11/29/2024
… From James “Jim” Jones …
I wrote this a couple of years back. I called my roomie tonight to wish him a Happy Birthday. Some names in this post are now gone, Bob Sawatzky and Jim Cowdrey.
Many on that Caracas Pan Am Gold Medal Team have left us also, Gordie Fadden for one.
Happy Birthday Houser, I hope you have a great day tomorrow roomie.
Jonesy
Legend of the Game
In the Fall of 1982, then Assistant Coach with the Canadian National Men’s Fastball Team Bob Sawatzky, phoned me to tell me that I was one of 30 players selected to attend a National Team tryout in Waterloo, Ontario to select the team that would represent Canada at the IX Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela.
This would be the first time ever Canada would select a true All-Star National Team. In 1979, Canada had sent the Victoria Budget team, winners of the 1978 Canadian Championships and with pickups like Robbie Guenter of Saskatoon, and Sonny Phillips of Fredericton, NB the gold medal came home on the arm of Guenter who would end up pitching a 1-0 victory in 14 innings over Ty Stofflet of the United States.
At twenty-one years of age at the time, I really did not know what to expect, who to call, or what to get nervous about. Bob was the Assistant Coach for the All-0-Matics with whom I had played the 1982 season with, a great guy and he was cautioning me that there would be a lot of very good ball players there and that at the end of the camp, Terry Baytor, himself, and Head Coach Dave Pearce, would select the final seventeen to represent Canada.
It was in Waterloo that summer that I got to know a true Legend of the Game. I am assuming by alphabetical order, however that was done, I was put in a room with a likable first baseman by the name of Barry House and it was such a great experience. He was twelve years older than I was, a Legend of the game already, well travelled, highly revered, a feared presence through stories he was part of and who would later be named a co-captain of the Pan Am team with long time catcher Bob Shelston of Agincourt Rawlings and the Richmond Hill Dynes.
Shelley was a regional rep for Cooper Canada and a guy you never wanted to play sports trivia against. The guy knew everyone, in fact had met most of them.
I walked through the door of the University of Waterloo Dorm room and there on a single bed sat Barry House. Stories of his tape measure home runs, threatening demeanor on the diamond, numerous batting titles, and ownership in the Red Deer Corvettes Western Major Fastball League team came spilling out as I stuck out my hand and said, Hi, I’m Jim Jones. I never gave him a chance to speak for about five minutes as I regaled him with stories of himself that I had heard.
He grabbed my right hand, pumped it a few times and said, “I know who you are for Christ sakes,” glad to be your roomie.
I had played against Houser the past year as he was Alberta Brake and Clutches (ABC’s) first baseman and usually batted in the clean up spot. I had heard stories of a catcher who told me the only way to get him out was to hit him, only to find out that a bat under that same catcher’s chin prevented any tomfoolery and if that pitcher came close to my roomie again, the catcher would be the first to be hit by a guy whose arms generated a lot of bat speed to be wasted on a catcher’s head.
Funny how that catcher called time and hustled out to the mound to tell his pitcher that they would not be pitching inside.
Barry grew up in Ingersoll, Ontario playing ball and hockey, a goalie to boot and made his way out west. In 1971 he was settled in Lethbridge, Alberta as a member of the Lethbridge York Hotel Jr. Men’s Team. From there it was on to the Calgary Braves of the Western Major Fastball League winning the League batting title and all star first baseman selection in only his second year.
Off to Red Deer he went and for five years with the Corvettes and Yamaha’s of the Western Major Fastball league he collected two league batting titles and three (3) All Star First basemen awards. Red Deer became home, and he had ownership in the Team. Not a great experience he would say as the owner. However, there were some great players, characters, and guys on those teams and especially the core group from Red Deer.
In 1985, Calgary beckoned. The opportunity to play Vinny Ball with owner Keith Vincent of Alberta Brake and Clutch, one of the top teams in Alberta, Canada, and the world for three years running.
Brake and Clutch would win the Senior ‘A’ Canadian Championship in 1985 & 1986 but would be upended in the semi final in 1987 in Calgary by his 1983 room mate as Rempel Brothers would beat ABC in the semi finals and then Sarnia Glis in the gold medal game. Ray Tilley, a pickup from the Saskatoon All-O-Matic’s launched a towering home run against his former team the Glis and it may still be sitting on the roof of Renfrew Arena. Ray Tilley was my roommate on the National team leading up to the World Championships in Midland, Michigan in 1984 and the person responsible for eliminating my two front teeth In Asquith during a Senior Hockey Game. Not a great feeling to remove your mouth guard and see your two front teeth still sitting in the impression.
Back in Waterloo, the pressure to perform was intense for all those in attendance. At the time I did not know any better. Two or three players ended up leaving the camp before the end as they could not stand the pressure to perform. They were outstanding players that I played against many times after but just did not want to be under a microscopic selection procedure, Dave Pearce our Head Coach was old school, an RCMP Superintendent in Regina at Mountie College and a bit a**l.
The pitchers at that camp were Gene McWillie, Mark Smith, Jim Cowdrey, Robbie Guenter, and Jeff Boyce to name a few. All themselves Legends of the game.
We played several intersquad games during the day and then would play local Ontario teams at night in double headers. You knew who you were competing against. Being a good teammate had you cheering for them at night in exhibition games but during the afternoon battling tooth and nail with them to make an impression on the coaches.
My roomie would say to me every night, “Jonesy, your doing great!” Keep it up, maybe drop a bunt down here or there to show them that you can bunt and use your speed on the bases, just not when I am playing first base, and make someone throw you out…. Don’t be stupid but take advantage of who is throwing and especially if it is me, run on my damn sore arm.” Then we would both laugh!
Through all the ten-day camp and games, we would trudge back and forth from the dorms to the ball diamond to the cafeteria, to the trainers table and it might have been the best ten days of my life. Hanging out with a legend, being called his roomie then camping out outside of our dorm room where they were to post the final squad at midnight on the last day.
We sat under that bulletin board, Barry House, Glenn Ford, and I till 4 am, Fordy was an outfielder from Agincourt Rawlings. We finally caved and went to bed. I got up at 6 am and it was posted. I understand it was one hell of a difficult decision.
I opened the door to our room and yelled, “Roomie we both made it.” Barry House rolled over, looked at me with a big smile on his face and said, “Good for you Roomie!” He knew all along he would make it! Legends knew that, me I could not believe it. A 21-year-old kid from Conquest, Saskatchewan (population of 250) had just made the National Men’s Fastball Team!
Caracas was an experience that I will write about later. The only thing that kept us together as a group of 17 players was that we would not accept anything less than a gold medal. We accepted the sub-standard accommodations, practiced on the upper level of a parkade daily, ate ice cream and rice for ten days and cheered on the success of our Women’s team. They would beat the States in the final as well and I still remember laying in our fruit fly infested beds with no window coverings, no air conditioning, sweating in the +35-degree heat, playing cards while dreaming up things to do as practical jokes.
Today, my roomie is struggling a bit. He lives in Edmonton with his daughter and is paying for the cortisone shots to his shoulders, legs, elbows, and neck and just recently had a heart attack. If you know him reach out to him. He was questioning me when I spoke to him on the weekend if all the ball games were worth it.
Legends of the game should never feel down. Immortalized as one of the best players to ever play the game he just needs to be reminded what they meant to kids coming up playing the game.
Three left knee surgeries later this young kid that was selected to bat leadoff and set the table for the big bats to follow, while rubbing elbows with the greats of the game, are as vivid in my mind today as they were in Mampote stadium, in Caracas, Venezuela, named after Roberto Clemente.
The impression Barry House left on a naïve 21-year-old from Conquest, Saskatchewan has never gone unappreciated.
Sosnowski, Skinner, Sheltson, MacKinnon, Eckert, Underwood, Fadden, Kernaghan, McWillie, Guenter, Smith, Cowdrey. All Legends of the Game. All using up their holidays and more to wear the Maple Leaf and bring home that gold.
On the phone, the last thing he asked me was if I could get Jim “Cowboy” Cowdrey’s mailing address to him as he still had the game ball from the Canada-US final game in August of 1983, as he had caught the last out at first base. He said, “I should have given it to the Cowboy. “
Barry House is in the Softball Alberta Hall of Fame and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in Red Deer. He was in my Hall of Fame long before he was inducted into theirs.
Give him a call, it will be worth the dime.
