Todd Ferrier doesn’t remember swarming his teammates after winning the 1983 national juvenile baseball championship in Winnipeg, but he vividly recalls a flubbed play earlier in the tournament.
It’s etched permanently in the 53-year-old Barrie resident’s memory.
In late-August, the Barrie Marrow Insurance Marauders were up against Delta (B.C.) in their third game of the event and their second meeting of the double-knockout tournament, following a previous 5-1 Barrie victory.
Ferrier, primarily the team’s catcher but who was playing second base that day, doesn’t remember the exact circumstances of the play, other than he should’ve caught a routine fly and his failure to do so allowed a run to score, as Delta squeaked out a 3-2 victory.
“I wear that one, it was my error,” said Ferrier, still contrite 35 years after the fact. “It was a flyball, miscommunication; I didn’t catch the ball.”
He recalls it being around the sixth inning of a “very competitive game. It was just a mistake at the wrong time and it cost us."
The flyball went behind first base, so Ferrier came toward first-baseman Tim Swain and both called for the ball.
“And then it dropped in between us,” Ferrier said. “Basic baseball rules say the person who’s coming in takes it over the person who’s going back. I was the person coming in.
“It happens, I know it happens, but it doesn’t really bug me right now and the reason is because we kicked their ass the next game,” he added.
“There’s no doubt it will come up this weekend.”
The Barrie boys, a collection of 18- and 19-year-olds, went on to capture the national bison championship, as the age group was known, with a 7-2 triumph over those very same British Columbians in the next game.
“The final game, we were possessed right from the beginning,” Ferrier said. “We got on them right away. We took the lead and they never even started to get back into the game.”
The Barrie Marrow Insurance Marauders team will be celebrated with a get-together this weekend, including a ceremonial first pitch using the 1983 ball (signed by the Marauders) prior to Saturday afternoon’s Barrie Baycats game.
When that final out was recorded in 1983, Ferrier says he remembers being overcome by a mixture of feelings.
“It was joy in that we won, relief in that my miscue in the game before didn’t turn out to be fatal,” he said, adding the experience illustrates his mantra of never getting too high and never too low. “That play, at the end of the story, means nothing.”
At nationals, Barrie blasted the Quebec All-Stars, 14-0, before facing rival Delta (B.C.) in the second game where they pulled out a 5-0 win followed by a 9-4 triumph against Kentville (N.S).
“We were, without question, the best team there, top to bottom,” said Ferrier, a retired police officer. “No doubt, there were probably players there who maybe went on and did more individually, but on that day in August, they couldn’t compete with us as a team.”
Some players on the squad came up through the ranks together and grew to know each other’s mannerisms.
“A lot of times, you wouldn’t really have to say anything,” Ferrier said. “It would be a nod or a little movement and they would know what was coming next. It could be a pick-off play or a specific pitch you want thrown.
“Our team chemistry was good and everybody was very competitive, which helped form this run to the nationals,” he added. “Everybody had the same goal and everybody wanted to win every, single game.”
The Marauders squad included Henry Koopmans, Rob Roy, Todd Ferrier, Dave McAllister, Kevin McNabb, Tim Swain, Paul Deverell, Rick Orser, Steve Collins, Karam Kennedy, Craig Pender, Yves Loiselle, Billy Joe Muise, Paul Nastasiuk, Jim Davidge and B.J. Cochrane, as well as John Foley and Peter De Lulio who were added from Hamilton, plus Todd Teno, Chico LaBute and Jim Ravait from Windsor. The Barrie team’s manager was Nick Owen alongside coaches Arnold Ziegler and Harold Ferrier.
Several players from that 1983 team still reside locally, including some of whom Ferrier later played slo-pitch with, but some he hasn’t seen in years.
Plenty of activities have been planned for this weekend, including a team gathering Friday and a pig roast Saturday night, but Ferrier says he’s looking forward to the players being guests of honour at Saturday’s Baycats game as well as seeing some of the parents who can make it out.
“We’re really looking forward to them being there,” he said of the parents who supported the team during that historic run to a national title. “From some of the parents I’ve spoken to, they’re really looking forward to it.
“We were kids back then and now we’re not. Some of us have retired now, and that’s a little mind-blowing. It’s going to be different for everybody.”
Saturday’s Baycats game against the London Majors has been moved up to 2 p.m. to accommodate the pre-game celebration, which will include each Marauder being introduced at Coates Stadium in Midhurst.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the guys and hearing exactly what’s going on in their lives now,” Ferrier said. “I knew all about their lives back in ‘83, but I don’t know that much now.”
Ferrier says there’s an odd feeling digging into the past.
“Looking forward 35 years is a long time,” he said. “Looking back 35 years, it wasn’t that long ago.
“This is going to be a weekend of ‘remember when’ and until someone says ‘remember when…?’, it’ll be totally lost in your memory banks,” Ferrier said. “Once they give you that little cue, it’s going to be ‘Ya, I remember that’.”
Ferrier encourages people to come out Saturday and reminisce, including family and friends of everyone involved.
