Dartmouth Moosehead Dry Baseball Team – 1998
- Type: Team
- Sport(s): Baseball
- Year: 2016
The Dartmouth Moosehead Dry baseball club reached the pinnacle of baseball accomplishment for Nova Scotia when they captured the Canadian Senior Baseball Championship in 1998, becoming just the second provincial team to do so since the championship began in 1969.The team won the right to represent the province at the national tournament by winning the league crown in ’97. They went 26 – 8 that year, a winning percentage of .765. With virtually all players returning for the ’98 run at the gold, the team fashioned a record in the regular season of 22-7 (.759).
Though the focus may be on the ’98 team, the accomplishments of the core group that played for the Dry during the four years – 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 stand out from those of any other baseball team representing the province or the Maritimes prior to or after this time-frame. In these four seasons the Dry had a record of 105 wins and just 34 losses, an incredible winning percentage of .755. A total of 13 players comprised the teams from ’96 to ’98, retirement reduced that number to 8 for the ’99 season. This group won silver in ’96, bronze in ’97, gold in ’98, and almost repeated as national champions in ‘99, losing in the finals, thus earning another silver. What an accomplishment – 4 medals in 4 years at the highest level of amateur baseball in Canada! It was all capped off by the gold in 1998!
In its 1998 run to the Canadian championship, the Dry defeated the defending gold medal winners from Alberta in the gold medal game by a score of 5-4. Of particular note was the decisive blow, a 3-run home run from all-star catcher Ryan Doucette. The team was loaded with stars at all positions. If one were to look at the individual talent of just some of the members of these championship teams, it is easy to see why the team had so much success. Left-handed pitcher, Jason Bailey, righty Trevor Zwaan, and CF Joel Irvine all were selected to the all-time NSSBL team, named in 2007. The Truro Bearcats’ Craig Higgins, added for the ’98 victory, was also selected to the all-time all-star team.
In addition, Bailey was selected the Canadian Amateur Baseball Player of the Year in 1996. Zwaan, a draftee of the Houston Astros in 1994, won a college World Series with Brewton-Parker College Barons from Mount Vernon, Georgia, in 1997. Many baseball experts consider Bailey and Zwaan to be the best lefty/righty combination in amateur baseball in Canada at that time, and their accomplishments seem to bear this out. Irvine was a draft pick of the New York Yankees in 1991, played NCAA Division 1 ball for the University of Toledo and then played for the Canadian National team in 1994. He and Higgins are the only 4-time MVPs in the league’s history. Teammates Greg Marquis and Greg West have also won league MVP honors in their careers. Another pick-up, Pat MacLeod from the Kentville Wildcats, had his uniform retired by the club in 2015, a tribute to his many accomplishments as one of the greatest players in Kentville’s rich baseball history.
Baseball enthusiasts talk of this Dry team as the one that created a winning atmosphere in the very successful franchise that has seen Dry teams capture 18 Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League championships in the team’s 26-year history, dating from 1990 to 2015. Baseball historian and author, Burton Russell, the league’s statistician at the time (and a member of the inaugural class of the Maritime Sport Hall of Fame in 2016) wrote this is his book, Baseball Memories, 1977-2002: “ A season that brought forth a sixth consecutive Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League title and a national title certainly qualified the Moosehead Dry as one of the province’s best-ever clubs and a sure-fire bet for eventual induction to the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame.” Perhaps his personal commentary on the ’98 team best says it all: “This long-time baseball observer who has followed the provincial scene since 1946 has tremendous respect for the Dartmouth Moosehead Dry franchise … Surely, their accomplishments easily rank them in the company of such legendary teams and dynasties as the Springhill Fencebusters, Yarmouth Gateways, Liverpool Larrupers, Stelllarton Albions, Truro Bearcats and all.”
We salute the members of that ’98 Dartmouth Moosehead Dry team and ask them to stand and be recognized – Mark Weeks, Jeff Sutton, Ryan Doucette, Greg Marquis, Jay Washington, Jason Bailey, Trevor Zwaan, Joel Irvine, Jason Irvine, Jim Langer, Craig Higgins, Kelly Spencer, Joel Fuller, Jeff Fielding, Brad Miller, Pat MacLeod, Greg West, Ryan Gay, Kevin Abriel, Rob Finn, coach Todd Parker, coach Dave MacKenzie, Marc Patterson (V.P.), Jeff Crowell (trainer), Lorena Walsh (Operations), Kerry Walsh (Operations), Chris Parsons (bat boy)