Kevin Burke made a group of young men give up almost every evening of the 1980 summer for their love of baseball.
Burke was the first ever coach of the Georgetown Eagles junior baseball team, now known as the Halton Hills Minor Baseball Eagles. He was the one responsible for getting a pitching machine to practice with, and installing lights so the team could stay into the night.
Burke died January 1 at the age of 82. Now, the Town of Halton Hills may change the name of diamond #1 at the Georgetown Fairgrounds, the very field where the Eagles got their start, to Kevin Burke Field.
“Everything that you know about baseball, Kevin had forgotten 10 times as much,” Finn Poulstrup, general manager of the first Eagles team, says.
Burke put the word out that he was building a hardball team after retiring from the minors himself. The Georgetown Baseball Association granted him permission to field a junior team, made up of 15 to 19-year-olds.
The Eagles played teams from Niagara Falls, N.Y., to Oakville after joining the Ontario Baseball Association, where it was up against a few players who eventually made the major league.
“He deserves it (the field naming). I know all the sacrifices he and his family made for there to be a junior Eagles team,” Poulstrup says.
The Town of Halton Hills allows people to request name changes for parks and areas of parks to reflect significant locals.
Anyone interested in participating in a survey about the field renaming can do so on the Town’s website here until May 19.
Following the public notice period, a formal council report on the renaming will be considered for final approval.
