Baseball icon Fergie Jenkins honoured by hometown team

The Chatham-Kent Barnstormers have retired the number of an 82-year-old baseball hall of famer.

Canadian baseball icon Fergie Jenkins was honoured by his hometown Chatham-Kent Barnstormers on Saturday evening.

Jenkins further solidified his presence in baseball immortality with his number 31 being retired by the organization.

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and widely considered one of the greatest Canadians to ever play the sport, the decision to honour Jenkins was considered a “no-brainer” for Barnstormers management.

“We wanted to honour him more than anything because it’s important, like, you don’t see many major leaguers or even professional athletes [come] from a town,” said the team’s owner Dom Dinelle.

Ahead of Saturday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League, Jenkins threw out the first pitch before his number was unveiled in the outfield.

Dinelle said the 82 year old was thankful for the recognition and stayed to watch the game, as he often does when in town.

In their inaugural season, the Barnstormers retired number 42 for former big leaguer and team ambassador Bill Atkinson.

“it was important to deal with that because we didn’t want anybody to say, ‘Hey, I want 42, I want 31,’ No way, no way, no way we were going to do that,” Dinelle said.

“These two icons are really important for the organization and for Chatham.”

Dinelle said it’s significant for players and young fans to be able to see the success from the Chatham-Kent baseball community.

The game saw 1,037 people show up in what proved to be a 14-5 Barnstormers win.