Anniversary celebrates when softball was king in St. Catharines

October 16, 2019

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Their 1968 title would be the second of four straight Ontario Industrial League championships for the McKinnon Macs softball team from St. Catharines. - Special to Torstar

 

ORIGINAL STORY by Bernd Franke

 

The McKinnon Macs have been getting together annually since they won the last of four straight Ontario Industrial League championships in 1969. Pictured is their 30th anniversary. - Special to Torstar

 

There likely won't be live baseball on the big screens at Wrigley's Sports Bar & Lounge in St. Catharines this Saturday night.

Unless the St. Louis Cardinals come back from a 3-0 deficit and force a Game 7 in their National League championship series with the Washington Nationals, fans will have to make due with highlights.

The absence of live baseball on the tube doesn't mean there won't be lively baseball discussions around the tables, especially about the heyday of softball in St. Catharines.

One watershed year in particular was 1966, when the McKinnon Macs captured their first Ontario Industrial League championship.

 

Their first of many.

Before they were disbanded after McKinnon Industries became part of General Motors and the automaker dropped its sponsorship of the team, the mighty Macs took four straight titles.

They punctuated their last crown in 1969 by winning the provincial intermediate A championship, becoming the only team in long history of the Ontario Amateur Softball Association (OASA) to win two provincial championships in the same season.

There is an application before the OASA to induct the McKinnon Macs into the organization's hall of fame.

While the team awaits word on whether it will be enshrined, the former players have never played a waiting game when it comes to getting together and reminiscing about the days they were darlings of the diamond at Lancaster Park and other ball fields throughout Ontario.

Since the Macs disbanded, the one-time teammates have made a point of touching base with each other every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.