Big day at QEP on Saturday
SABA hosting opening day while Legends Field Honour Roll ceremony takes place in afternoon
It’s a big day at Queen Elizabeth Park on Saturday as the Summerside Area Baseball Association hosts its annual opening day.
It is also induction day for the Legends Field Honour Roll. One player and four teams will be recognized for their success in baseball at the 3 p.m. ceremony.
Charlie Hogan was an outstanding multi-sport athlete, who was a standout player in baseball. He won many Island and Maritime championships with both the Curran and Briggs Intermediates and Juniors, and was a big reason for their success.
Both Curran and Briggs teams will also have their names placed on the Honour Roll.
The Summerside Junior Legionnaires were a very good team from 1961 to 64, capping a three-year run with a Maritime junior title in 1964, beating Halifax 2-0 at Queen Elizabeth Park.
The 1967 Summerside Little League All-Stars were chosen to compete in a national Little League tournament at the CNE in Toronto as part of Canada’s 100-year Centennial Celebration. The All-Stars lost 2-1 to a team from Calgary in a playoff game.
At 7:30 p.m., the Charlottetown Islanders host the Chatham Ironmen in a New Brunswick Senior Baseball League game. The Islanders have, at last count, three local players – Grant Grady, Brady Arsenault and Colin Arsenault – in their lineup.
It will be a great day of baseball, and fans are encouraged to attend.
Harness racing
Like father like son may be the best way to describe the torrid mile that took place at Mohawk Raceway in Toronto on June 3. Dr. J Hanover set a new Canadian pacing record of 1:46:4 in winning a division of the Graduate Series.
That is the fastest mile in the history of Canadian harness racing, and we should not be surprised. Dr. J Hanover is the son of the great Somebeachsomewhere, who, in the opinion of many, is the greatest standardbred horse of all time. Somebeachsomewhere won 20 of 21 career races with over $3.2 million in earnings, before being retired to stud in 2008. He obviously is as good off the track as he was on.
It will be interesting to see just how fast Dr. J Hanover can pace after equalling his father’s best.
Always Be Miki set the world record of 1:46 at the Red Mile in Lexington, Ky., last October.
The Stanley Cup looks like it is Pittsburgh’s to lose. The dominant performance by Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in a 6-0 win in Game 5 has most thinking this series is over on Sunday night.
Mike Kelly
It comes as no surprise that Mike Kelly has been hired by the Vegas Golden Knights as an assistant under Gerard (Turk) Gallant. They work extremely well together, and obviously Gallant values greatly the job Kelly does. To have an assistant you can trust and to be accountable means a lot to any NHL head coach.
The experience that Kelly brings is invaluable to any team, but even more so to an expansion team. Gallant and Kelly will have their hands full forming a team from scratch, and making them competitive in a brand new market like Las Vegas.
It will be fun to watch the pair build from the ground up, and give the Golden Knights their own identity. The Knights will be a hard-working team and, with the parity the salary cap has brought, they will be competitive a lot sooner than most NHL expansion teams.
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup looks like it is Pittsburgh’s to lose. The dominant performance by Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in a 6-0 win in Game 5 has most thinking this series is over on Sunday night.
It could go to Game 7 on Wednesday, but with Crosby playing with the tenacity that he is, even if there is a Game 7, it’s hard to imagine the Preds winning in Pittsburgh, where the Pens get line matchups and home-ice advantage.
At any rate, a long NHL season comes to a close in the coming week. Don’t be too disappointed, most NHL training camps open in just over three months on Sept. 15.
Have a great week!