With the demise of the Middleton entry in the import laden Halifax and District League in 1950, the Middleton Amateur Athletic Association decided to go with a local lineup in the Intermediate ranks for 1951, a fortuitous decision. Under the capable guidance of player-coach Mann Deveau and long-time manager Cyril “Syke” Joudrie, the local star-studded roster was ready for all opposition.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals, playing in the strong Central Valley League, captured the title by defeating Digby Ravens in the playoffs. On the Provincial scene, they next disposed of Halifax. Following a controversial playoff with the Clarks Harbour Cloverleafs, the N.S.A.B.A. ordered Middleton to play against the Carl Matheson led Londonderry Ironclads for the N.S. title. With big, powerful righthander Gerry “Fats” Ray on the mound and battery mate Harry Coleman’s grand slam home run providing the offence, the Cards took the \u2018Clads by a score of 11-1 in game one. Game two was called due to darkness with the score knotted at five all. Southpaw Billy Gates led Middleton to a 7-3 victory before Londonderry bounced back to take game four. In an extra inning battle, the Cardinals prevailed 2-1 for the championship victory.<\/p>\n
Once suitable financial arrangements were completed ($300 plus room and board), Middleton hosted N.B.-P.E.I winner Summerside Holman’s for the Maritime title. Played in summer-like weather in mid-October before huge crowds, the Cardinals won two games to one to capture Middleton’s first Maritime baseball title and giving local baseball fans much to celebrate and brag about to this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1951 Middleton Intermediate Cardinals <\/strong><\/p>\n Back Row(L-R): Paul Ward, Chuck Wheeler, Harry Coleman, Bev Bruce, Larry Marshall, Gerry Ray
\nFront Row(L-R): Bill Gates, Ted Marshall, Lou Coleman, Mann Deveau (Coach), Bernie Parent,
\nHarold “Skip” Yorke
\nMascot: Alan Henderson; Inset: Arden Kenney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[111,41,26],"product_tag":[52],"class_list":["post-941","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-111","product_cat-baseball-team","product_cat-team","product_tag-52","first","instock","shipping-taxable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_brand&post=941"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_cat&post=941"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.middletonshwof.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_tag&post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}