He is known to this day as Guelph’s “Mr. Baseball”. Born in the Royal City in 1902, Joe Kaine played minor baseball from an early age, graduating to Juvenile in 1917. A few years later he was playing Senior ball and continued to do so until he was 37. He won an Intercounty title in 1932 before retiring with a lifetime batting average of .412.
In 1939 he began coaching and for the next 31 years, he freely gave his time and expertise to every level of baseball. The highlight of his coaching career came in 1970 when he helped lead the Guelph C-JOYs to the Intercounty Championship. That team featured such great players as Ron Stead, Ron Gumbley and the Heffernan boys Dave and Reid.
Joe Kaine was the driving force behind baseball in Guelph for nearly half a century and he passed on his love for the game to many generations of young ball players.
Inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame – June 2, 1993
