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Jim played on the Team Saskatchewan's
bronze-medal winners at the Canadian senior baseball championships in
1978, played on the Saskatoon-Regina Combines who won national gold in
1980 and coached Saskatoon Patrick Liners to Canadian medal victories in
1982 and 1983.
Jim was born in Kincardine, Scotland, in
1945 and came across the Atlantic with his family at the age of three to
settle in Drumheller, Alberta. He moved to Saskatoon when he was 13
years old, played organized baseball with the Miami midgets and the
T-Bird juveniles and juniors.
He joined the Saskatoon Patrick Liners in
1977 after playing senior baseball earlier with Biggar Nationals and the
Saskatoon Cals. Jim played for the Liners when they won their first
Saskatchewan championship and was chosen to play for Team Saskatchewan,
who went to the national finals and won a bronze medal.
He played and coached
the combined Saskatoon-Regina team, which went to the nationals in 1980
and won a gold medal, defeating New Brunswick in the final. The Liners
continued to build and Jim coached them in two medal performances at the
Canadian championships, silver in 1982 and bronze in 1983.
He also played old
timers' baseball, coaching and pitching the Saskatoon Grey Ghosts to a
second-place finish in the 40 and over class at an international
tournament in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1993.
He coached the Dodgers
to a Saskatoon bantam title in 1988, and won the provincials with the
same team in 1989, and later in 1991, he coached the Saskatoon Senators
in the Canadian midget finals.
Jim's contributions to
all levels of the game were recognized by his induction into the
Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993.
In broomball, Jim was
a player with the Saskatoon Aces in the Saskatoon Commercial league in
the early 1980s and he also coached the Saskatoon Arnies to the
provincial women's championship in 1988. |