Puhl takes the official first bat (The Melville Advance)
It was only fitting the man behind the idea would be
the one to hit the first official ball.
Terry Puhl opened the batting centre named after him
Friday evening.
Both Puhl and Garnet Keller, who helped spearhead the
project, said the cages will help local youth with one
of the frustrating aspects of ball.
“Kids don’t quit ball because they can’t throw or
catch, but because they can’t hit,” Keller said to the
crowd of 100 people gathered.
“Even at spring training I’ve never hit out of
anything as good,” commented Puhl, a former star with
the Houston Astros of the National League.
The cages, located just north of the swimming pool,
are a project of the Terry Puhl Baseball Foundation
which raised over $26,000 plus $2,000 in kind in June
1992 at the Terry Puhl Sports Dinner and Auction. The
cages have four pitching machines with two programmed
for baseball, one for fastball and one for slowpitch.
Mayor Jim Walters says Puhl, a native of Melville,
has “never forgotten his roots” when he was with
Houston, helping out with the auction sale or with the
opening of the cages.
Walters added baseball in the city was “close to
extinction” but concerned community members
revitalized the sport in the past few years.
“Credit Garnet Keller for reorganizing ball,” Walters
said.
Alderman Merv Ozirny, another member of the Terry
Puhl Baseball Foundation, said Puhl’s major-league
career was filled with class and dignity.
“His career ended with injuries, he fought on, but he
knew when to quit.”
Ozirny also recalled a time when he watched Puhl on
television. The announcers had “no problem with his
name, no problem with the city but a problem with
Saskatchewan.”
“One fellow finally announced he was form Northern
Canada,” Ozirny smiled.
The ceremonies ended with those gathered using the
cages at no charge.
“How many home runs have you got,” one small child
asked Puhl.
“Hang around, there might be one more,” Puhl replied.
EXTRA: Puhl and the 1973 Canadian midget champion
Melville Elks will be inducted into the Saskatchewan
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Saturday in
Battleford.
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