The three Cardinals, three brothers, Kenneth, Orvil and Allan Mything were directly and indirectly involved with their local ball team, the Climax Cardinals, for nearly six decades. The brothers will now head into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame Aug. 18 in the family category.
Their love of baseball began on the farm and was passed from father to son to grandson until the local ball club closed it's doors forever.
The three brothers were pitchers. One had a skill set of pitches that could leave an entire batting line-up confounded in their lack of success. Another had the speed and power that leaves a catcher icing his hand after a game. The other had the control, that easy grace that makes the implausible plausible. More than once it had been stated that if the three Mythings could have been combined into one player, you'd have the best pitcher ever there was.
Like so many youths born and raised on the Saskatchewan prairies, hard work and discipline were a common theme of day-to-day life. When chores were complete and those rare idle moments arose, the three brothers played catch.
Kenneth had the unique skill set of pitches. He is remembered as one of the most difficult pitchers in the league to hit. He played with the ball team for 40 years, and even as age stole the snap from his pitches, his knuckle balls and breaking balls left the batters frustrated not knowing how they missed the pitch.
Orvil had the speed and power both as a pitcher and batter. As a pitcher he loved throwing the ball hard enough that the batter just couldn't catch up. He once pitched a no-hitter while stationed in England during the war effort. As a batter he loved the long ball as his power lent plenty of speed and distance to his hits that found the far side of the fence. On the bases, Orvil's speed wreaked havoc.
Allan had a unique gift - control. His pitches never seemed to miss their mark, always consistent and hard to hit. As the youngest brother, he was often left as the odd man out while his brothers would play catch, so he would nail an old car tire sawed in half to the barn wall. If he threw it just right, he could get the ball to go in one side of the tire and it would arc within the semi-circle and come out the other side back to his glove.
With the power and beauty of youth, the Mything brothers were a dominant force, taking league championship after league championship. The passion and talent for the game remains a testament to unique complexity of this past time. As that passion passed from father to son to grandson, a Mything's name virtually graced the score sheets of the Climax Cardinals from the early 1940s to the late 1990s.
