From 1958 through to 1976, the bats of senior men’s baseball fell silent in Sudbury.

What was once a hot-bed of the sport in the province of Ontario, a region where the local mining giant could lure talent from right across the country with the promise of work and play, suddenly found itself on the outside looking in.

Baseball had been by-passed by both fastball and soccer in the nickel city through much of the sixties. And even as Danny Gallagher, Berk Keaney and Gerry Wallace led a movement attempting to revive the joy of watching the boys of summer in these parts two decades later, questions remained as to whether there was enough interest to provide one final outlet for those youth who partook in the minor ball system and were not quite ready to hang up their gloves in early adulthood.

Sure, it was only the Coniston Red Sox, Copper Cliff Redmen and Sudbury Shamrocks that would jump aboard that first year (1976), but increasing support and the completion of what is now the Terry Fox Sports Complex in 1980 gave way to the 1983 Canadian National Senior Men’s Baseball Championships being hosted in Sudbury.

A tournament program at his side, Rick Koritko remembers the tournament well. Only 18 years old at the time, the multi-sport athlete admittedly did not see much field time at nationals, the Shamrocks having loaded up in anticipation of welcoming six teams representing the remainder of Canada to northern Ontario.

It was a vibrant time to be involved in sport in Sudbury, as we shared stories about a multitude of familiar names from that era. There was so much on the go through the mid-seventies and into the eighties when Koritko really rose to prominence in the Nickel Region Senior Baseball League (NRSBL), an absolutely dominant left-handed pitcher who got his start on the diamonds at the opposite end of the baseball battery.

The youngest of six children born and raised in Gatchell, Rick was also the last of the four boys in the family on the scene, all blessed with a keen interest in sports. “That’s why I’m a left-handed catcher,” the soon-to-be 61 year old said with a laugh. “My brothers would throw the ball at me and I learned to catch.”

In a sense, the young man was fortunate to arrive on this earth when he did. Older brothers Steve, Paul and David did not receive exposure to “city hockey”, as the rep non-playground stream was originally dubbed, until their bantam or midget years. Rick was immersed from a much younger age, welcomed aboard at atom.

“I played hockey and baseball all the time growing up, but in Gatchell, we played everything,” said Koritko. On the off-chance that there was not a large enough group to form a full team game, makeshift baseball outings on the boccia courts behind St Anthony would give way to the Koritko – Rupnik rivalry.

With a pure competitive stream for baseball still taking form in Sudbury, Koritko and the likes John and Al Longlade, Bob Leore and so many others were force-fed to an adult league while still in their mid-teens. Koritko would join the newly-formed Walden Cubs, along with his brother Steve, framing pitches for Dave “Speedy” Boyd and Cam Hreljac and finishing the season with a catching hand that was twice the size it was on opening day.

For as much as there was an interesting mix of the old and the new in the NRSBL, the formative development was nowhere near what exists today, young pitchers learning by trial and error.

“Nobody taught me how to throw,” said Koritko. “I just had this weird motion – and my four-seam fastball would move.”

Throw in the fact that he was a leftie and you have the makings of a mound presence who might only drop one out of every ten decisions as he jumped from a four year stint with Walden on to the powerhouse that would become the Rastall Mine Kings, a team initiated with friends Rob Helpert and Dominic Reale – just as Koritko and company entered their early twenties.

If some of these names bring about memories from a variety of athletic undertakings, that will come as little surprise. Though not part of the progressive hockey pathway and the powder blue Sudbury uniforms, Koritko would go on to play two years with the Laurentian Voyageurs men’s hockey team under well-known local hockeyman Moe Bartoli.

It was the early to mid eighties and while L.U. was not necessarily a threat to win it all in the OUA, a record of .500 or better was well within range for teams that boasted locals Mike Hickey and Eddie Battiston, Jeff Fenerty and Ray Plante, Denis Castonguay and Peter Kiernan – and 1983 SDSSAA Top Defenceman Rick Koritko.

“Those were two of the best years of my life,” said Koritko, who actually played one season overseas on the urging of Sudbury hockey compatriot Brian Jokat, the duo part of the import crew for a team based in Sarajevo (Yugoslavia) before returning home to attend Cambrian College.

Ironically, a good number of the same gents who were among the very best of the NRSBL of the 1980’s also had jumped aboard the burgeoning market that was slo-pitch baseball, with Koritko sharing some memories of bombs blasted at the plate in both settings.

Chocked full of all sorts of solid Sudbury baseball history, the program for the 1983 nationals also featured the following nuggets about those first few years of the revival of senior men’s baseball in Sudbury:

NRSBL League Champions
Coniston Red Sox – 1976 – 1977 – 1978
Sudbury Shamrocks – 1979
Copper Cliff Redmen – 1980
Coniston Red Sox – 1981
Copper Cliff Redmen – 1982

NRSBL League MVPs
1976 – Chico Sylvestri (Coniston)
1977 – Clare Osborne (Sudbury)
1978 – Mike Fox (Coniston)
1979 – Bernie McShane (Valley East)
1980 – John Rawlings (Garson)
1981 – Rick Kirkwood (Garson)
1982 – Dan Hreljac (Copper Cliff)

NRSBL – Batting Champions
1976 – Chico Sylvestri (Coniston)
1977 – Mike Fox (Coniston)
1978 – Rick Kirkwood (Copper Cliff)
1979 – Mike Fox (Coniston)
1980 – Brian Slywchuk (Coniston)
1981 – Rick Kirkwood (Garson)
1982 – Brian Shore (Walden)