Some Days in Port Dover Just Hit Different
Canada Day in Port Dover has always been something special to me.
Even as a kid I did not need a reason to be there on July 1st. You just showed up, found your people, and the day took care of itself. Over the years life got busier. Kids, tournaments, travel. Some years we made it back and some years we did not. But when we do find our way back there is nothing quite like it.
This year was one of those years I will not forget for a long time.
I watched the parade the way I always have, standing with the Lowe family and a few old teammates, the same spot we have been standing in for as long as I can remember. Old stories started early. That is just how it goes when you get that group together. You pick up right where you left off every single time. We talked about all the work guys like Cliff Shank, Brooks Lowe, Tater brown, and Brian Axford put into us as kids, the laughs we always had with Rick Arsenault, and the way the whole thing was held together by people who never asked for anything in return.
And then the Port Dover Minor Baseball float came through.
Same shipwheel hats we wore as kids. Same logo. Same look. But on the back of every hat were two letters.
DK.
Something shifted in the group when we saw it. A few of us looked at each other without saying a word because we all knew exactly what those initials meant.
Most of those kids wearing those hats probably have no idea who Doug King was. Some of the coaches might not either. But anyone who played ball in Port Dover when we were there know exactly what those initials mean. Doug spent years of his life giving back to the ball players espically the pitchers who came through that program. He had time in the Pittsburgh Pirates and teh Giants organizations and he brought everything he learned there back to our community. When I was catching I got to spend hours in that bullpen listening to him work with our guys, teaching the craft, telling stories, making everyone around him better. On my team alone he helped develop pitchers like Derek Lowe, Elliott Love, Andrew Brown, and Buck Hogeterp. But that is just the guys I played with. The list of pitchers he shaped throughout the whole association and across the area goes much further than that.
But the one who outworked everyone was John Axford.
Seeing those letters on the back of those hats told me the association has not forgotten. That matters more than most people will ever know.
There are people I think about at events like this who are no longer here. Guys like Brooks Lowe and Tom Breese gave so much of themselves to us as kids and I feel their absence on a day like this more than I can put into words. Brooks was like a second father to me for a lot of years and the Lowe house has been the place we have always come back to on Canada Day for as long as I can remember. Tom doing the announcing at those All Star games is a sound that comes back to me every summer without fail. Anyone who played ball in Port Dover during those years knows exactly what I mean.
There are other memories from those years that still make me laugh every single time they come up. One of my favourites is the Bantam trip to Cooperstown. We thought we were a pretty good baseball team coming out of Ontario. We got down there and learned in a hurry how much we still had to figure out about the game. But the moment nobody has ever let go of happened late one night sitting around a campfire at the campground. The parents had enjoyed a few drinks and Brian Axford became completely fixated on the runaway truck ramps we had seen along the mountain roads on the drive in. Those gravel escapes cut into the hillside for trucks that lose their brakes on a steep descent. Somewhere between the camp fire and a few late night drinks, Brian had talked himself into a full engineering breakdown of exactly how an out of control truck was supposed to keep right and I am fairly certain he had mentally designed the world's most indestructible super truck before anyone called it a night. If you know Brian, you can hear exactly how that conversation went.
After the parade we headed back to the Lowe house the way we always do. Turned on the Jays highlights. Which if you have been watching this season you know has not exactly been must-see television.
But then my wife Kim looked up from her phone and said there was something on social media about John Axford.
He had donated $50,000 to Port Dover Minor Baseball. Through the Jays Care Foundation. Back to the association where he first learned the game.
The president of Port Dover Minor Baseball said it better than I could.
"The generous donation from John Axford and the Toronto Blue Jays, through the Jays Care Foundation, is an incredible gift to our association and means so much to our members, players, and families. It means a great deal to know that Port Dover still holds a special place in John's heart and that he chose our organization as the recipient of this generous donation. It's especially meaningful that John has chosen to give back to the hometown where he grew up and first learned to play the game he loves."
We sat there in that house surrounded by the same people I have spent every Canada Day with for as long as I can remember and read that a few times.
John was named to the Norfolk County Sports Hall of Recognition back in 2023 and just received his induction ceremony this past weekend. Eleven seasons in the major leagues. The National League saves leader in 2011. A 49-consecutive-save streak that ranks fourth all time in MLB history. Team Canada. Notre Dame. A career built on pure determination and a refusal to quit no matter how many times the road got hard.
And the first thing he did when he had something to give back was think of Port Dover.
That does not surprise anyone who grew up playing ball beside him. It is exactly who John Axford is.
Doug King helped shape the pitcher. All the coaches we had like Rick Arsenault, Cliff Shank, Brian Axford, Brooks Lowe, and so many others helped build the person. This association gave him the field to grow on and this community believed in him before the rest of the world knew his name.
And on a Canada Day in Port Dover, standing in the same spot I have stood for years, I got to find out he remembered all of it.
That is what this town does. It stays with you.
It stayed with John.
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