Two Sports Wall of Famers honoured at Kincardine Reunion Celebrity Slo-pitch game

Two inductees to the Kincardine Sports Wall of Fame were honoured at the 2018 Kincardine Reunion Celebrity Slo-pitch game, held Aug. 4, at Connaught Park.

Presented by Kincardine recreation director Karen Kieffer and Doug Kennedy, the first presentation went to Jay Bell who played minor ball in Kincardine and has been the president of minor ball in Kincardine for the past five years.

He went on to play for a Flesherton juvenile team that won an Ontario Baseball Association (OBA) championship, and then played baseball and hockey at Notre Dame High School in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. He received a full scholarship at the University of Missouri which is a Division 1 school, playing there from 1996-98. He was 20-12, had an ERA of 5.23, and had 200 strikeouts, over three years. He led the team in strikeouts in 1996 and 1998.

Bell currently coaches the Kincardine midget ball team and boys high school ball team, and is the president of the Western Ontario Baseball Association.

The second presentation went to Pat Riggin who played Junior B hockey for the London-Glencoe Squires when he was 15 years old. The next three years, he played Junior A for the London Knights. As an 18-year-old, he headed to the WHA to play for the Birmingham Bulls with Gaston Gingras, Michel Goulet, Craig Hartsburg, Rob Ramage and Rick Vaive.

He played in the NHL for the next nine years, with the Calgary Flames, Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, and Pittsburgh Penguins, playing 350 NHL games. He split his childhood between Kincardine and London where his dad, Dennis, worked for Molson. His mom, Shirley, still lives in Kincardine and he spent his summers in Kincardine playing baseball.

Riggin thanked Kieffer and Kennedy for this “overwhelming honour.” He also thanked the many people who coached him through the years, particularly the four young men who taught a team of 13- and 14-year-olds how to be better hockey players.

He gave a shout-out to Kathy (Pym) Alcombrack who could “out-stick and out-swear all of us,” and to Keith Davidson, “a kind gentleman, and a great friend who supported our family. This old goalie is honoured to be inducted into the Sports Wall of Fame at the Davidson Centre.”

The remaining Wall of Famers will be recognized Aug. 17, at the Davidson Centre.

Lauren Robertson of Boston Pizza, and Tom Desmond of the Power Workers' Union (PWU), threw the first pitch and the celebrity players – from various sports – took to the baseball field to show their stuff.

Due to the excessive heat, it wasn't a long game, but it was a fair one.

Desmond, on behalf of the PWU, also presented a donation of $7,500 to Kincardine Minor Baseball, to put toward batting cages at Connaught Park.