For Kincaid native Al Herback, his induction into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame Saturday was a humbling moment as he received his plaque at the Alex Dillabough Centre.
“It’s been a tremendous experience,” said Herback, who now lives in Chestermere, Alta.
“This is something I really hoped would happen at some point. I grew up here and learning everything about the game in Saskatchewan, so it’s a real honour to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in North Battleford.”
Before moving to Calgary for his teaching career in 1970, Herback suited up for the Regina Red Sox in junior and senior leagues before winning the national senior men’s championship with the Calgary Jimmies in 1976.
After his playing career ended, Herback has been involved in developing baseball programs for coaches and players throughout North America and was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
“I think a lot of times people don’t realize how good the baseball was here during the 1960s and the 1970s,” Herback said. “I think it’s great to see so many guys in that group be rewarded for what they’d done and I’m honoured to be included in that group.
“There were a ton of tremendous baseball players in that time and if you follow it through and see the number of players that went on to Major League Baseball, there could have been even more. When you see the guys from the era who have been inducted like Wayne Commodore, Brian Keegan and Fred Cardwell, there’s a lot more who played in that time that I think will get their due and join the Hall of Fame.”
Joining Herback in the individual category were Don Anderson of Moose Jaw, Garry Anderson of Medicine Hat, Alta., the late Norman Arngrimson of Mozart, the late Jack Batey of Macklin, Cliff Campbell of Castor, Alta., Robert Faith of Lafleche, Jim Fink of Regina, Jamie Flanagan of Kindersley, Garnet Hansen of Weyburn, Ross Mahoney of Regina and Don Pankewich of Regina.
The biggest crowd of supporters came from the Hohenlohe school district team near Langenburg, as 105 people came to see that team join the Hall of Fame.
“That is a record for any group that has come to the ceremony,” Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame President and CEO Jane Shury said. “It was like a snowball effect with the amount of people coming getting bigger and bigger leading up to the event as everyone decided that they wanted to be here and experience this.
“It really varies from inductee to inductee as to how many come up here each year, but the previous highest mark was around 70 guests when the Swift Current Indians were inducted with the Moose Jaw Regals came close behind them.”
Also inducted in the team category were the Wawota Pats and the Broadview Buffaloes teams that played from the 1936 to 1938.
The Woodard family of Colgate was enshrined into the family category while the village of Mervin was selected into the community category.
Special presentations were also made to guest speaker Danny Gallagher, a long time baseball reporter and author from Uxbridge, Ont., and to CTV Regina reporter Darrell Romuld who accepted an accolade on behalf of the station for their work to promote the Hall of Fame over the last year.
“One of our board members (Lorne Harasen of Regina) felt like we needed to do something when it comes to advertising the Hall of Fame, though we needed to make sure we didn’t spend a lot of money as we need to use that for other projects,” Shury said.
“He took it upon himself to go to the CTV station in Regina and they ended up coming here to shoot an ad. They played it throughout the baseball season this year and we’re really appreciative of the exposure that we’ve been given as people have mentioned it to us when they’ve come up here from out of town.”
