Kingston was a hotbed for fastball in the 1970’s and Ron Cordukes was consistently one this area’s top pitchers. Cordukes learned how to pitch growing up on the family farm located off Highway 38 on Cordukes Road, he had four sisters who would take turns catching, wearing out an old glove between chores on most summer days.

From those early days on the farm, Cordukes, who passed away on March 03 at age 79, developed into an elite pitcher. Cordukes’ sister, Joanne Lillis, says even as a kid her brother was always competive, “he loved every sport he was good at, fastball, golf, hockey, horseshoes, and always loved a game of cards, especially if there was money involved.”

Cordukes pitched in Glenburnie growing up and had many memorable pitching battles with the Leeman’s and the Cashman’s. In the late 1960’s, Cordukes pitched for a very good Bennett’s Foods team in the old Kingston Civic Softball League, before moving over to the highly competitive Circle Fastball League.

Cordukes was one of the best pitchers in the Circle League throughout the 1970’s, pitching for the Lakeview Manor Centennials and Commodore Hotel. The Manor won three Circle League titles in 1971, 1973 and 1975, with Cordukes and former Whig Standard Sports Editor, Ron Brown, doing most of the pitching. “Cordukes left the game on the field, I took losing a lot harder than he did,” remembers Brownie. Cordukes was named the Circle League’s Top Pitcher for the 1971 season.

Former Circle League President Rick Revelle says Cordukes played by the rules, “He was a legal pitcher in an era where a lot of pitchers jumped off the mound. He threw a lot of strikes, had a smooth delivery and a unique short windup.”

One of Cordukes career highlights was a perfect game he threw early in the season in 1976. In a 5-0 win over Eastern Welding he retired all 21 batters, striking out eleven, “my rise was working a little better than usual,” Cordukes told the Whig Standard. “It takes a good team to get a perfect game, and the Manor has a good team this year.”

“I can’t remember another perfect game thrown in the Circle League,” said Brown looking back on that era. Cordukes also threw two no-hitters in 1974 and 1977.

Another big win for Cordukes came off the field, in 1972 in a draw held at Garrigan Park by the Royals Hockey Club, Cordukes won two tickets to the opening game of the famed Summit Series, Team Canada and the Soviets at the Montreal Forum.

The 1976 Circle League final was a rematch of the previous year (won by the Manor in ’75), Cordukes threw a one-hitter against the Portsmouth Olympics in the series opener and had plenty of run support. The Manor belted four homeruns and won it 10-1. It looked like it might be a short series, instead it became a 10-game marathon before a champion was finally crowned.

Alec Murray played for the rival Portsmouth House Olympics and he recalls it being, “a great series between two really good teams.”  As for Cordukes, “he could throw hard, but also had lots of junk. Helluva nice guy, great competitor.”

Ron Brown added, “Cordukes never threw a changeup, but he was still very hard to hit.”

Moe Black played third for the Ports, hit by a ball in the pre game warmup he couldn’t play one of the games, Murray had to move over from second base to third, “I told Wayne Campbell (manager of the Ports team) I know I can catch the ball, I’m just not sure I can make the throw to first.”

Each team had three wins and there were three ties in the series when they played the 10th game on the final night of September. Brown pitched for the Manor and George Gordon for the Ports, and the game’s only run came in the bottom of the seventh inning. Gordon tripled for the Ports, but was thrown out at home trying to score on an infield roller. Doug Pfeiffer followed with a line drive right back to the mound that hit Brown in the ribs, they couldn’t make the play at first and Pete Arnold came home to score the game’s only run and the Portsmouth House Olympics were Circle League champions.

“Afterwards, Cordukes and the entire Manor team joined us at the Ports for beers,’” recalls Murray. “A few of us even wound up switching jersey’s before the end of the night,” showing the mutual respect the teams had for each other following a hard-fought series.

The following year in 1977, Cordukes joined the Commodore Hotel and got some revenge by throwing a no-hitter in the playoffs against Portsmouth House.

Cordukes lived in Inverary and had a long career working as a shift worker at Kingston’s Dupont Plant, he also enjoyed a lengthy, competitive fastball career. Often referred to as the ‘Silver Fox’, he pitched competitively well into his 40’s.

Revelle picked up Cordukes to pitch for the Wee Jay Old Boys in a tournament in Lansdowne in 1990. Most of the players were no longer playing competitive fastball, the nucleus came from the strong Wee Jay team of 1979, Greg Orr, Dwight Perrin, Bernie Fargo, Jim Knapp, Rick Pine and Roger Galley. Cordukes, who was 43 at the time, won two of the three games for Wee Jay and in the final he outdueled a much younger Barry Van Hooser, who was in his prime, and Wee Jay won the tournament.

Along with enjoying golf, Cordukes also played many years of oldtimers hockey – spending the bulk of it with good friend Larry Hefford playing for the Collins Bay Panters. His sister Joanne remembers Ron as, “a great sportsman and athlete, a real competitor, someone who would always help anyone who needed it, just a really good guy.”

It’s why at his funeral there was a large turnout of former teammates, Cordukes had earned their respect on and off the field, not only for being a good athlete, but also a great teammate.

Mark Potter is a longtime Kingston broadcaster and honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame.