FOR SERVING OUR LEAGUE AND COMMUNITY WITH AN UNBRIDLED LOVE FOR THE GAME, BILL EVANS HAS BEEN NAMED THE INAUGURAL INDUCTEE IN OUR NEWLY MINTED HALL OF FAME
Selection of Bill Evans photos taken from 2013 to 2017.
Post composed by Paul Hum with a file from Paul Bagnell
The Toronto Playgrounds House League Baseball Committee has named Bill Evans as the inaugural inductee into our newly christened TP House League Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bill Evans, inaugural inductee of the Toronto Playgrounds House League Baseball Hall of Fame Award.
Before an enthusiastic crowd at the Bob Abate Community and Recreation Centre this evening, the committee made the special announcement at its 2016 Annual General Membership Meeting.
The Hall of Fame award is a new honour that is bestowed upon people within our community that have really made exemplary contributions to our baseball program over a long period of time.
Bill has been a member of our TP Baseball Family for the past nine seasons. He started his association with us back in 2008 when he registered his son (Harris) in our Tee Ball program. Shortly afterwards, Bill began to take an active coaching role in our league.
In 2010, Bill was asked to become a TP Baseball committee member in our organization. (All the committee members in our program are volunteers who receive no financial remuneration.)
After becoming the league president back in December of 2012, Bill continues to make an enormous contribution to our baseball organization not only at the House League and Select levels as our helmsman, but also at the local and regional levels via the Toronto Baseball Association (TBA).
Here is a shortlist of Bill’s achievements for our league over the past four plus years:
- With unbridled zeal and energy, Bill was the sparkplug behind TP’s successful effort to receive a $150,000 financial commitment from the Jays Care Foundation, for the installation of lights at Christie Pits Diamond 3. This grand achievement is the impetus of our current ‘Lights on 3’ fundraising initiative.
- Upon taking the president’s role, he has infused the baseball committee with a sense of enthusiasm and confidence that TP can become bigger and better over time.
- As a professional accountant, Bill has made a vast improvement in the quality of our financial statements.
- Taking leadership role in making TP become a non-profit corporation (which opens up the door to funding opportunities to us that were not there before).
- Bill introduced many new ideas to help raise money for our baseball program like the annual ‘Derby for Distance’ fundraiser and the Toronto Blue Jays Honda Baseball Clinic.
- Helping TP adapt to the administrative and logistical pressures that come with the dramatic registration growth in our House League program.
- Presiding over the successful growth in our TP Select program.
- Being the impetus behind an initiative to provide much better training for our volunteer coaches. For the past four winters, at least ten of our TP coaches have attended the annual Toronto Blue Jays Academy National Coaching Clinic at the Rogers Centre. And it was also Bill’s idea to have experienced coaches hold a “Coaching The Coaches” event each spring at Christie Pits,
- In addition, he has also represented and continues to TP House League Baseball at the TBA level.
- As president, Bill has steadfastly stood up for our principles of inclusion and equal participation in our House League and Select programs.
Even as the full-time president of the eleven-member volunteer baseball committee, Bill has continued find the time to coach teams at both the House League and Select levels. As skipper, his TP Mosquito Select team won the Etobicoke Baseball Association (EBA)/West TBA Championship in 2014. In 2015, Bill led the Expos to the TP House League Baseball Peewee Division Championship.
However, wins or losses are not a primary concern of Bill’s overall baseball equation. His principal goal has always been to make sure that every player, regardless of their skill level, has fun on the diamond while learning the wonderful game of baseball.
Without question, Bill has given it his all for our league and the community that it serves during the past nine years. His pure and unbridled love for the game is unparalleled and energizes all of us. For that, the entire TP House League Baseball Family is forever grateful and offers its sincerest congratulations to Bill for being the first member of our Hall of Fame.