Rob Thomson (Corunna, Ont.) who guided the Philadelphia Phillies to the 2022 World Series headlines the OBA HOF class of 2023.

September 14, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

A former major league outfielder, a World Series manager, a man who has represented Canada proudly around the world and two icons of the Ontario sandlots make up the Baseball Ontario’s Hall of Fame class of 2023.

Frank Colman (London), who spent six years in the majors with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees; Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson (Corunna); Baseball Canada, director of national teams Greg Hamilton (Peterborough), the late Troy May (Oshawa) and the late Len Andrews (Campbellville) complete the class.

Len Andrews

Andrews ran the Campbellville Merchants, which won 11 consecutive Halton County league titles and 12 Baseball Ontario titles between 1952-1967. Quite the accomplishment for a hamlet of 300 at the time.

He was a past president of the OBA and an honorary life member. Andrews passed away in 2006, at age 85.

Frank Colman (London, Ont.) added another HOF induction to his resume.

Frank Colman

In his debut game in the majors on Sept. 12, 1942, Colman singled leading off the ninth facing Al Javery as the Pirates played the Boston Braves to a 2-2, 11-inning game at Braves Field in Boston. Manager Frankie Frisch pencilled in Colman batting third ahead of Bob Elliott, five years later the NL MVP winner and the last third baseman to win since Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt.

To start at the start, Colman attended H. B. Beal Secondary School in London, Ont. Colman won the Intercounty League’s batting crown and MVP award while leading his hometown London Majors to a championship in 1936. He pitched as well as playing the outfield and had the interest of several pro clubs, including the International League’s Toronto Maple Leafs who would convert him into an outfielder in 1941.

He played for 255 games for Pittsburgh in parts of five seasons with the likes of Hall of Famer Al Lopez, plus Vince DiMaggio, Rip Sewell, Preacher Roe, Babe Dahlgren, Boom-Boom Beck and Al Gionfriddo.

Colman’s contract was purchased by the New York Yankees in June of 1946 and under managers Joe McCarthy, Bill Dickey and Johnny Neun finished third behind the Boston Red Sox. He spent that season and 1947 in pinstripes with the likes of Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, Red Ruffing, Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, as well as Tommy Henrich, Charlie (King Kong) Keller, Spud Chandler, Snuffy Stirnweiss, Allie Reynolds and Bobo Newsom. He played 27 games with the Yankees batting .163.

In 271 games in the majors, he had a career .228 average with 25 doubles, eight triples, 15 homers, 106 RBIs and a .669 OPS. He earned a World Series ring as the Yankees beat Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games in the World Series. Joe Page pitched five innings of scoreless relief for the 5-2 win in Game 7.

Colman returned to the minors the following season and re-signed with the Maple Leafs, where he served as a player-coach from 1951 to 1953, a similar role he filled with the London Majors in 1954.

In the minors, he played for the class-C Cornwall Maple Leafs, class-D Batavia Clippers, class-B Wilmington Blue Rocks, double-A Toronto Maple Leafs, triple-A Newark Bears, triple-A Seattle Rainers and the triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs. He was a double duty man pitching as well at Cornwall, Batavia and Wilmington, going 18-11.

In 1955, he co-founded London’s Eager Beaver Baseball Association, a minor ball organization that’s now one of the most respected in the province. Each year, Eager Beaver stages a Colman Day in his memory and next year it the 70th season. Former Canadian Baseball Network prolific scribe Alexis Brudnicki is a graduate of the Eager Beaver program.

He was inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame in 1999 and the London Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and died Feb. 19, 1983 at age 64. He is buried at Woodland Cemetery in London.

Greg Hamilton

Hamilton was born in Toronto and grew up in Peterborough. He was an outstanding athlete playing ball from tyke to midget at the triple-A and all-star level. He played junior for East York along with his dear pal Rick Johnston (Peterborough). Their names come up often when there is a dispute over a player’s home address. “What’s the big deal about an address?” asked OBA lifetime member Howie Birnie (Leaside, Ont.) once. “East York had two guys living under fake addresses -- one does an excellent job running Baseball Canada, the other operates one of the most successful indoor facilities in the province.”

Hamilton played hockey as a freshman at Princeton University, then became a pitcher for the Tigers. Hamilton was a member of the Ivy League champs in 1991. He also was assistant coach for two seasons at Princeton. He began with Team Canada in 1992, then took a job as pitching coach and general manager of the Barracudas de Montpellier of Division Élite in France in 1993 and helped the team to three titles in a row. A few years ago, the field was re-named Greg Hamilton Field. Of course, Hamilton with a lack of bravado, never told anyone. Someone found out two years after the official ceremony he had been honoured for his five years coaching in France.

One reason for success came from the arrival of undrafted TCU RHP Jeff Zimmerman (Kelowna, BC). Hamilton taught him a slider and Zimmerman went on to pitch for the Texas Rangers, made the All-Star Game at Fenway Park as a set-up man in 2000 and took over for John Wetteland the next year saving 28 games for the Rangers before injuring his arm. Hamilton became head coach of the Junior National Team, leading them to a bronze in the 1997 Worlds and was named Baseball Canada coach of the year. After being an assistant for the University of Maine Black Bears in 1998, he returned to Junior team full time in 1999.

That was a turning point for the program as Hamilton organized the high schoolers to take trips to Florida to play first and second-year pro players. Many a scout have told me how much easier it was to scout Canadians facing pro pitching compared to a prospect pitcher facing a prospect hitter in Canada after the coach told the pitcher “don’t throw him a strike.” For example, Brett Lawrie had over 100 at-bats against pro pitching and was selected in the first round. Canada’s best year internationally was 2011 when the Canadian senior team won Pan-Am Games gold, took the bronze in the World Cup and won silver at the Junior Worlds to climb to sixth in the world rankings. Hamilton put together all three teams, for in addition to coaching, he is responsible for evaluating and selecting players and coaches.

Hamilton led the Junior National Team to two World Cup bronze medals (1997, 2006) and one silver (2012) while seeing an impressive group of graduates reach the majors, including Jason Bay (Trail, BC), Russell Martin (Montreal, Que.), Justin Morneau (New Westminster, BC), Michael Saunders (Victoria, BC), Josh and Bo Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) plus Mike Soroka (Calgary, Alta.). Besides 2011, Hamilton put together national team squads that won medals in two other Pan Ams (Gold 2015 and Silver 2019).

Now, 58, Hamilton, coached Canada in the 2004 Olympics, 2007 World Cup, 2008 Olympic qualifier, 2008 Olympics and 2010 Pan American Games qualifier and each World Baseball Classic. As director and GM of Team Canada, his portfolio includes loading equipment bags into a rental truck at Pearson and making the five-hour drive to his home in Orleans.. On his own -- when a flight connection wasn’t made.

Troy May

May, whose roots go back to Scarborough, started his coaching career in Agincourt, graduated to Leaside Juniors sin 1992 and was moved to an out to Oshawa dugout. In Oshawa with the Junior Legionaires in 1994, a team he guided for eight seasons, winning the OBA eliminations in 1999 to reach the nationals. He coached his sons’ mosquito and rookie ball teams and started the first rookie ball program with the Oshawa Legionaires.

May also found time to work as a level 4 ump in his spare time. He had a dream of fielding an Oshawa team in the Intercounty League. He became the owner and manager of the IBL’s Oshawa Dodgers in 2001 and the Dodgers started play the following year. May served as president of OLBA and the Eastern Ontario Baseball Association.

We once saw May’s Dodgers lose a heart breaker of a playoff elimination game at Arnold Anderson Stadium against the Brantford Red Sox when a ball hit a wire in right field. Suddenly what looked like an out was a run. May argued the call and the ground rule without success.

Yet, half an hour after the heart-breaking loss there he was hitting ground balls to his sons. May passed away on July 19, 2006, from injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident travelling from one ball game to another. He was 39 years of age, but crammed decades of ball and memories into his short lifetime.

He ran a sports store in Oshawa. More than one coach -- looking to replace broken catcher’s gear or in need of new baseballs -- would drop by. May would always solve the problem saying “ah, see me at the end of the season.” Of course, not all coaches did, but that was the size of the man’s heart.

Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson (Corunna, Ont.)

Rob Thomson

Born in 1963 in Sarnia, Ont., Thomson grew up in nearby Corunna. He played for the Sarnia Drawbridge Inn juniors, who won the Canadian titles in 1983 and 1987 and then the Intercounty League’s Stratford Nationals in the early 1980s.

Thomson was part of the 1984 Canadian team that played in Los Angeles, Canada’s first Olympic team. He attended St. Clair County Community College where he played for one year, before transferring to the University of Kansas, leading the Jayhawks in hits in 1984 and 1985 and owning the school record for the highest single-season batting average. In 1985, he was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 32nd round. The catcher advanced as high as the class-A level before turning to coaching in 1988. Until 1990, he served as a minor league coach in the Tigers organization.

Joining the New York Yankees, Thomson spent one year as the manager of the Class-A Oneonta Yankees, and several more years in various front office capacities for the New York Yankees including as major league field coordinator. That meant he ran spring training for manager Joe Torre. He then served as the Yankees’ bench coach in 2008, third base coach from 2009-2014, and bench coach again from 2015-2017.

In 2018, Thomson was named as the bench coach of the Philadelphia Phillies. On June 3, 2022, Thomson was named interim manager of the Philadelphia Phillies following the firing of manager Joe Girardi. After leading the Phillies to their first playoff series win since 2010, Thomson was named the full-time manager on October 10, 2022. That year, he went on to lead the Phillies to their first National League pennant since 2009.

He won five World Series rings as minor league field co-ordinator and a National League championship ring in 2022, as his Phillies lost the World Series to the Houston Astros.

Elliott: OBA HOF 2023 class - Andrews, Colman, Hamilton, May, Thomson