Tom Henke, Allan Simpson and the late George (Dandy) Wood make up the 2011 induction class for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
They will be enshrined on June 18. The six-foot-five Henke was known as the Terminator for his skills as a closer, playing for Texas, Toronto and St. Louis from 1982 to 1995.
Henke’s 217 saves as a Jay tops the Toronto record book, and his 311 career saves are 17th best in the majors. He played eight seasons for Toronto, pitching in 446 games, winning 29, and compiling a 2.48 earned-run average.
Henke’s best season with the Blue Jays was 1987, when he was named to the all-star team and led the American League with 34 saves. He helped the Jays to the World Series in 1992.
“I’ve always considered Toronto and Canada my favourite place to play and to help to bring home Canada’s first World Series win can never be duplicated,” Henke, who lives in Taos, Mo., said in a statement. Simpson, from Kelowna, B.C., founded the magazine Baseball America.
He started Baseball America out of his garage. It originated with 1,500 subscribers and, 30 years later, now has a base of approximately 250,000 readers.Wood was the eighth Canadian to reach the major leagues, and one of only three to come from P.E.I.
He played almost 1,300 games from 1880 to 1892 for Worchester, Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cincinnati. His lifetime batting average was .273, with 1,467 hits, 68 homers and 601 RBI.