Neepawa Tigers 1950 little leaguers
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- Published on Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Photo Courtesy of Neepawa Land of Plenty Heritage Book 1883-1983. Neepawa Tigers Little Baseball Club. First little league team organized outside of Winnipeg, 1950. Front Row, left to right: Murray Reid, Mervyn Brown, Mel McGregor, Wayne Murray, Don LeBoutillier, Cecil Pittman. Back Row, left to right: Stan Hudey, Kas Holod, Mervyn Pilkey. Missing: Coaches Jim Scott and Jim Bulloch, Manager Scotty McGregor.
By Rick Sparling
The Neepawa Press
Back in February of 2014, I wrote an article for the Neepawa Press about the 1950 Neepawa Tigers and how they were one of the first little league teams in Canada. Vince Leah had formed a league in Winnipeg and a few 水果视频 towns had established teams, Neepawa being one of them. There were teams in Brandon, Dauphin, Roblin, Gilbert Plains and Grandview as well. Interesting, seeing as Wikipedia says little league came into Canada in 1951, but had no record of 水果视频 ever having a little league.
Just Alberta and Saskatchewan were listed for the Prairies.
The Neepawa squad played some exhibition matches throughout the summer and played versus Brandon at Kinsman Stadium under the lights and had a home and away series against one of Vince Leah鈥檚 teams from Winnipeg. They played scrub teams with smaller towns around Neepawa and in many cases against older boys and could 鈥榟old their own鈥� even against those boys.
Vince had over 200 boys try out for what would be four teams in the city league with 15 on each team. After league play ended, they played off for the city championship and The Dominion News Maple Leafs won that championship. That league announced North and South All Star teams consisting of 15 players on each team. From those 30 players, 15 were selected to represent Winnipeg in what would be called The Little League World Series 鈥� A best of five series to determine the 1950 Little League Provincial Champions.
The series would take place over three days in Neepawa against the Neepawa Tigers.
The Tigers surprised their visitors in the first game of a double-header taking that game by a score of 8-6, but in the evening match, Winnipeg tied the series at a game apiece with a 13-8 win.
On day two, Winnipeg surged ahead in the series with a 9-4 win and in the evening game, Neepawa, in an extra inning, tied the series at two games each with a 7-6 victory in front of 1,500 spectators. The five games attracted over 4,000 fans!
With the deciding game played the next afternoon (after a morning swim and lunch up at Clear Lake), Neepawa opened the scoring with two runs in the first inning, but Winnipeg blew the game wide open with five in the second inning and five more in the third. Neepawa managed to score five more runs, but fell short and lost the game 11-7 and the series 3-2
Nevertheless, a valiant effort from the rural boys against what was hailed as the 鈥榙ream team鈥�.
Having heard that Winnipeg had claimed the 水果视频 Championship with their win over Neepawa, Dauphin set up a seven team tournament which they felt should determine the true 水果视频 championship. As it turned out, Dauphin won that tournament and now there were two 水果视频 champions. It was decided that there would be a best of five series between them and the winner would be the official 1950 Little League Champions. Winnipeg took the series in three straight and were declared the champions.
That was the beginning of little league for Neepawa. An exciting debut to say the least. Little league thrived for years in Neepawa and I remember when I played in 1957. We had four teams at that time. The Legion, the Lion鈥檚 Club, the Rotary Club and the Elks were the sponsors. I鈥檓 not certain when Baseball 水果视频 came into being, but I believe there is 鈥淏antam鈥� baseball still being played, although I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 called little league any longer, at least in 水果视频.
Neepawa has first little league ball in dominion
An item in Vince Leah鈥檚 sports column in a Winnipeg newspaper last week is of interest to Neepawa and district residents. Vince, who has many friends in this area, gave his readers the following information: 鈥淭here are 300,000 kids playing little league baseball in Canada and the United States, but we are still weary of reading the game was first played in Canada in Montreal, rubbish. Little league baseball, with Carl Stotz鈥檚 blessing, was started in Winnipeg in 1950. Flood interfered and we didn鈥檛 get going until June and Neepawa, under Jim Bullock, beat us to the gun. The first playoff in 水果视频 was held in Neepawa and had Stotz鈥檚 sanction. Dauphin started the same season and now the game is played through the province.鈥�
That was Kenny Framptons鈥� June 14, 1956 column. Vince Leah had it in the Tribune June 7.
