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Chatham All-Stars shut out again from Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

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The 1934 Chatham Colored All-Stars were shut out again when the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame announced its latest inductees on Feb. 1.

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The All-Stars were the first Black team to win an Ontario Baseball Amateur Association championship.

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They’ve been on the Hall of Fame ballot since 2017 and remain eligible until 2026.

The Class of 2023 consists of three former Major League players – Canadian pitchers Denis Boucher and Rich Harden and ex-Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jesse Barfield – and longtime Manitoba coach Joe Wiwchar. They’ll be inducted into the St. Marys shrine June 17 with former Blue Jays first baseman John Olerud and Montreal Expos broadcaster Jacques Doucet, who were elected in 2020 but haven’t been able to attend the ceremony.

Supporters of the Colored All-Stars have been lobbying for years to get the team into the Hall of Fame. They’ve held celebratory slo-pitch games attended by hundreds of fans at Fergie Jenkins Field at Rotary Park the past two years.

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Chatham-Kent council has endorsed the team’s induction in the past and asked municipalities across Canada for support.

Only five teams – two community teams and three national teams – have been enshrined in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame since the first class was inducted in 1983.

The All-Stars were inducted into the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, the Baseball Ontario Hall of Fame in 2018 and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.

The All-Stars played from 1932 to 1939. Most were from Chatham and Kent County, but a few also came from Walpole Island and Windsor and Detroit.

The All-Stars had to overcome discrimination on and off the field. Fans hurled racial insults and threats. Umpires made questionable calls. Hotels and restaurants turned them away.

They won the OBAA intermediate B championship in 1934 after winning Chatham’s city league against white teams. They were OBAA finalists in 1935 and 1939 as well.

They were the first Black team to enter the OBAA playdowns.

Ferguson Jenkins Sr., the father of the first Canadian inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., joined the All-Stars in 1935.

The 1934 team’s last surviving player, Don Tabron, died in December 2008 at age 93.

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