Slo-pitch ‘hardball’
Richard Hales threatened with bookmaking charge for hockey pool in early ’80s
This weekend Richard Hales’ picture is going on the Welland Sports Wall of Fame, where it will hang engraved on a plaque.
In the mid-1980s his picture could very well have put on a different wall, as a mugshot attached to an arrest report.
Only a decision by the Welland and District Slo-Pitch Association to stop a lucrative hockey pool prevented Hales from appearing in court on a bookmaking charge.
The Welland native, the association’s president from 1976 to 1984, recalled being dumbfounded when Niagara Regional Police ordered the organization to pull the plug on its No. 1 fundraiser.
Police maintained at the time that, unlike a bingo held in a church basement, the league’s hockey pool wasn’t a game of chance.
“They said it required skill which made it akin to the mob running a bookmaking scheme,” Hales, now 70, recalled with a laugh more than 30 years later. “They actually said this.” If that was the case, then several members of the NRP could have been considered accessories.
“We had a police team at the time,” he said. “There were all kinds of Niagara Regional Police playing in our league and selling our hockey pools in Niagara Regional Police headquarters.”
Though the league had a raffle permit from the City of Welland, the hockey pools were “technically illegal.” Hales conceded as much at the time, as he does now.
“They were right, it was illegal, but it was pretty harmless,” he said. “Local people picking 16 games.”
“Yeah, there’s some skill involved, but how much skill really?”
Rather than risk conviction, the hockey pool was shut down.
“They told us if we shut it down, they wouldn’t charge us,” he said. “They were playing hardball, that’s for sure.”
“I always thought it conveniently coincided with the government ramping up the number of lotteries that they were going to be involved in.”
The pool ran for about two years and at the peak of its popularity raised $2,000 weekly, half going to the winner with the association using some of its share to support charities and send children to summer camp.
The lion’s share of the association’s portion of the proceeds was turned over to the municipality for infrastructure improvements. Tired of playing on “second-rate fields,” the association pledged $10,000 a year to help upgrade the facilities.
“We went out on a limb, but I figured between the tournaments, the odd raffle, an elimination draw, but, primarily, a hockey pool, we could do it.”
To say the least, the slo-pitch players didn’t strike out.
“We ran a hockey pool —$1 a ticket, 16 games, win, win or tie — and we raised a boatload of money,” Hales said.
He is proud of what the association was able to accomplish during his time on the executive.
“Sinking that money back into the city for infrastructure I thought was really important,” Hales said. “We were also sending a lot of kids to camp, including children with disabilities.”
“I was really proud of the fact, in a lot of ways, that we were giving back to the city.”
Slo-pitch in the Welland area became much more accessible under Hales’ leadership. The number of teams expanded from 10 to 60 in men’s and women’s divisions that catered to differing skill levels, from recreation to competitive.
“You’ve got to be pretty good to play hardball at a high level,” said Hales, who played in the league until 1986. “There are not many opportunities for people.”
“The thing that appealed to me in slo-pitch is there was action all the time. Defensively, people were always getting something hit to them.”
“You might not be a star, but you could play.”
This explosion in interest and the association’s success in raising funds for field improvements didn’t go unnoticed. In 1981 as many as 3,000 players from as far north as Sault Ste. Marie and as far west as Amherstburg, near Windsor, came to Welland for the Ontario championships.
“We built an infrastructure that was good enough to attract provincial tournaments.”
Hales worked at Canada Post and fronted bands as a singer after graduating from Welland High in 1965. He spent five years at Atlas Steels, rising to a scheduling supervisor in the production department, before losing his job when the Canadian steel industry started tanking.
Hales went back to school as a mature student earning a teaching degree from Brock University. He spent most of a 21-year teaching career commuting from Welland to Streetsville Secondary School in Mississauga and retired as special education consultant who served boards in Greater Toronto Area.
Hales and wife Linda have two sons: Liam, 29, and Graham, 23.