Baseball's Best

Our province's top players, coaches, teams and individuals who have given so much back to the game were honoured by Baseball Manitoba on Saturday night as the association held it's 2017 Awards Banquet in Brandon.

Marvin Mills, a tireless worker and volunteer for Boissevain Minor Baseball and the Oildome region was added to Baseball Manitoba's Honour Society.

"It was definitely a surprise for me," said Mills on his Honour Society induction. "I was never expecting anything like that. I did it to coach the kids. It’s all about that kind of thing. It’s not for yourself. It’s helping out the kids and we had a lot of fun doing it. It’s neat to be recognized for something that you did for the sake of doing it."

"We’ve done well with ball," added Mills who strived to keep the community programs economical and available for all who wanted to play and also was very active in the fundraising and field maintenance aspects of the program while he was President of Boissevain Minor Ball. "A lot of good showings for a town that when you make your team it’s the 14 kids that signed up to play. You’re not cutting kids. We’ve done well with the kids that we get out. It’s been a lot of fun."

John Patmore of Pipestone was also recognized as the 18U Player of the Year.

"It’s a huge honour to be recognized as the Player of the Year," said Patmore prior to Saturdays banquet. "It was a goal I set at the start of the year and I was really happy to achieve that goal."

Patmore enjoyed a very hectic summer as he played on six ball teams in 2017

"It was busy that’s for sure. There was never two moments off in a row so it was a lot of fun. You get the competition all the time, it’s only making you better."

Patmore and his Team Manitoba teammates captured silver medals at the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg this past August.

Close to 7,000 baseball fans watched our province play Saskatchewan in the gold medal game at Shaw Park.

"It really was thrilling," said Patmore on  his Canada Games experience. "You think back at the three-year process, you’re putting it into one week so you want to be perfect that whole week. We were pretty close to being perfect that week so it was pretty special."

2017 Baseball Manitoba Award Recipients
Challenger Player of the Year:  Brett Hutton (Winnipeg)
Youth Umpire of the Year:  Carter Williamson (Dauphin)
Umpire Award of Merit:  Marty Flett (Ebb & Flow)
Volunteer of the Year:  Bobbi Bottle (Winnipeg)

13U Pee Wee Player of the Year:  Dillan Thiesen (Altona - South Central)
15U Bantam Player of the Year:  Dawson Tanner (La Broquerie - Carilllon)
18U Midget Player of the Year:  John Patmore (Pipestone - Oildome)
Female Player of the Year:  Jamie Johnson (Arborg)
21U Junior Player of the Year:  Cole Armstrong (St. James)
Senior AA Player of the Year:  Ryan Shaw (Rivers)

Grassroots Coach of the Year:  Jeremy Culleton (Vassar - Carillon)
High Performance Coach of the Year:  Faron Asham (Brandon - Team Manitoba Canada Games)

Grassroots Team of the Year:  La Broquerie 15U AA
High Performance Team of the Year (Minor):  Team Manitoba Canada Games
High Performance Team o fthe Year (Major):  St. James A's 21U

Honour Society:  Brian Hodgson (Winnipeg), Patti Hacault (Bruxelles), Mike Johnson (Baldur), Marvin Mills (Boissevain)

Region of the Year:  North Winnipeg

photos courtesy Patti Hacault