By Tara de Ryk
May 31, 2010

LIBERTY-Already in the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of a team, now Liberty's Robert McLane will be inducted on his own merits.

McLane is among 13 inductees in the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's class of 2010 individual category.

The Hall of Fame announced the 2010 inductees in April. The induction will take place Aug. 21 at Battleford.

With the induction, McLane joins the who's who of Saskatchewan baseball.

"With all the guys I know who are in there (the Hall of Fame) it's quite an honour," McLane says.

He started playing minor ball in Liberty. He was one of the little kids on the team, which is hard to believe given the fact that McLane, today, is a big man, standing well over 6 feet.

Back in the 1950s, when McLane started playing, he remembers his coach's hitting instructions, which were to "go up there, crouch and get a walk so the bigger guys can get a hit."

McLane played catcher for most of his minor ball career.

At 16 years of age he learned to pitch.

He was mostly self-taught, picking up pointers from watching senior games at sports days in neighbouring communities. Back then, the sports days featured city teams loaded with professional talent. McLane said he learned much at the Davidson Sports Days, particularly in the days when Davidson had professional ball players from the States on its roster.

In the early 1960s, McLane began playing baseball for Imperial.

In 1963 and 1964 the Govan Angels Senior Men's baseball team picked up McLane for tournament play.

McLane's days of "crouching at the plate" were long gone. He had grown into a 6 foot, 3 inch tall, 225 pound man.

In 1965 he started playing with the Angels full time, mainly at shortstop and third base, but it was his pitching and hitting that helped the Angels compete at the next level.

In 1966 the Angels faced a strong Prince Albert team in the northern final and lost.

Things were different in 1967, the year Govan was selected to host the Western Canadian Championships.

In the runup to the provincial finals, the Angels were in tough in their series against Oxbow. The Angels had lost a double-header in Oxbow and needed to beat Oxbow in a doubleheader at Govan if they hoped to advance.

The Angels had won the first game, but in the second, Oxbow was beating Govan by 8 runs late in the game, McLane says. It was getting dark and the Angels feared the game would be called and they'd lose, ending their season.

"I went to bat and hit a home run. I said, 'There's the first one guys. You get the rest.' They got on the bats. Our last guy hit a fly ball to right field and the outfielder lost the ball in the twilight."

The Angels beat Oxbow, which McLane says was the turning point of their season, and went on to play Prince Albert for the provincial title and the right to represent Saskatchewan at the Western Canadians that, by coincedence, Govan was hosting.

"We didn't expect to go to the Western Canadians. Govan isn't very big. We were just going to host it and make some money," McLane recalls.

The tournament took place over the Labour Day weekend and Govan, which even back in the late 1960s was never a very big place, saw its population more than triple as more than 1,500 attended the tournament.

McLane and the Angels were impressed.

"This was the biggest deal we were going to be in. It was really exciting."

The Angels beat Rivers, Man. and Peace River, Alta. to clinch the championship.

McLane, a clutch player, was important in the win, pitching "brilliantly" in the final game, according to press clippings from the day. He also hit a home run for the win.

After the Western Canadians, the Angels were ready to travel anywhere, but that was it. There was no national title game.

The Govan Angels' accomplishment was recognized in 1994 when the 1967 Govan Angels were inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame. Most of the players, except McLane, an import from across the lake, were from Govan and surrounding area.

McLane continued playing for the Angels. In 1968 the Prince Albert Bohemians picked him up for the Western Canadian playoffs where he pitched the final game, helping Prince Albert win the title. In 1969 a Prince Albert team again picked up McLane for the Western Canadian championships, this time in Edmonton, but the team failed to win the title.

He remained in Liberty, continuing to live and work on the family farm.

McLane stuck with baseball, ending his career after playing in the provincial twilight tournament program for 10 years. He also coached minor ball in Liberty and area, teaching the game to his children.

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