ISC HALL OF FAME – CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CLASS OF 2019

August 12, 2019

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ISC HALL OF FAME – INTERNATIONAL FLAIR FOR CLASS OF 2019

 

See the 2019 Program!

By John Thompson

The International Softball Congress Hall of Fame Selection Committee is pleased to confirm that the ISC Board of Directors approved a slate of five worthy nominees for induction into the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame as the Class of 2019. The inductees include three players, a field manager and a recipient of the Bob Welby Memorial “Recognition of Service” Award.

 

PLAYERS:

Korrey Gareau – Cobble Hill BC, CANADA
Korrey Gareau, 46, has the stats and the hardware typical of many pitchers who are current members of the ISC Hall of Fame.
While participating for six different ISC teams spanning 21 seasons, Korrey’s durability is obvious. He played in 16 ISC World Tournaments, from Summerside PEI in 1994 to Kitchener ON in 2014, and was voted All-World honors seven times, six of them on the first team.
Korrey’s finest era was as a member of the 2005-08 Madison WI Farm Tavern (AW all four years) highlighted in 2007 as he led “the farmers” to the ISC Crown, defeating So Cal Bombers in the championship tilt. Korrey was “pitcher perfect” with an unblemished 5-0 record, amassing 41 strike-outs in 32’ innings while posting a highly respectable 1.08 ERA. In recognition Korrey was awarded, for the second time, the Leroy Zimmerman Outstanding Pitcher Award.
Two years earlier, Korrey was the undefeated (6-0) Top Pitcher as The Farm Tavern, in the championship tilt, relinquished a 7th inning three-run lead to lose to Marathon WI County Materials 4-3 in an extra frame. In 38 innings, Korrey set down 69 batters via strike-outs, and had an ERA of 1.46.
Other teams for whom he toed the rubber, and was named to the All-World Teams, include 1994-98 Victoria BC Legends (AW 1997), 1999 Portage WI 51 Classics, 2000-2003 Tampa Bay Smokers (AW 2001), 2004 Kitchener ON Hallman Twins, and 2014 Invermere BC Randy’s A’s (AW 20014)
Korrey is among the top ten pitchers in ISC history, amassing 40 wins from 1995-2014.
As well, Korrey was an impact pitcher with Team Canada (1999-2008) and also a member of three Canadian National Championship Teams with Victoria BC Money Mart (1994), Victoria BC Legends (1997) and Vancouver Grey Sox (2007).

 

Patrick Shannon – Waitakere NEW ZEALAND
Hear Ye, Hear Ye – the following are the Hall of Fame required credentials: - solid, effective and consistent defence; impactful and timely offence; propensity of placing others above self and simply being a noble and unselfish team-mate.
Those attributes are embodied by 43-year-old Patrick Shannon, who had awesome softball skills and was a definitive “five tool” player possessing speed, power, hitting for average, fielding and arm strength.
He made his presence felt in every game in which he participated.
Four ISC Championship rings could adorn one of Patrick’s hands, and ten ISC All-World plaques would fill his trophy cabinet.
Patrick was a significant contributor to a quartet of ISC World Championship teams, twice winning back-to-back titles with Marathon WI County Materials (2005-06) and Kitchener ON Rivershark Twins (2008-09).
Spanning a dozen ISC World Tournaments from 2001-12, Patrick was named to All-World Teams ten times (tied for the 5th most) including seven 1st team selections.
At the plate, in 82 games Patrick amassed 74 hits, 63 RBIs, an on-base percentage of .449 and an awe-inspiring 23 home runs. Most of the dingers occurred in dramatic fashion when the game “was on the line”.
Behind the plate, while handling many of the greatest pitchers in the sport – including international hard-throwing hurlers Aussie Andrew Kirkpatrick, Argentinean Lucas Mata and Canadians Todd Martin and Frank Cox – Patrick committed only three errors in his career, a phenomenal .996 fielding percentage.
Internationally, as a member (1996 – 2013) of the New Zealand Black Sox, Patrick has gold medals from the 2004 (Christchurch NZ), 2009 (Saskatoon SK Canada) and 2013 (Auckland NZ) World Championships.
Many players have stated “Patty may have been the best team-mate I ever had” and has oft been described as “an even better person on and off the diamond”.
Quite simply – Patrick Shannon is one of the best to ever play the game.

 

Jim Wana, Wellington NEW ZEALAND
Broadening his horizons as a teenage athlete in the late 1980s, Jim Wana, now 49, (formerly Jim Seaman as listed in the ISC Championship Guides), traversed the oceans to further his softball skills during the North American summers.
Jim was introduced to softball on a New Zealand army base at age 10, and by age 14, despite his youthful age, was pitching with the Manwatui senior team.
Jim started building his fastball resume in 1985 as a member of the New Zealand U-19 team, and with team-mate Mark Sorenson (HoF 2010), they and their team-mates struck gold in Fargo ND as ISF Champions.
Jim’s introduction to the ISC World Tournament was in 1987 in Saskatoon SK Canada, where he led his St. Paul MN Strohs/Gatsbys to 5th place. He pitched 53 innings with a 5-2 record, 75 strike-outs and a miniscule ERA of 0.53. For his superb work in the pitcher’s circle, Jim was named to the All-World 2nd Team.
Jim’s obvious talents and achievements garnered attention and the following season, he donned the colors for the highly-touted Sioux City IA Penn Corp squad. It was a memorable matchup that paid immediate dividends. At the 1988 ISC Tournament hosted in Decatur IL, Jim twirled a three-hitter in the championship game. Propelled by home runs from Hall of Famers Denny Delorit (2014) and Randy Burnside (2005), Sioux City prevailed 5-0 over Lexington MO Harold’s Supermarket. Jim, at age 19, was named to the All-World team and recognized as the event’s Outstanding Pitcher.
Jim won four ISC Championships and three All-World honors, including his 2nd Team recognition with Broken Bow NE Travelers in 1995.
Jim finished his career with the New Zealand Black Sox, and turning back the clock, was battery-mate with Mark Sorenson when the Black Sox won the 2004 ISF World Championship in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Following his playing career, Jim turned to coaching, helping the Black Sox to a 2009 gold medal in Saskatoon SK and more recently leading a young New Zealand squad to the gold medal at the 2017 World Baseball Softball Congress Championships in Whitehorse Yukon. Currently, Jim is prepping his team to defend the world title in 2019 in Prague CZ.

 

FIELD MANAGER:

Terry Baytor, London ON, CANADA
It’s been a long and winding road for Terry Baytor, 66 whose softball / baseball longevity spans seven decades from sandlots in Toronto to multiple world stages.
Starting at age seven under the tutelage of his father Paul, and influenced by hockey coaching legend Roger Neilson, Terry honed his skills such that he entertained baseball scholarship opportunities and attended a New York Yankees prospect camp in 1968.
He started coaching softball in 1969 at age 17 with a group of youngsters, leading them through minor ranks to eventually compete at the senior men’s level, winning multiple Ontario championships along the way.
Commencing with his inaugural foray in 1983 at the ISC World Tournament in Bakersfield CA, Terry managed four teams (Agincourt ON Rawlings, Toronto ON Gators, Tampa Bay FL Smokers and again, Toronto ON Gators) spanning 11 summers. With eight “top four” finishes in those events, Terry’s teams won four ISC titles, three with Gators (1993, 1995 and 2016) and one with Smokers (1998), compiling 59 wins against 16 losses for a .787 record.
Terry took a 17 year break (1998-2013) and subsequently unretired to lead the resurrected Toronto Gators, with a 2014-16 record of 16-4 culminating in winning the 2016 ISC title.
Terry was very prominent at the international level for 28 seasons, initially as an Assistant Coach (1982-89) and then Head Coach (1989-2000) with Canada’s National Team, compiling a 79-9 record. In total Team Canada squads in which Terry was involved amassed nine international medals - gold at 1983, 1987 & 1991 Pan American Games, silver at the 1984 World Championships, gold at the 1995 & 1999 Pan Am Championships and bronze (1988), gold (1992) and silver (1996) at the ISF World Championships.
Terry is one of the most successful softball coaches in the world, providing leadership to teams competing in more than 2,100 games, and is the only Field Manager to win a Canadian, ISC, Pan Am Games and ISF/WBSC championship.

 

BOB WELBY MEMORIAL
“RECOGNITION OF SERVICE” AWARD:

Darren Derricks, Green Bay WI, USA
For the love of the game is understood and demonstrated in various manners by every sports person. It can mean playing late nights on the ball diamond, waking up before sunrise to
participate in extra batting practiced, staying past the normal practice time for infield drills after everyone else has gone home or sleeping every night with a softball glove under your pillow.
It can also mean displaying passion and devoting significant resources of time, energy and funds to ensure that the sport thrives.
Darren Derricks, 47, has exhibited by example in softball, his love of the game.
Originally competing as a player, Derrick maintained his enthusiasm by becoming a sponsor of renown for the Circle Tap Dukes based in Denmark WI. At one point he sponsored not one, but two teams and always fostered the “greater good” of the game.
Two examples are his support for a “gentlemen’s agreement” that teams in Wisconsin area refrain from poaching other teams’ players with an objective of keeping teams together and raising the overall level of local competition, and his decision to release, from his own team’s roster, a pitcher so that another team could compete in the ISC World Tournament.
Circle Tap is one of the longest tenured, continuously operating softball organizations, competing in the ISC World Tournaments since 1995.
Confident in his style and actions, Darren makes the call for Circle Tap team decisions. He is always willing to express and share opinions that will foster sustainability and quality of play, and make the game better for all teams competing at the ISC World championship.
Darren, in collaboration with the Circle Tap organization will, for the first time, host the ISC World Tournament in the village of Denmark in 2019, assuming most of the risk and financial liabilities which he has generously placed on his own shoulders. Why? – quite simply… for the love of the game!

 

Class of 2019 Hall of Fame Program - Brochure:

 

Copy of Official Invitation

ISC HALL OF FAME – CLASS OF 2019 ANNOUNCED

 some photos on Facebook

Class of 2018 in Kitchener