Bertoia, Humber, McKenzie, Waffle elected to OBA Hall of Fame
From left to right: Reno Bertoia (Windsor, Ont.), Tommy McKenzie (Kitchener, Ont.), William Humber (Toronto, Ont.) and Allan Waffle (Etobicoke, Ont.) have been elected to the Ontario Baseball Association Hall of Fame. Photo: Baseball Ontario
September 10, 2025
Official Ontario Baseball Association News Release
A former major leaguer, an ex-Team Canada stalwart, Canada’s leading historian and a tireless sandlot volunteer make up Baseball Ontario’s class of 2025.
Former Detroit Tigers infielder Reno Bertoia, Tommy McKenzie, who competed for Canada at five different international competitions, William Humber, respected SABR member, inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys in 2018 and Alan Waffle, who spent 37 years running the Royal York League in Etobicoke will be inducted Oct. 25 at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel.
The inductees ...
Reno Bertoia
Bertoia, who passed away in 2011 in Windsor, Ont. at age 76, played parts of eight seasons across the border with the Tigers, as well as three seasons with the Washington Senators and part of one with the Kansas City A’s.
Of the 271 Canadians to have appeared in the majors, Bertoia’s 612 games ranks 26th all-time. He was a career .244 hitter with 27 homers, 171 RBIs and a .639 OPS. He made his debut as an 18-year-old on Sept. 22, 1953, striking out against Satchel Paige, Negro League Hall of Famer, in a 7-3 loss to the St. Louis Browns at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. And he was replaced in the lineup by Johnny Pesky.
Born in Italy, his family moved to Windsor when he was 18 months old. Father Ronald Cullen was his coach and mentor at Assumption High School. Upon retiring, he taught in Windsor and scouted for the Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays. He was elected to the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame in 1982
Tommy McKenzie
There is a popular theory nowadays among scouts that Canada has a problem developing sure-handed middle infielders. Well, those scouts should have seen McKenzie in his prime.
The London-born, Kitchener resident, 83, was a member of the national team at the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Colombia and Puerto Rico, as well as being a member of Canada’s entry at the 1970-71 World Series. McKenzie also represented Ontario at the Canadian nationals in 1970 and 1976. In 18 full seasons in the Intercounty League, McKenzie was an all-star shortstop 12 times, plus a two-time batting champ, retiring with a .315 lifetime batting average and won MVP honours in 1970. He was an all-star manager six of the seven years he managed, giving him the most selections in the league history with 18.
After retiring, the Kitchener Collegiate Institute and Eastwood Collegiate teacher gave back, coaching the Kitchener Panthers, the Orillia Terriers and the Intercounty Terriers. McKenzie was inducted into the Waterloo Region Sports Hall of Fame. In 1963 he was the leading scorer and MVP in the ORFU playing for the London Lords. He has played on six national slo-pitch championship teams. As a coach, he won eight high school football championships, six high school basketball titles, one provincial midget OBA championship and three IBL championships.
William Humber
When Cooperstown needed someone to explain how its “National Pastime” grew north of the border, they asked Humber, 75, to speak at the conference. And like most Humber speaking engagements “he wowed the crowd.” When the Order of Canada was handed out to 40 people in 2023, the baseball man in the group was Humber. Governor General Mary Simon presented the prestigious honour at Rideau Hall in Ottawa for Humber’s “contributions as Canada’s premier baseball historian, who has highlighted the key ways in which the sport’s history is linked to our nation.”
When it came time to write about the first Canadian pro player -- right fielder Bob Addy of Port Hope, Ont. with the 1871 Rockford Forest Citys -- it was Bowmanville resident Humber who penned the book. A Toronto native, Humber has authored several books, including Cheering for the Home Team, Let’s Play Ball: Inside the Perfect Game, The Baseball Book and Trophy, Diamonds of the North: A Concise History of Baseball in Canada and Old Ontario at Bat: An Unheralded Ancestry.
Humber helped create the Toronto Hanlan’s Point chapter of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) and played a role in the organization of Toronto’s first SABR convention in 1981. He is also the only Canadian to serve on the board of directors of SABR, having done so in 1982 and 1983 and then again in 1989.
Alan Waffle
Waffle has contributed for almost four decades as an OBA volunteer, running the Royal York League, and its various predecessors – now one of the largest grassroots youth leagues in Canada. Among its alumni are Joey Votto, the future Hall of Famer.
As Royal York president, he envisioned an Etobicoke-based league and amalgamated, strengthened and grew various local community clubs that were internally competing for players and having succession issues. Waffle developed and coordinated grassroots ball for all ages (4-to-18), at all levels (house league, select, rep and development) to both boys and girls in Etobicoke. Based on 2023 data, the league included over 151 teams and over 1,500 registered players.
Waffle was a pioneer of girls and women’s ball, opening the door for young girls and women trying to participate in a traditionally male sport. He was also the initial champion for a Jays Foundation grant allowing for the building of the first new bantam-sized ball diamond in Toronto in the last 25 years - Connorvale South in 2018. He was elected to the Etobicoke Hall of Fame in 2019. Waffle, 78, passed away in June of 2025.