Legends Field Honour Roll names Class of 2020
This year’s Prince Edward Island inductees will be inducted as part of the 2021 ceremony
SUMMERSIDE – There will be a Class of 2020 but no induction ceremony this year for the Legends Field Honour Roll due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
This year’s successful candidates – Marcel Arsenault, Blair Creelman, Roy (Pony) Daley, Paul MacWilliams and Ian Power – will be inducted as part of the 2021 ceremony.
Following are their profies:
MARCEL ARSENAULT
Arsenault played in the Summerside system from 1971 to 1982. His teams won provincial titles at least six times, including the 1973 P.E.I. Centennial championship.
He was a captain with the 1985 provincial Canada Games team in Saint John, N.B., and batted .429. With the Curran & Briggs teams through the early 1980s in the Island Baseball League, Arsenault was the team’s most valuable player while leading the league in triples and stolen bases and one season he batted .393.
He was the Summerside Area Baseball Association (SABA) program director from 1986 to 1988, reporting to a board of directors, managing an instructional staff and co-ordinating all coaching, scheduling, officiating, media and equipment.
Arsenault, who recently retired after a 31-year career in physical education, has been a coach/leader in various sports for more than 25 years.
BLAIR CREELMAN
With a long history with the game of baseball as a player, coach, umpire and promoter, Creelman has been a SABA board member, represented baseball fairly, is inspirational to youngsters and competitive.
He has also coached numerous Summerside Chevys’ teams, as well as provincial clubs.
A good left-handed pitcher, Creelman was pitching coach and assistant coach for the provincial under-15 team that won P.E.I.’s third-ever medal – a bronze – at the 2019 nationals in Oshawa, Ont.
Creelman has been an elite player, a great coach, a wellrespected umpire and a good role model.
ROY (PONY) DALEY
As a youngster growing up in Summerside in the 1930s, Daley’s brother, Fred, was a catcher and taught Pony how to pitch.
War broke out and Pony contributed by working in the 1940s at the shipyards in Pictou, N.S., where he toiled for the Pictou Cubs in the APC League and later with Moncton Cubs of the City League.
He returned home to play with the Summerside Pioneers of the Town League in 1948, then with the Curran & Briggs Intermediates of the Island League, Maritime champions in 1949.
After retiring, Daley got into the restaurant business.
Daley, a fan favourite, was a big man with a hard
fastball and a nasty sinker, drop, slider and curveball.
PAUL MACWILLIAMS
MacWilliams excelled in many sports growing up in Summerside, and baseball was a particular favourite.
He played Little League, midget and junior baseball and won Island and Maritime championships. He was also a star pitcher for the 1964 Maritime-champion Summerside Junior Legionnaires. A team leader in every sense of the word – a renowned pitcher who could play any position – he excelled at the plate and never put himself ahead of the team.
MacWilliams credits his many baseball coaches, including Johnny Carroll, Hank Landry, Harry Dickie, Henry (Pius) Gallant and Wilfred MacNeill. He joins longtime battery mate George MacNeill as a 2020 Legend’s inductee.
IAN POWER
With a stellar career in baseball as a player and coach,
Power represented P.E.I. at the 1988 Canadian midget championships in Chatham, N.B., batting .300 and pitching a four-hitter over British Columbia in P.E.I.’s only win.
In 1989, he represented P.E.I. at the first-ever national under-18 Selects tournament in Brandon, Man., and he attended an Atlanta Braves’ tryout camp in Moncton, N.B., that year.
The same year he represented P.E.I. at the Canada Summer Games in Saskatoon, Sask., where he went 5-for15, recording a hit in all five games. He was also named P.E.I.’s all-around male athlete of the year in 1989.
In 1990, Power helped coach the P.E.I. peewee champions to the nationals in Bedford, N.S., and was the 1990 winner of the YTV Achievement Award in Sports.
He also coached the P.E.I. team of the year in 1990 – the Consolidated Credit Union Beavers.
In 1991, he helped coach the Island bantam champions to the Atlantics. In 1993, he was named P.E.I.’s senior baseball player of the year and won the MVP award in the Charlie Ryan Baseball League, leading the way in home runs.