A number for all seasons

By Brian Bailey
©2015 Bonesville.net
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The famed No. 23 is back in the dugout at East Carolina.

First-year Pirate coach Cliff Godwin, who played under Keith LeClair during some of ECU's best baseball seasons, will wear his former coach's number in 2015.

It was my honor and privilege to serve as emcee for the first ever "Evening with the Pirates" dinner. In doing so I got to be a part of what is always such a special event for the school's baseball program.

Keith's wife, Lynn LeClair, whom I have often described as an angel walking on earth, was back in town to make the presentation. With Lynn's blessing Cliff vowed to wear the jersey until he gets the program to Omaha, when the jersey will then be retired permanently on the outfield wall at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

Lynn thought that perhaps Cliff would have wanted to keep his 16 jersey that he wore as a player. After all, Cliff is the 16th head coach in ECU baseball history. She joked that Cliff could have promised to get the Pirates to Omaha in 2016.

That may be a tall order, but Keith LeClair's vision for East Carolina is now the vision of Cliff Godwin.

"I'm extremely honored that Lynn and her family have asked me to wear No. 23 this year in honor of Coach LeClair," Godwin said. "The number isn't about me, it's about the man who stood at third base while I was playing at East Carolina and it's about this program. I will be following in his footsteps giving signs at third base this year and years to come."

There was once talk of retiring the number early on, but then came the idea of honoring a Pirate player that displayed the hustle, determination and desire that Keith LeClair had as both a player and coach.

Former Pirate coach Billy Godwin did a great job in honoring LeClair each season and made sure his players knew the significance of the number 23 at East Carolina.

It was the highest honor in the ECU baseball program.

The 11 players that wore the number 23 as a testament to LeClair's impact on the program's horizons were a basic who's who of Pirate baseball. Austin Homan wore the jersey two consecutive years. The first couple of No. 23 award winners played under Coach LeClair. They were Ben Sanderson, who came back to coach at ECU, Jamie Paige, and Brian Cavanaugh.

Other 23s included Adam Witter, Chris Powell, Drew Schieber, Brandon Henderson, Timmy Younger, Jay Cannon and Ryan Williams.

It was truly a night to remember and one that hopefully we'll all reminisce about when we are all sitting in Omaha one day down the road.

Jimmie Grimsley

The East Carolina family lost a good one with the untimely death of Dr. Jimmie Grimsley last week.

Grimsley died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 70.

"Dr. G" wore many hats. I worked with him for 25 years with the Pitt-Greenville Hot Stove League banquet, which has always been a first class event, thanks in part to Jimmie Grimsley.

Grimsley was also a master of the baseball rulebook and loved to throw out a rules 'stumper' from time to time.

The think I'll miss most is slipping down the third base line in the stands at Clark-LeClair and catching an inning or two with Dr. G, Randy Phillips and anyone else hanging out by third base, regardless of the weather.

We postponed this year's Pitt-Greenville Hot Stove banquet after news came of Grimsley's death. He would have wanted us to go on with the event, but that event is a celebration of baseball in our area, and that night simply wasn't a night to celebrate.

The Pitt-Greenville Hot Stove banquet is now set for February 19th at Harvey Hall at ECU.

We'll leave a place for Jimmie Grimsley because we all know he'll be watching over it.

BB

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