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ORIGINAL STORY by Robin Short, The Telegram
These days, Colin Abbott is another minor baseball coach, filling out the lineup card each weekend. Odds are the kids on his St. John’s Capitals peewee team don’t quite understand how good an athlete their coach was back in his heyday.
© File photo
Colin Abbott of Portugal Cove played for the Canada’s senior men’s softball team 15 times, winning five medals — including two gold — and earning MVP honours three times. Abbott is being inducted into the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame this weekend in South Bend, Ind.
And just how good was Colin Abbott on the softball diamond?
Well, to suggest he was one of the world’s best hitters — yes, the world — is not a stretch.
It’s why, on Sunday, the Portugal Cove product will become the first Newfoundlander inducted into the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame when South Bend, Ind., more commonly known as home to Knute Rockne and the University of Notre Dame, will be Softball Central with the ISC world championships scheduled.
“It’s a great honour,†Abbott said Thursday. “And to be honest, it’s pretty cool that guys like Jason Hill and Stephen Mullaley and Sean Cleary and a bunch of others are doing the same thing today. It’s a great honour to see them coming behind me.
“I don’t see myself as a trail blazer or anything,â€â€ˆhe said, “but if I had any hand in the players today getting a break (and playing at the ISC level), that’s all great.â€
A 2014 Sport Newfoundland and Labrador Hall of Famer, Abbott’s career stats at the ISC level include a gaudy .337 batting average, and he’s the ISC all-time leader in hits (120), runs batted in (86) and plate appearances (326). He’s second in home runs (26) and doubles (24) while toiling mostly for Wisconsin-based teams.
Twice Abbott’s Madison Farm Tavern club won the ISC championship (1999 and 2007), and he was also part of the Green Bay All-Car Roadrunners championship run in 1994.
He appeared in a total of 18 ISC championships.
On the international level, Abbott was the “straw that stirs the drinkâ€, as another notable slugger — Reggie Jackson — once famously coined, with the national senior men’s fastpitch softball team.
He represented Canada 15 times, winning two gold medals, a pair of silver medals and a bronze medal at International Softball Federation and Pan American championships, and copped three MVP awards, a tournament batting title and an array of all-tournament team selections.
Abbott was initially noticed as a midget-aged player in 1988 when the Fred Jackson-coached Newfoundland team won the Canadian championship. The following year, Abbott was a star on the team representing the province at the Saskatoon Canada Summer Games.
Abbott was invited to play in Lloydminster, Sask., the following summer, and from there his softball career took off.
“I remember Jason Hill was our batboy, and here he is winning ISC championships and Pan Am Games gold medals,†he said.
“We’ve shown we can play with the big boys, and it’s not just softball. Look at Ryane Clowe and Michael Ryder, and Carl English in basketball. We can play.
“I’m just a guy from Portugal Cove and if someone looks at me and says, ‘If he can do it, why can’t I?’, then that works for me.â€
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rshort@thetelegram.com
