Bill Martin ... One of the Area's Top Sports Fans
by Eddie O'Donnell
Reformer Sports Editor, July 12, 1972

Bill Martin has been a resident of Simcoe for 40 years, and for 34 of those years he has been active in both baseball and softball in several capacities.

To see Bill and his wife, the former Charlotte Dixon, at a ball game is indeed a common sight in Simcoe. The 65-year old barber says "I guess Charlotte and I see five of six games a week."

Bill moved here from the Parry Sound area at the age of 25, where he played intermediate baseball from the time he was 15 years old.

"In those days there weren't too many leagues around and the schedules were short," said Bill, referring to his days in Parry Sound. "Most of the baseball season was made up of tournament on the weekends."

Bill explained that he was no super star or boy wonder as a player, but he loved the game so much that he couldn't stay away from the ball park. "It started out when they didn't have enough players to field a team and they asked me to fill in. I jumped at the chance and soon became a regular."

Became Active in 1938

Bill didn't get actively involved in baseball in Simcoe until 1938 when it looked like intermediate baseball was going to die out in this area. Taking over the sponsorship and management that year, he carried on in that capacity until 1941 when World War 2 depleted the ranks and the Simcoe Red Sox, as they were known then, folded like most of the other teams around here.

"Those were three memorable years and I had some pretty good ball players on those teams," he recalled. Karl Davidson and Speck Beckett at first base, the infielders Chuck Earls, Fred Given, Mel Peacock and Harley Whitehead were some of the names he mentioned on those teams. Outfielders included Bev Jaques, Don White, Gord Dickson, Howard Townsend, Ernie Weaver and Morley Leatherdale. On the mound he had Lefler, Ted Wescott and Howard Aaron with Derwin Carter and Eddie O'Donnell on the receiving end. "We didn't win any provincial championships but we sure had a lot of enjoyment from playing two games a week and one practice," he said.

After the War, in 1947 to be exact, a group of boys approached Bill to see if he would look after a midget baseball team in Simcoe. "They had the players and a sponsor (Three Links) and needed a coach and manager to look after them. I couldn't turn them down when they came into the shop. Once again I was back in the game I loved best."

"It has been 25 years since Bill started coaching me in midget baseball. In 1947 baseball just started up again and Bill was one of the first men to look after minor baseball, said Earl "Spud" Chandler, one of the two active players today from the minor teams Bill coached.

Taught Us To Hustle. Bill always told the boys to hustle on and off the playing field between innings. "If you didn't hustle you sat on the bench," Spud explained. "Bill taught us sportsmanship, a desire to win, and the importance of playing as a team. This has stayed with me for 25 years," the veteran lefthander continued.

Spud felt the honour he received in making the all-Ontario all-star junior team in 1949 was secondary to the tribute paid to Bill, who was appointed one of the coaches of that team. The all-start team played an exhibition game at Maple Leaf Stadium in Toronto in 1949.

In 1948 several of the boys went over age as midgets and Bill, with help from several Simcoe merchants, took over the sponsorship of a juvenile team known as the Aitken-Chevs. Then in 1950, other sponsors took over and they became the Legion Pontiacs.

"I feel satisfied that I have given young boys a start in baseball and watched them go on to help Simcoe teams win several OBA championships," the pipe-smoking former Mayor said.

Bill named some of his players on those early teams. They were catchers Jack Schweitzer, Jim Quinn, Roy Bock and Bob Cross; infielders Ken Pond, Walt Gardner, Dick Pearce, Max Whitehead, Don Lindsay, Karl Kowalsky, Jim Adams, Larry Pond, Bill Moore, Vic Gibbons, Harry Bentley, Clare Kimball, Brian Coates, Ron Bearse; outfielders Jim Cleaver, Bev Hall, Reg Bassett, Ben Mullen, Jim Earl; and pitchers Spud Chandler, Lyall Barber, Brian Rodgers and Harvey Ross.

Like A Father. "Bill Martin is like a father to all boys," was the way Doug King, another baseball stalwart in Simcoe described the former Mayor. Doug says anyone who ever played ball for Bill loved and respected him and were fortunate to have played under him. "Bill's stories of games he has been in are a real treat to hear and you haven't really enjoyed a ball game until you sit near him and listen to his comments of the game."

The only other of Bill's originals had a similar amount of praise for his former coach. Jim Adams thinks Bill's contribution to baseball, as a coach, manager and spectator is terrific. "I've never played a game in Simcoe in the past 15 years without seeing Bill there," said Jim. "I just wish there were more fans in Simcoe today like him."

It is not unusual, especially in playoff time, to see Bill and his wife at a baseball game in the afternoon or early evening and then rush down to watch a softball game under the lights in another park. "I get more kicks outs of watching the local boys playing ball than I do from watching a World Series," Bill said, "and I try to follow all the area teams from squirt or tyke to intermediate, until they either win a championship or are eliminated, whenever I have the time."

"Thank you Bill Martin," Spud concluded, "I wish there were more people like you in Simcoe, somebody that you coached who would come out and help the kids today."

Bill served on the Simcoe Council for 13 years and was Mayor of Simcoe in 1952 and 1953. "My duties as Mayor of the Town kept me very busy and began to interfere with my coaching duties. I finally had to give up coaching at the end of the 1951 season much to my regret."

Although Bill's main sport interest is ball, he is very knowledgeable on others. He is a hockey fan, an ardent hunter and fisherman, a better than average golfer, and enthusiastic about any kind of card game.

Bill and Charlotte were married in 1932 and they have two daughters, Arlene is a nurse at the Crippled Children's Centre in Toronto, and Mrs. Ian (Marion) Scott, also of Toronto, is the mother of Bill's three grandchildren.

Bill has been a barber for 41 years. He loves to putter around his house and lawn on his days off. "I used to go to the games once in a while before we had a car, said Mrs. Martin, "but now I like to get to as many as possible as long as I can stay comfortable." Mrs. Martin admitted she, like her husband, enjoys watching the local teams playing more than any of the others.

Couldn't Talk. "Bill was so interested in ball he would turn on the radio at breakfast to listen to the sports news, come home at noon and listen to the sports news again, and then it was the same thing at supper time. Nobody was allowed to talk when the sports news was on."

"Simcoe needs more fans like Bill and Charlotte Martin," according to John MacDonald, another staunch supporter of Simcoe teams. "They are the kind of people you like to see in the stands, real supporters of local teams."

Bill turned 65 on March 11, 1972, but he has no intention of retiring, especially if there is a ball game for he and Mrs. Martin to attend.

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The above article is a close variation of part of Eddie O'Donnell's feature on Bill Martin from page 5 of July 12, 1972 Simcoe Reformer.