With more baseball than ever, the 4th Annual Mike Buist Classic is a hit in St. John’s
Young baseball players from all over Newfoundland and Labrador hit the fields around St. John’s this weekend for the fourth annual Mike Buist Classic.
The tournament is a namesake of the former director of the minor baseball association, who passed away in 2019.
Kristyn Coley, executive director of the St. John’s Minor Baseball Association, said this is the tournament’s biggest year yet.
About 110 games were played across 12 ball diamonds in the St. John’s area, with 52 teams participating.
“Mike was my former boss and a great friend and a great mentor,” Coley said.
Who was Mike Buist?
Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Buist had an interesting career and eventually ended up in Newfoundland and Labrador.
He signed his first professional contract in 1963 at the age of 16. Buist then played four years in the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals minor league systems.
He was also a statistician with the Toronto Blue Jays.
“And as he got older,” Coley said, “he moved to Newfoundland and started playing baseball here…a lot of different programming for us.”
“Big increases in our winter ball program, many of our all-star programs, as well as the female programs,” she said.
Buist received the 2019 Les Noseworthy Award from Baseball NL for his contributions to the county’s baseball community and St. John’s Amateur Baseball awarded him the Fong Dowden Award.
He was elected to the Baseball NL Hall of Fame that same year.
“Mike was personally an excellent mentor to me and I think he added so much to our community,” said Coley. “So to be able to honor him with this event was something very special for us.”
“It is very important to us to carry on his legacy and continue to build baseball programs in the metropolitan area.”
Friendly sportsmanship
At a semifinal match in the 13 UC division — Paradise versus St. John’s — friends were Reid Dinham, 13, and Cody Neary, 12.
They play on the same team, grew up on the same street, and have both played baseball for nine years.
And if that wasn’t enough, they both said their favorite part of baseball is stepping up to the plate and batting.
Why?
“Home runs,” Reid said.
Neary agreed, “because when you get on base it’s fun and you can steal. And hitting home runs is fun.”
But according to Reid, the best thing about participating in tournaments like the Mike Buist Classic is the camaraderie.
“It’s just nice to be around my friends and teammates… and make new friends here,” he said.
Coley said, “All the teams were great, the staff were great, so it was a great weekend.”
The championship games will be played Sunday night in St. John’s.
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