Mr. Joe Mullins.
It’s a name that the Corner Brook Baseball Association (CBBA) remembers and honours with an annual baseball tournament in the spring of the year in Corner Brook.
The association has held an annual Joe Mullins Memorial Baseball Tournament for 16 years to celebrate the commitment Mr. Mullins — who died in 2002 — made to baseball and his community.
Related stories:
Young baseball players to celebrate the memory of Joe Mullins
It’s also a tournament that CBBA minor chairperson Darrin O’Quinn says was designed to promote baseball to area youth by giving them a chance to discover the game and maybe get motivated to register for the summer minor baseball setup.
O’Quinn has been punching a lot of hours getting everything ready for the 2018 Joe Mullins Memorial — a tournament that features 27 teams with 19 in the elementary division and eight in the U15 division — an increase of seven teams over last year.
“I’m stressing. This is a pile of work,” O’Quinn told The Western Star in a telephone call Wednesday when asked how things were shaping up for the tournament.
O’Quinn was trying to figure out how he was going to be able to accommodate 43 games of baseball over two days and was still fielding calls about the possibility of playing with a team or having a team entered.
“It’s expanding exponentially,” O’Quinn said. Kids are just coming out of the woodwork.”
O’Quinn expects a beehive of activity at Jubilee Field and Ambrose O’Reilly Memorial Field with as many as five games going on at the one time on Jubilee on Saturday in an effort to get it all wrapped up on the weekend.
He said the elementary division won’t be really competitive, with no game scores being recorded, but there will be some good competition in the U15 bracket on both the male and female side with all teams looking to win it all.
“It’s going to be tight and there’s going to be baseballs going everywhere, but it’s going to be an absolute riot,” he said.
He admits it’s been the most stressful tournament he ever helped organize.
But, he’s quite fine now knowing everything he envisioned for the future of the game is starting to come to fruition with the numbers showing a steady rise.
Schedule:
SATURDAY, JUNE 2
15U Male Division
at Ambrose O’Reilly Memorial Field
11:30 a.m. — Pasadena 2 vs Corner Brook 1
1:30 p.m. — Corner Brook 2 vs Pasadena 1
3:30 p.m. — Pasadena 2 vs Corner Brook 2
5:30 p.m. — Corner Brook 1 vs Pasadena 1
15U Female Division
at Fred Basha Memorial Park
9 a.m. — Pasadena vs Corner Brook 2
11 a.m. — Corner Brook 1 vs Grand Falls-Windsor
1 p.m. — Corner Brook 1 vs Corner Brook 2
3 p.m. — Grand Falls-Windsor vs Pasadena
5 p.m. — Corner Brook 1 vs Pasadena
7 p.m. — Grand Falls-Windsor vs Corner Brook 2
Elementary Division
Male
Jubilee Field
9:30 a.m. — C. C. Loughlin 1 vs J. J. Curling 1(Little Jubilee)
11 a.m. — Stephenville vs Eastside Elementary 3 (Home Plate)
11 a.m. — J. J. Curling 2 vs Eastside Elementary 4 (Little Jubilee)
12:30 p.m. — Templeton Academy 2 vs Pasadena (Home Plate)
12:30 p.m. — J. J. Curling 1 vs Templeton Academy 1 (Left Field)
12:30 p.m. — Sacred Heart vs Eastside Elementary 1 (Centre Field)
12:30 p.m. — Bay St. George vs C. C. Loughlin 1 (Right Field)
12:30 p.m. — Eastside Elementary 2 vs Stephenville (Little Jubilee)
2 p.m. — Eastside Elementary 3 vs J. J. Curling 2 (Home Plate)
2 p.m. — Eastside Elementary 4 vs Bay St. George (Little Jubilee)
3:30 p.m. — C. C. Loughlin 1 vs Eastside Elementary 1 (Home Plate)
3:30 p.m. — Stephenville vs Pasadena (Left Field)
3:30 p.m. — Eastside Elementary 2 vs Templeton Academy 2 (Centre Field)
3:30 p.m. — Eastside Elementary 3 vs J. J. Curling 1 (Right Field)
3:30 p.m. — Eastside Elementary 4 vs Sacred Heart (Little Jubilee)
5 p.m. — Pasadena vs J. J. Curling 2 (Home Plate)
5 p.m. — Templeton Academy 1 vs Bay St. George (Little Jubilee)
at Ambrose O’Reilly Memorial Field
9 a.m. — Eastside Elementary 1 vs Templeton Academy 2 (Left Field)
9 a.m. — Templeton Academy 1 vs Sacred Heart (Home Plate)
9 a.m. — Pasadena vs Eastside Elementary 2 (Right Field)
Elementary Division
Female
Jubilee Field
11 a.m. — C. C. Loughlin vs J. J. Curling (Left Field)
11 a.m. — Sacred Heart vs Pasadena (Centre Field)
11 a.m. — Eastside Elementary vs Bay St. George (Right Field)
2 p.m. — C. C. Loughlin vs Bay St. George (Left Field)
2 p.m. — Sacred Heart vs Eastside Elementary (Centre Field)
2 p.m. — J. J. Curling vs Pasadena (Right Field)
5 p.m. — C. C. Loughlin vs Pasadena (Left Field)
5 p.m. — J. J. Curling vs Eastside Elementary ( Centre Field)
5 p.m. — Sacred Heart vs Bay St. George (Right Field)
SUNDAY, JUNE 3
15U Male Division
at Ambrose O’Reilly Memorial Field
9 a.m. — Corner Brook 1 vs Corner Brook 2
11 a.m. — Pasadena I vs Pasadena 2
15U Female Division
at Fred Basha Memorial Park
10 a.m. — Championship Game
