The A&W Pacers exhibit at the Steinbach Sports Heritage Gallery

If you ever played sports you likely dreamt of accomplishing something special, of winning that big game or championship.

And if you are a gifted, elite athlete, there’s a good chance that you got to experience some recognition.

But when you are an average athlete, no matter how much you love sport, there’s a good chance you never got to experience any recognition.

When I played junior fastball with the A&W Pacers, we never thought about winning a medal at the junior national fastball championships and we certainly never ever thought about being formally recognized for that achievement.

Forty-three years later, thanks to the Steinbach Sports Heritage Gallery, the unthinkable has happened.

We went to the junior nationals twice: in Hull, Quebec in 1982 and Summerside, P.E.I in 1983. Representing your province against the best fastball teams in the nation was a dream come true, and to come home with a bronze medal was the pinnacle athletic accomplishment of this very average player.

To see our jersey under glass, among the pantheon of so many great athletes from Steinbach, is a profound honour. It’s an emotional mixture of pride and humility.

When you win a provincial title, your team is allowed to take a few guys from your province to augment your team. It just so happened that when we won the provincials in 1982 and again in 1983, Manitoba had the best junior fastball pitcher in the country, Greg Bouchard, and the best junior fastball hitter in the nation, Randy Dutaime.

They went on to become world-class fastball players and we had the unmitigated joy of getting to call them teammates. They transformed a good team into something special. It’s impossible to imagine winning a medal without their immense pitching and hitting talents.

When Pacers teammate Darcy Gryba told me that Russ Dyck, City of Steinbach’s Director of Parks and Recreation, had asked Darcy to find a team picture of our medal winning team, it was a genuine thrill.

And when you see an exhibit with your jersey, your hard-earned medal, your teammate’s autographs on a game ball and a write-up that explains our fastball journey, it’s hard for this mediocre athlete to put into words how special that feels.

The only sad part is that my dad never got to see the A&W Pacers exhibit. He would have loved it. There are many other Pacers parents that would have loved to see the exhibit and to them we say a profound thanks.

This joyous trip down memory lane does come with some anguish. I was at the plate with a runner on second against Ontario. If I brought that runner home, we would have gone to the gold medal game. Sadly, I grounded out. Ugh.

A lot of people deserve to be thanked.

Brian Reimer was our head coach and Jack Kehler was our manager. Being the first junior men’s team in Manitoba to win a medal at the nationals simply does not happen without Jack and Brian.

Other coaches helped our development. We brought Peter Dick to both nationals, as we figured his knowledge and his deep, thundering voice inspiring us as our first base coach was good for about a run a game, and Dave Drieger was a playing coach for us.

And before we became the A&W Pacers – when we were a rec team simply having fun – Ron Kornelson and Bob Rempel saw some potential in us and helped us become a competitive team.

Heartfelt thanks to the Blatz family and A&W for their financial support. When we went to Hull, Quebec for our first nationals in 1982, the Blatz’s paid for – among other things – brand new jerseys. We were easily the best-dressed team at the nationals.

Special thanks to Russ Dyck and the founding board of directors for recognizing our accomplishment.

There might be more recognition for the A&W Pacers. An official with the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame told me that because we were the first team in Manitoba fastball history to win a medal at the junior nationals, he thinks our team should be in the Softball Manitoba Hall of Fame.

Whether that happens or not, it’s beyond thrilling that we’ve been recognized at home, in Steinbach.