The Topping on the coach’s cake
One of Niagara Falls’ baseball coaching greats will be honoured this Sunday with induction into the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame.
Being inducted at 2 p.m. at the Gale Centre will be Tim Topping along with athletes Shelley Gautier (paracycling athlete) and Poppy Gilliam (soccer athlete) and teams, the 1981 Niagara Falls Kiwanis Club under-13 boys soccer squad and the 2001-02 Niagara Falls Thunder midget AAA hockey team.
Topping’s coaching career began more than 40 years ago with his son Ryan’s T-ball team. It was love at first sight.
“I really enjoyed it. I was involved with Scouts Canada and the kids wanted to play baseball so I thought I would get my oldest son involved with T-ball. The first thing out of their mouths was ‘Do you want to coach?’ I got quite involved really quickly,” said the 70-year-old Niagara Falls resident, who was born in Toronto and moved to Niagara Falls in 1977. “At the end of the season, I was handing in my equipment and they said “Would you mind being a volunteer and be on the executive?’ That was how it started.”
It was the beginning of an illustrious coaching career which included: serving as head coach of two Ontario Baseball Association championship-winning teams with the Greater Niagara Baseball Association, a minor mosquito team in 1996 and a midget team in 2005; being an assistant coach with a peewee team that won an OBA title in 2014; serving as the pitching coach for the Brock University men’s team from 1995 until 1998 and helping guide the team to Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association titles in 1998 and 1999; coaching GNBA teams that represented Niagara Falls across Ontario; creating the first Niagara Falls team to compete in an American Legion Baseball League; and, bringing teams to the Freeport Invitational, a large international tournament in Freeport, Penn., and playing against squads from America, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Japan.
Away from the game action, Topping: ran clinics and workshops for both players and coaches; attended clinics himself; served as a member of the GNBA executive for 25 years, including a two-year term as president; and, was on the board of the Niagara District Baseball Association for more than 15 years.
“I got involved with the overall aspect of the game because I really enjoyed sports and the competition. And the kids always seemed to be interested so I developed and wanted to know more and more,” the retired compressed gas salesman said. “I liked the physicality and the actual game itself.”
Topping describes himself as an old school coach.
“It was do lots of running, lots of sprinting and lots of pushups to get yourself physically strong. Then work on the physical attributes of the game.”
He had plenty of highlights in his coaching career, topped off by being head coach of two OBA champions.
“My first was one was with a team of 10-year-olds and we had to go through two weekends and play 11 games. We only had one loss and it was outstanding coaching with Joe Baldinelli,” he said. “The next one with the midgets was 10 years later in Sarnia. We won that in a five-game series.”
He enjoyed coaching at the Freeport Invitational which was called For the Love of the Game. He brought four teams to the event.
“You go down there for a week. I had 10 pitchers and each of them had a game to win. We used to get write-ups in the Freeport Free Press.”
Another memorable event was playing a pair of Saturday afternoon exhibition road games in Medina, N.Y.
“As we were coming into town, there was a police car waiting there at the beginning of the town and we got an escort into the high school ball diamond. The people were so nice and between the two games they had a great big spread of food, everything from chicken to sandwiches. It was a great day, the weather was great and I really thought that was a highlight.”
At the other end of his career, he enjoyed his time at Brock.
“With Mike (McRae) and Darrell (Doc) Kemp, that was the initiation. Mike started Brock baseball and both those guys were great. And the level of the athlete was really raised. It was great to pull myself up to those levels and learn from those two guys.”
He loves baseball.
“It’s just the excitement and the give and take of the game. The strategies and the nuances of the game are very fine. It may look slow on the outside but it’s very instantaneous,” the Toronto Blue Jays fan said.
Topping is still involved with coaching. The last two summers he has helped his son, Patrick, coach his 11-year-old grandson’s team.
“We get along. My days are gone and they have to run their owns teams. He is the head coach and whatever he wants me to do, I do.”
Topping encourages everyone to coach.
“The rewards are just great. I don’t know how many parents have given me plaques and the kids are ‘Thanks coach for running the practice. Thanks for being at the game.’ ”
The life-time member of the GNBA has been previously been honoured with a Niagara Falls Volunteer Recognition Award in 1998 and was made a Paul Harris Fellow by the Niagara Falls Rotary Club in 2017. His sports wall of fame nod is the topping on the cake.
“It is unbelievable and unexpected.”
