Past Meets Present
10 Jun 2009
Story by Wayne Scanlan, Ottawa Citizen
Hamilton brothers' diamond legacy spans generations with O'Connors
Past will meet present tonight as the Ottawa Nepean Canadians fete 40 years of memories with alumni game
As with every baseball confrontation, this one begins on the mound.
Pitcher versus batter.
Uncle against nephew.
O'Connor vs. O'Connor.
The kid, Khifer O'Connor, expects the worst tonight, when he and the current under-18 Ottawa Nepean club face uncle Shawn O'Connor and the Ottawa Nepean Canadians old boys team in an alumni game at Hamilton Yards.
"I've never faced him before in a game, so it's going to be weird," says Khifer, a left-handed hitting third baseman with good numbers at The Lawrenceville (prep) School in New Jersey. "I have a feeling I will get dusted up. I'm ready for it."
"He'll have plenty of time to get out of the way," counters Shawn, who hasn't exactly been working on his 43-year-old right arm to prepare for this occasion.
"I'm praying for rain," says the senior O'Connor.
Khifer's U18 manager, Don Campbell, calls the kid a throwback to another era, which is perfect. This week the Canadians are tipping their caps to another era, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Ottawa Nepean ball club. The alumni game kicks off the events.
And Khifer O'Connor completes the circle. Uncle Shawn, a member of Canada's national team for five years, wore the Canadians colours on the mound and at second base for 17 seasons, beyond barstool debate the finest player in the history of the Ottawa Nepean organization. O'Connor was a mentor and role model to dozens of players who came after him.
The only debate is over which was O'Connor's first year with the Canadians. He thinks he was 18 at the time, so probably in 1984, when he was a member of the ONC junior team playing in the Quebec League.
"It's all a blur," O'Connor (senior) says.
On Friday night, Shawn will be the first player inducted into the ONC's Hall of Fame, joining four in the builders category: the late brothers Bruce and Gord Hamilton, the late Fred Wigney and former Citizen sportswriter Bob Elliott, a longtime ONC coach. The sold-out Hall of Fame dinner is at the Lone Star Ranch.
Forty years. Where did the time go?
Professional baseball has come and gone here, but thanks to Ottawa's secret weapon -- a passionate grass roots sports community -- the Ottawa Nepean club continues to develop good ball players, good people.
Over the past 20 years, some 40 players have graduated to be drafted by major league baseball or play university ball.
This is a week to thank the Hamilton brothers, who quietly did what it took to keep the club from financial collapse in the late 1970s. Bruce Hamilton also founded the Pinecrest Little League, which has produced many players for the ONC.
Wigney was an original club booster.
Elliott, who covers major league baseball and the Canadian baseball scene like no other, kept the ONC thriving through the late 1970s and '80s.
As proud as he is to be the initial player inductee, Shawn O'Connor insists the four builders are the true heroes for doing the heavy lifting -- and now Campbell for carrying on the tradition today in the Premier Baseball League of Ontario.
"Gord, Bruce, Fred and Bobby, they did the real work to keep it going, supporting amateur athletes in the city," O'Connor says. "We got to compete, on a good team, in a good organization.
"If, at the heart of any club like this, the kids come first, and not politics," O'Connor says, "you can't go wrong."
O'Connor commutes daily from Pakenham to his Ottawa job with OC Transpo. The only ball he throws is a softball, with the girls team he coaches alongside brother Bob, Khifer's dad. Shawn and his wife, Shelley, have three girls, 15, 14 and 12, Kiley, Taya and Darby -- a softball player and two soccer players.
Tonight on a diamond named for the Hamiltons, behind the Nepean Sportsplex, O'Connor will be joined by fellow ONC alumni such as Mike Kusiewicz, Mike Arundel, Bill Courchaine, Bruce McGregor, Doug Miller, Jake Cole and a host of other rusty greats. Lies will be told. Plays will be made. The veterans will be sore on Thursday and the teenagers will wonder why.
Someone this week is bound to tell stories of the O'Connor clan, how there were enough of them on the old senior team in Cormac, southwest of Eganville, to field all but one position. If needed, the father, Khifer's grandfather, would come down from the stands to play.
Khifer, 18, talented, grounded, has read some of the family clippings, sounding almost sheepish that he doesn't pitch like Shawn did, but hopeful that he might live up to the family name with his bat.
While Khifer's home is Pembroke, his near future lies in the U.S. A former Ottawa Valley Titan, he has plans for a scholarship to a school where he can play baseball and hockey.
First, there's the matter ce soir, looking out to the mound, as uncle Shawn looks in.
"My dad faced him once in a senior league all-star game," Khifer says. "Shawn struck him out on three pitches. My dad says whatever I do, I can't let that happen."
Just a friendly alumni game. Honest.
"There is a bit of competitive blood in those O'Connor boys," says Shelley, "so I'm not sure who wants it more -- Shawn to strike out Khifer or Khifer to hit a bomb off Shawn."