt sits at his big desk sifting through quotes and sketches of the gravel pit machines his company produces but the 48yearold president of assinck bros ltd is more con cerned for the moment anyway aboul the upcoming reunion of the 1958 ontario junior c cham pionship stouffville cardinals hardball team he played first base for the team that beat wheatley two games to one in the finals hat year coming back to win the last two games after bowing 20 in the first contest born and raised just east of stouffville gord was an 18-year- old just finishing high school the year the cardinals won it all it was pretty well the same team that had been together since murray stewart coach brought us together as a bantam team 5 years earlier says gord he kept the same guys together through junior he distinctly remembers the thrill of winning the deciding game 53 in port dover which was selected as a neutral site for the rubber match of the series but he also recalls how the first game played in stouffville had to be restarted after it was discovered the pitching rubber was six inches closer to home plale than regulation we were winning 21 at the time the other coach asked for a measurement when it was found to be out by six inches we had to dig it up and start again after winning game two by a 163 score coach stewart told the cardinals that if they won the final game they would head to cleveland on tlie way home to watch an indians game that trip brings a chuckle from gord today we were all 1718 years old he says we got to cleveland not knowing much about the city we stayed at a hotel near the ball park that cost us about 20 for the whole team it wasnt one of he best hotels and it wasnt the best neighbourhood but we survived it when the cardinals returned triumphantly to stouffville gord recalls how fire chief walt smith met them with the fire truck and that a parade was arranged the town presented us all with a wrist watch with our name engraved on the back eckardt remembers that the team was basically self suffi cient having to rely upon their own fund raising efforts to stay afloat back then teams were financed by passing the hat at games wc couldnt afford to use the lights at the park so we would play from seven oclock until nine and sometimes we would only get in six or seven innings monies raised by their own means or from generous stouff ville businessmen were used for buying equipment he recalls that the team would go to any lengths to stretch what little funds they had we were supposed to provide two baseballs for each home game he smiles wed put in a new one and another one that was almost new wed try to save the new one for when the sun started to go down so wed be able to sec it belter eckardts own life has changed as much as the nature of ball in stouffville after finishing high school he went to work at his fathers saw mill in the area my dad died in 1961 and the lumber industry dwindled after running the mill himself for a few years he went to work briefly for stouffville sand and gravel and then started with assinck bros in 1963 i started as a welder sweeper painter whatever had to be done i did it eventually he and several other employees bought out the original owners and he finally assumed the position of presi dent the company manufac tures aggregate equipment for gravel pits across canada today eckardt still retains the pleasant memories of his day in the sun as a provincial champion his dream achieved he admits life doesnt provide many oppor tunities for taking in ball games what with his business obliga tions which include considerable travel gord eckardt as he is today