Bill Barron – Builder

Inducted 2010

Bill Barron has been involved with Softball in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador since 1957. While he has excelled as a player in the St. John’s Senior Softball League for ten years, he was an umpire for twelve, he coached for six, was an executive member of Softball Newfoundland and Labrador for eleven and is presently an executive official of the St. John’s Senior Softball League, where he has served for the past forty five years.

Bill Barron was named Softball Newfoundland and Labrador Executive of the Year in 1967 and again in 1998, following an outstanding coaching career, leading the St. John’s Senior Men’s team to a provincial championship in 1967 and managing the Newfoundland Senior Men’s Team at the National Championships in 1972. Bill is known by all in the Softball community as an outstanding organizer for National and Provincial tournaments at both the junior and senior levels and was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Softball Hall of Fame in 1981.

Among all of Bill’s accomplishments, softball enthusiasts believe it is because of his dedication and value for the game, that fast pitch softball exists in Newfoundland to date. He currently operates the only two fast pitch softball leagues in this province, which are the St. John’s Senior and Intermediate leagues.

Three years ago, Bill Barron started the St. John’s Intermediate Softball league to remedy the issue of minor age players not having the opportunity to play at the junior age group, which was compromising the talent and passion of these younger players. Not only has Bill been a devoted player, coach, umpire, organizer and executive, he has also been a fan, and created an archive of fast pitch softball in Newfoundland and Labrador from past to present years. This archive consists of individual stats and newspaper clippings from each year of softball in this Province and provided the St. John’s Senior League with all yearly statistics, batting and pitching averages for the fiftieth year celebration ceremony.

For his simple passion and love for the game, Bill Barron is unselfishly and undoubtedly known to Softball enthusiasts as “Mr. Softball”.