Wayne Norton has spent the majority of his life at a baseball diamond but, this weekend, he will attempt something he has never done before: throwing out the first pitch at a major league game.
The Port Moody resident and Seattle Mariners scout is being recognized for his work with the team and for raising awareness and money for ALS, a motor neurone disease he has struggled with for more than two years. He will be throwing the pitch tomorrow (Saturday) ahead of Seattle’s matchup against Cleveland at Safeco Field. “This will be a first for me,” he told The Tri-City News. “It is a nice honour… I just feel very good about it.”
With the assistance of his wife, Trudy, and the ALS Society of BC, the 74-year-old has been able to maintain a busy scouting schedule despite his disease.
Over the summer, he attended a handful of tournaments, including events in Kamloops and Victoria, diligently taking notes on upcoming players, which are passed up through the organization’s ranks.
Norton said that he is happy his wife will be with him when he throws out the pitch, given her role in his work following his diagnosis. “She helps me scout,” he said. “The Mariners have been really good about keeping me on.”
Norton has been around baseball since the 1950s, playing locally with a Coquitlam team that won the provincial title in 1957 and 1959. Eventually, college scouts took notice and he was whisked away to Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., where he received a scholarship in baseball and basketball.
Major league teams then took an interest in the young player. He attended several big-league training camps in the 1960s and had stints in St. Petersburg, Fla. and Birmingham, Ala. among other minor-league towns before making his way back to Vancouver, where he joined up with Nat Bailey’s Mounties in 1966.
In fact, Bailey loaned Norton the money to purchase his home on Port Moody’s north shore shortly after he joined the team — and Norton has lived there ever since.
Norton eventually began coaching and launched the National Baseball Institute, helping young players like Larry Walker, Justin Morneau and Ryan Dempster on their way to becoming household names.
These days, Norton has taken on a new challenge: helping the ALS Society of BC raise money.
He told The Tri-City News in May it would be difficult for him to continue his scouting work if it were not for the help of the charitable organization, which works to find a cure for ALS and make life easier for those suffering from the disease. Norton has participated in numerous ALS Society events, recently taking part in a walk in the Tri-Cities, which has helped raise more than $200,000 since it was launched in 2012.
• People interested in learning more about ALS and donating to the ALS Society can go to www.alsbc.ca.
gmckenna@tricitynews.com
@gmckennaTC
