Remembering Winnipeg’s Industrial softball league

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/09/2016 (3549 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A reader suggested that the Industrial Men’s Fastball League would be a good subject for a column.

While growing up in the West End, north of Portage Avenue, he spent many evenings hanging around the softball diamonds at Sargent Park. From the late 1950s through the 1970s, fans could watch two or three Industrial League games there on any weekday night. The diamonds at the Old Exhibition Grounds were also used and double-headers were played at Charlie Krupp Memorial Stadium in the 1970s.

By 1955, the Industrial League claimed to be the city’s largest fastball league with 16 teams. Over the years, other leagues called the Mercantile and Commercial operated in the city, along with leagues with closed memberships such as Greater Winnipeg Transportation, insurance, law, and both the federal and provincial governments.

For many years, Industrial League teams also had direct connections to their organization but no one remembers the exact rule.

The powerful Civics team managed by long-time league president Jim Adams had access to all City of Winnipeg employees.

Large organizations such as Great-West Life, Manitoba Hydro, CNR, CPR, MTS, TCA, RCAF, Standard Aero Engine and Canada Packers had teams in the league.

Canadian Wheat Board catcher Wayne Jones, who succeeded Adams as league president in 1971, said that most of his team worked for the Board, but that they did have two or three imports.
Another ex-president, Al Mayer, ran several teams starting in the mid-sixties with the St. James Teachers. He admits that he recruited a few “substitute” teachers. The Stony Mountain Penitentiary team, which only played home games, had no eligibility issues. Lifer Monty was the team’s ace pitcher.

A city senior A men’s league also operated in the early ’60s. That league was not registered with the Manitoba Amateur Softball Association while the Industrial League was. This loophole allowed players to play in both leagues and the best Industrial players were recruited by senior teams.
Kiewel White Seals had Lorne Jasper of Packers, Bob Allison of Federated Co-op, Ken Corby of GWL and Bobby and Fred Taylor from Dominion Bridge. The Molson Canadians lineup included Ken Dilk, who had pitched for Moore Business Forms, Al Glover from International Trucks, Jim Johnson of Manitoba Cartage, Neil Fenton of Kern Kolts, Al Dilk and Bob Klassen from Packers, and George Richardson and Ted Waytowich from Emco.

When the Canadian Amateur Softball Association established national men’s and women’s championships in 1965, the senior league had to register provincially in order to be eligible. In 1967, when Molson won our province’s only Canadian senior men’s fast pitch championship, all its Industrial League alumni were on the roster.

The final season of the Industrial League was 1979. In the spring of 1980, the league joined with the Manitoba Major Men’s, the Winnipeg Men’s and the Metro Men’s fastball leagues to form a new league called the Winnipeg Fastball League. Sixty-six teams were registered in the provincial B, C and D categories. This league is still in operation, but Softball Manitoba’s Don Klym said only five teams registered this year with none based in Winnipeg.  

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com