Out & About

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/05/2012 (4885 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The next few days could have a major impact on the baseball career of 18-year-old Winnipegger Chris Shaw.

The catcher from Charleswood is showcasing his talent in front of major league scouts in the Dominican Republic where Canada’s national junior team is playing against teams of Major League Baseball Dominican prospects.

The 11-game series concludes May 31 with games against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim prospects and a team of the best players from the Dominican Summer League Camp.

As a 2012 high school graduate, Shaw, who left Oak Park to take his final year at the Okotoks Dawgs Baseball Academy in Alberta, is eligible for the MLB first-year player draft that runs June 4 to 6.

In its latest ranking on May 21, the Canadian Baseball Network had Shaw rated No. 17 on its list of eligible Canadian players.

While that may seem low, all but one of the higher-ranked players, national team pitcher Logan Seifrit, are older and enrolled at U.S. colleges, and they almost all are pitchers.

The CBN description of Shaw states “best position player in the country” followed by a question mark.

Shaw has already committed to attending Midland Junior College in Texas this fall. If you are checking the draft lists next week and see the name Chris Shaw, it could be another player with the same name. He’s a 6-foot-3 power-hitting first baseman and hockey player from a high school in Lexington, Mass., who has committed to Boston College.  

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Todd MacCulloch is hosting the International Flipper Pinball Association championship in his home on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, June 8 to 10. Sixty-four of the best pinball wizards from 12 countries will compete in the ex-Winnipegger’s private arcade.

The Shaftesbury High School basketball player, who went on to star at the University of Washington and play in the NBA, is ranked 113th in the world by the IFPA. In October 2011, he won his first major title, the Pinball Expo in Chicago, where he beat two former world champions.

In a live chat May 23 on seattletimes.com, Todd said that while growing up in Winnipeg, he started playing pinball at a roller skating rink with his junior high friends and at a bowling alley with a church group.

He moved on to 7-Eleven most days for a game of pinball and a Slurpee and said that he will have his Slurpee machine cranked up during the tournament.

For you pinball aficionados, Todd’s favourite game is Whitewater.

 

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Tec Voc’s Hill still holds 1,500-m mark

It’s that time of year again, when school field days are popping up everywhere.

Rob Hill recalls his days as a runner when he attended Tec Voc High School. In 1980, Kerry Penner ran the 1,500-metres in 3:51 to establish a Manitoba record. Hill ran the same distance in the city championship in 4:01, a best in that meet. Both records still stand today.

While running 100 miles a week, Hill also worked 50 hours a week delivering pizza.

“When someone does break that city record, I plan to take them out for pizza,” he said.

Hill went on to compete in the modern pentathlon, which includes shooting, swimming, fencing, running and equestrian events, and achieved results that qualified him to compete internationally including in the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg.

Asked how an athlete from the core of the city could get involved with horses, Hill said, “I worked at a stable every Sunday and in return for the work received riding lessons.”

He said he owes a lot to many people including the late James Richardson, who took him under his wing in the usual quiet way the Richardson family have supported many causes and individuals in Winnipeg.

“When I received funding from the Richardson family and others, I felt it was up to me to do my best in international events,” Hill said. “I didn’t travel to countries to party.”

In 1989 he was heading to a meet in Moscow. The Soviet Union was going through a period of unrest. Other competitors had refused to go and only three people were on the British Airways plane.

But Hill had qualified and he was going to compete. He was met at the airport by an interpreter. He had two bags containing his equipment, but only one appeared. Soon he understood he was undergoing the same treatment that Canadian hockey teams had endured.

“My bags were bright orange and I could see the second one through a glass window but the interpreter claimed it wasn’t my bag and not to worry about it,” Hill said. “I didn’t get the bag until I was heading home.”

Hill, who operates R&P Hill Enterprises, a structural steel firm, may not be finished competing yet.

He is 50, but says, “Jim Daly is still my coach.”

The P in the company name stands for Rob’s wife Pam (Marchenski) from Portage la Prairie, who pitched for Smitty’s juniors and the Winnipeg Lightning fast pitch teams.