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k jturkftam as condftiomng systems l728ubockdrive imt27marui3m 4711748 tribune focus community sports leisure entertainment serving whitchurch stouffville uxbridge area i 220w success greens s of stouffville your neighbourhood meeting place fa metroland community newspaper wednesday june 14 1989 i earl cook by bruce staple y farmer sows eld of d earl cook managed to do what few canadian boys have ever been able to achieve s lemon ville farmer earl cook sits back in the weatherbeaten garden chair under the chestnut tree that stands beside his home of 76 years and while he speaks of life in the humble manner one might expect of an 81yearold farmer who still helps tend the fields if given enough time he will begin to speak of days spent under the sun cultivating other interests on a different fyjpe of field years ago rfor earl managed to do what few canadian boys have ever been able to achieve a 15year professional baseball career in the 1930s and 40s complete with a twoinning major league stint that saw him pitch to joe dimaggio in yankee stadium in 1941 still lives in his memory so does the day he walked up to babe criith during an exhibition game and asked the legend for an autograph and just like doc moonlight graham in this years oscarbound film field of dreams earl is quite happy to leave the whole thing as a distant recollection in fact he cant even remember the last time he threw a baseball it was with my daughter i remember that he says but i dont know when it was a little more prodding though and the righthander they used to call the lemonville farmer digs out the old scrapbook along with a few personal mementoes for all intents and purposes a career minor leaguer earl was once on the roster of the cincinatti reds then the detroit tigers training with the ohio team in puerto rico one spring but clippings from old newspapers datelined buffalo portland and even toronto tell the story of a triplea league pit- ceher who made them all stand up and take notice cv i was one of the last pitchers to pitch two games in one day he recalls i pitched both games of a double header twhen i was with buffalo of the international league won them both by a 20 shutout then i went back out two days 3ater and pitched another shutout and sure enough the yellowed newsprint backs up his claim another clipping tells of his eightgame winning streak while yet another relates a big playoff pitching triumph for earl then there are the writeups of games he pitched during his first year of pro ball when he racked up an 119 wonlost record with the old toronto maple leafs and while his 15 years of triplea ball made him a name in places like toronto syracuse and beaumont texas those jiving in stouffville in the late 1920s and mid1940s will remember earl as a premier local pitcher earl went to the provincial baseball finals on more than one occasion as a member of the old stouffville red sox a team that included another stouffville expro stan miller as well as bob hassard who played hockey for the toronto jmaple leafs 5 in fact it was while he was with the sox that an umpire spotted him and recommended earl to a top toronto amateur team which led to his being signed by the baseball leafs today earl says he rarely thinks about his days as a ball player but hes a keen fan who catches his share of ball games on television he rates the big leaguers and hes not above being a little critical if he thinks a player isnt putting out ive got the blue jays sized up i know how id pitch to each batter he says and he still has the utmost respect for the game of baseball its a thinking game he observes you realize that the older you get earl says hes still in pretty good health although a bad hip has restricted his mobility if it werent for that id feel the same as i did 25 years ago he notes i feel good lemonville farmer earl cook remembers fondly a 15year professional baseball career in the 1930s and 40s complete with a twoinning major league stint that saw him pitch to joe dimaggio in yankee stadium in 1941 right cook in his heyday pitching for the toronto maple leafs summitview fixture retiring see c9 hhrbpphqi pigeon controversy there is a dispute in stouffville his week over a local man who wishes to keep pigeons in his backyard the story is in the news section of the tribune today other stories in the tribunes a section include details of a weekend accident that killed an uxbridge boy details of a local boy who received burns to 45 per cent of his body as the result of an incident at a gss station i to get these stories and more subscribe to the tribune call our distribution department at 6402100 to subscribe to the whole newspaper horticulture group still blooming see c15 t sn t tot flftr a3v