Sport: Baseball
Level: Senior
Year of Induction: 2009
Sport: Baseball
Level: Senior
Year of Induction: 2009
The 1997 Diamonds ranged from age 18 to age 40 but came together as a team and had an incredibly successful year. For the 5th consecutive year they won the Western Counties Championship with an overall record of 29-1. They won the prestigious Whitby tournament with 4 straight wins, 3 of which were over teams from the strong Metro Toronto League. They won the Ontario Elimination Tournament in Windsor beating East York 6-4 in the semi-finals and Windsor Stars 5-1 in the finals to qualify for the Canadian Senior Baseball Championships in Mt. Pearl, Newfoundland.
The Diamonds picked up 2 players from North York, but were basically a team of Kent County products. They went 3 and 2 in the round-robin to end up second and advance to the Gold Medal Game against Red Deer (Alberta) Riggers who had beaten the Diamonds 13-6 in their opening round-robin game. In a back-and-forth championship game Chatham lost to Red Deer 5-4 to settle for 2nd place and a Silver Medal. Bill Flavell was named top hitter in the tournament, Trevor Langstaff was top fielder, and Steve Donald and Gary Roberts were named to the All-star team.