Where St. Mary’s – Ray Knows!

It probably goes without saying that many Canadian Baseball fans have probably never heard of St. Mary’s Ontario or where it’s actually located at?

It’s actually located about 27 miles from London Ontario, which is the back way to Stratford Ontario and the town’s nick-name is “The Stone Town”.

One individual who is extremely familiar with it, other than myself is Delta’s Ray Carter who will be making a trip to Southern Ontario in mid-June.

We are familiar with his dedication to the sport in our local, but what about on the National field of play from coast to coast.

Ray started his love of the summer sport and his affiliation with baseball, prior to the world of technology as we know it today.

It was over 40 years ago that he became  involved as a volunteer Coach with the Tsawwassen Amateur Baseball.

As time passed he perfected his love and dedication to the game and in 1988, he was elected President of BC Minor Baseball.

He held this position for a stint of two years and in 1990 he was elected as the President of Baseball BC, previously known as the BC Amateur Baseball Association.

That same year, he became the vice-president of Baseball Canada and was immediately involved with several committees within the organization. In 2000, he was elected president of Baseball Canada.

Known as a fixture of Tsawwassen the local resident has achieved a home-run clearing all the bases, never missing a step.

He is to be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame this June all in part due to him holding down the fort at various positions of the sport.

They include (at the executive position) 16 years as President of Baseball Canada, which is the longest serving tenure of any President in the organization’s history which spans 52 years.

The class of 2017 includes the 2015 Pan American Games Gold medal team, which had two Delta residents on the roster.

Both Kyle Lotzkar (Tsawwassen) and North Delta’s Jeff Francis were members on that Canadian roster.

Also in the class of inductees are former MLB stars Roy Halladay and Vladimir Guerrero as well as umpire Doug Hudlin.

They will also recognized at the June 24 ceremony in St. Mary’s, ON.

Ray mentioned “I’m deeply honoured to be elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and I thank the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and those involved for this wonderful news.”

Carter mentioned to the media “I thought there was a void to fill at the national level when I started (my presidency).”

He continued “I didn’t feel that the (baseball) season was long enough, I thought there should be more expertise available to coaches and I didn’t think that athletes were getting all of the resources available to become better players.” 

In 2014 Sportswave had the chance to talk to Ray and here’s the interview we managed to get.

Thanks Ray for all your hard work and dedication. Congratulations!!