Bill Reid, October 26, 2023, VOL. 5 ISSUE 4
In September 1957, 18-year-old Fort Erie, Ontario native Vern Benner signed a contract with Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians. That spring he took his first-ever flight from Buffalo to Cleveland’s training camp in Daytona Beach, Florida. He spent the next two years pursuing his dream of playing in the Major Leagues.
I recently sat with Vern as he reminisced about his time playing baseball and hockey. He related many humorous stories about his teammates, too many and some too colourful, to tell here.
Vern grew up at 272 High Street in Fort Erie, across from Douglas School. He spent many hours playing baseball with his friends on the school diamond and playing catch with his Father, Allen, who was on the Intermediate ball team sponsored by Horton Steel. He also played hockey, ran the mile in track, and played football at Fort Erie High School. But it was at baseball he excelled as a smooth fielding shortstop who hit for power.
Scouts for Cleveland and the Brooklyn Dodgers started to notice Vern when at age 16 he was called up to play for the local Horton’s Intermediate “A” Ball Team in the playoffs against the Sarnia Royals. Vern was sensational, turning three double plays with the locals winning 8-0.
Vern gives a lot of credit to the coaches he had through minor ball in Fort Erie. Tom English was his coach in bantam and midget ball; Roy Boles in Junior and Milf Zimmerman and Fred Plato in Senior.
At his first training camp with Cleveland Vern immediately saw how much better the players were compared to what he was used to, but he quickly caught on and after a stint in Rookie Ball in Florida he was assigned to the Class “D” league and played for North Platte, Nebraska. His batting average for the year was a very good .310 and he played solid defense at shortstop, third, and the outfield. That season North Platte won the Nebraska State Championship. The North Platte team got the used Cleveland Indians uniforms and Vern noticed that his jersey had the name Bob Feller on the inside of the collar. Bob Feller is a Hall of Fame pitcher, who played with Cleveland from 1936 to 1956.
The next year, 1959, Vern was promoted to the Class “C” league and played in Selma, Alabama. He was having a good year in Alabama when near the end of the season he injured his knee in a play at third base. The injury prevented him from playing and he returned home to Fort Erie. Although he had successful surgery, the knee was not stable enough to withstand the rigger of professional baseball.
As a young man from Canada, Vern’s time in professional baseball in the southern United States opened his eyes to the state of racial discrimination there. Jackie Robinson became the first Black person to play in the modern era of Major League Baseball in 1947, but in 1958, when Vern played ball in Selma, Alabama, he was shocked to experience white-only bathrooms and drinking fountains. A Black teammate was not allowed to eat in the same restaurants as the rest of the team nor stay in the same hotels.
The historical march for the right to vote for Black People in the United States would not take place in Selma until March 7, 1965. Hundreds of marchers were violently attacked by the State Police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, leaving many marchers seriously injured. Two days later, the marchers led by Dr. Martin Luther King, continued the march with 2500 supporters and eventually with the assistance of the United States military made it to the State Capital in Montgomery. By the end of the march at the state capital, there were roughly 25,000 supporters who presented a petition to Governor George Wallace. This led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act being signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965.
Vern’s pro ball career was over, but he was now able to play hockey again. He was the MVP of the Buffalo, N.Y. Muny League in 1962. He followed that with several years playing for the Intermediate “A” Fort Erie Frontiers hockey team culminating in 1969 when the Frontiers won the Ontario Provincial Championship. They went on to play Fredericton, New Brunswick for the Eastern Canadian Championship, losing a close series 2 games to 1.
Vern has many great memories of his time in hockey and somewhat surprisingly, told me while he was better at baseball, he enjoyed hockey more.
One of his good friends with the Frontiers was fast-skating Leo Favero. One time driving home with Leo from a hockey tournament in Florida, Vern woke in the passenger seat and noticed they had been going the wrong way for a long time. Leo said, “What are you complaining about, we’re making good time”!
The Frontiers had many great hockey players. Vern said that in his opinion Barry Zimmerman was their best goal scorer, Bibber O’Hearn the best playmaker, and Ken Hayden, by far, the toughest player he ever played with. In those days they played without helmets. In one game a Port Colborne Sailors player hit Ken over the head with a stick. He was briefly knocked out. When he came to on the ice, he asked Vern who hit him. By then, that player had been kicked out of the game. While holding a bloody towel to his head, Ken skated off the ice and went straight to the Sailor’s dressing room to settle the score. Enough said about that!
Following his time with the Frontiers, Vern played on a Fort Erie Oldtimers hockey tournament team, with noted local players such as Dennis O’Connor, Ken Chesney, Mike McGuire, Jerry Lavalley, Bill Owens, Jim Driver, Leo Favero, Norm Rouse, Pete Wright, Bob Sims, Bob Zupan, George Elliot, Vince Montironi and Jim Wurzer. The team also included former rival players from the Port Colborne Sailor’s team, Mike Green, Bill McGowan, and Ted DeReuter. That team, coached by Ralph Staats, won many tournament championships.
Vern may have been done with pro baseball, but on returning to Fort Erie, he started playing ball again and did so very successfully. In 1975 he was the playing coach with the Fort Erie Merchants team in the Ontario Senior Baseball League, when they won the Championship. That team was inducted into the Fort Erie Wall of Fame in 2010.
He also won championships playing Senior fastball with the Niagara Falls McRae Heaters.
These days Vern is enjoying his retirement with his wife Chickie and is still involved with sports in Fort Erie as the Chair of the Heritage Arts team that runs the Sport’s Gallery at the Leisureplex. They are responsible for the 15 hand-painted, six-foot-tall sports images, on the west wall at the Kinsmen Arena. Vern wanted to thank all of the generous Gallery donors and sponsors of the Heritage Arts Golf Tournament, held this past July at the Fort Erie Golf Club. Vern was inducted into the Fort Erie Sports Wall of Fame in 2008.
Looking back at Vern Benner’s time as an athlete, one word comes to mind, “Champion”.
Photo: Vern on the North Platte Indians team.
