From the St. John’s Telegram
By Robin Short
Editor’s note: Portugal Cove native Colin Abbott enters the International Softball Congress (ISC) Hall of Fame this weekend
These days, Colin Abbott is another minor baseball coach, filling out the lineup card each weekend. Odds are the kids on his St. John’s Capitals peewee team don’t quite understand how good an athlete their coach was back in his heyday.
Colin Abbott of Portugal Cove played for the Canada’s senior men’s softball team 15 times, winning five medals — including two gold — and earning MVP honours three times. Abbott is being inducted into the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame this weekend in South Bend, Ind.
And just how good was Colin Abbott on the softball diamond?
Well, to suggest he was one of the world’s best hitters — yes, the world — is not a stretch.
It’s why, on Sunday, the Portugal Cove product will become the first Newfoundlander inducted into the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame when South Bend, Ind., more commonly known as home to Knute Rockne and the University of Notre Dame, will be Softball Central with the ISC world championships scheduled.
“It’s a great honour,” Abbott said Thursday. “And to be honest, it’s pretty cool that guys like Jason Hill and Stephen Mullaley and Sean Cleary and a bunch of others are doing the same thing today. It’s a great honour to see them coming behind me.”
“I?don’t see myself as a trail blazer or anything,”?he said, “but if I had any hand in the players today getting a break (and playing at the ISC level), that’s all great.”
A 2014 Sport Newfoundland and Labrador Hall of Famer, Abbott’s career stats at the ISC level include a gaudy .337 batting average, and he’s the ISC all-time leader in hits (120), runs batted in (86) and plate appearances (326). He’s second in home runs (26) and doubles (24) while toiling mostly for Wisconsin-based teams.
Twice Abbott’s Madison Farm Tavern club won the ISC championship (1999 and 2007), and he was also part of the Green Bay All-Car Roadrunners championship run in 1994.
He appeared in a total of 18 ISC championships. Click here to continue reading at the Telegram.