MSBL gents & friends:

We have two very deserving winners this year for the Jim Jordan Sportsmanship Award: Mike Kane and Bill Kervan.

They're two more reasons, if you haven't already bought your tickets for the banquet, that you do so ASAP.
You not only can come and cheer them on, guaranteed, you'll enjoy doing it.

Mike, 58, pitches and plays in two divisions - for the very successful 45 Giants and the 55 Whiz Kids. He's been a tough-to-hit
pitcher, with a hard, hard sinker, ever since he joined the over-38 Pirates in 2001. He's also always been one of the first
fellows to applaud the play of his teammates and his opponents at every turn.

And, he's been known to give helpful advice. Once, after I'd had a rough time at the plate against his team, he came up
to me, an opponent, and said, "I don't know if you know this, Mike, but you're really yanking your head on your swing."
I didn't know that and I was grateful he said it. I don't know if I hit any better the next time up, but I certainly felt
better about trying to.

Bill, 74, signed up with the newly created 55 division in 2004 and hasn't missed a season since. He's been a force,
with a fine, accurate fastball, for the 55 Yankees, and, this past year, at 73, a fine hurler yet, and a friendly presence in
the newly created over-60 Capital Division.

Bill plays a lot golf these days, but he says he plans to stay in baseball as long as he can: "I want to keep my hand in it," he
said, "because as soon as I leave, I know I'll become an old man." And that's why, too, he said, the Capital Division, marked
more by laughter and back-slapping than fierce competition, is for him: "Lets face it," he said, "were old guys playing a kids'
game. We should be friends. "

John Reel created the sportsmanship award about 10 years ago in honor of the MSBL manager and player, Jim Jordan,
who far too young died of a heart attack a year or so before.

Jim was very much about what the award stands for and what the winners exhibit: showing high regard for fellow players, the
league and the game. I played against Jim and his Braves team and with him, in fall ball league he created and ran for several
years.

Mike Kane remembers that Jim, a thin, 6-footer, liked to have a good time, and part of that was he used to like to do pre-game warmups by
taking his catchers' glove out to shortstop and taking grounders. Once he loosened up there, Mike said, Jim was ready to do his catcher's work.

As for me, a fellow manager, I remember Jim always put everybody in games, nobody sat with Jim, and, if the other team only had seven
or eight guys on, say, a hot, mid-July night, Jim would say, "Don't worry. We'll get the game in. I got two or thee guys I can loan you."
Playing, for Jim, was what counted. Winning, and he had a fine share of that, was a distant second.

Previous winners of the award are Don Wixon, Tom Maney, Mike Kravitz, Mike Lannon, Tommy Smith, Don Ball, Tom Bradley, and
me. When Mike Kane was the first one chosen this year (the voting is by the former winners), we thought that a little joke still applied, namely,
that you had to be named Don, Tom or Mike to win. Fortunately, Bill Kervan broke that record. Now, the award is open to the world.

Normally, we give out one award a year; this year we're giving two because, for reasons that are lost to history, we failed to give
out an award last year.

The banquet, set for Saturday night, April 27th at Martel's Restaurant at 65 O'Neill Road in Albany, comes on the eve of a new
season. The 45 season begins the next day. Banquet organizer (and, for that matter, Board Member, Capital Division organizer,,
business owner, husband, father, pitcher, catcher and expert time manager) Don Ball, himself a former Jordan winner,
says we have more than 100 guys coming.

So, if you haven't added your name to the list, do so ASAP. The best thing is to play ball; the second best, and close second at that,
is to cheer others for the way they play it. Both make you feel good.

Tickets are $30 each. Please make checks payable to CDMSBL and mail them to Don Ball at:

436 Wellington Road
Delmar, New York 12054

-Mike





-- Edited by mikehart on Wednesday 17th of April 2019 10:25:20 PM