Cliff McIntosh - Baseball (1984-1986)
2007 Inductee
Former hurler and clean-up hitter Cliff McIntosh may or may not have known what to expect when he arrived at his induction to the Rend Lake College Sports Hall of Fame Saturday night.
Ready or not, McIntosh was visibly moved as memory after memory took hold during his acceptance speech to a crowd that included his former RLC teammate and coach, fellow inductee Jennifer Calandrilla, his mother, his wife and his children.
“My mom and dad can probably count on one hand the number of my games they missed since I played in pee-wees,” McIntosh said.
Fighting the tears, he added, “I know now what [Dad] sacrificed for me ... when he would get home from a long day and there were other things he would have rather done than play ball with me. But, he did. I’ll never forget the memories ... and I am here today to say that I am proud to be a Rend Lake Warrior.”
Retired RLC Marketing Director Bob Kelley – emcee for the event – said, “[The Hall of Fame] is a very exclusive group. These two should feel privileged to be inducted tonight.”
McIntosh was joined by his wife, Julie, and their twin children, Morgan and Mason. Morgan was quick to make note that she is one minute older than her brother.
Toward the end of the induction ceremony, Marlene McIntosh stood up and talked about her son and his teammates at RLC.
“Those players were like my kids,” she said. “I wish the team could have been here tonight to share in this. We did have some wonderful times together.”
One of his teammates was there. RLC Sports Hall of Fame member Rick Gaebe.
Gaebe stood at the podium and told the crowd how he and McIntosh lived together in an apartment above a grocery store in Ina. Their coach, Paul Evans, said housing for students wasn’t then what it is now.
“Cliff was a great player, both a great pitcher and a great hitter,” Gaebe added.
“You don’t get RBIs without guys getting on base in front of you,” McIntosh said later. “And you don’t win games without guys making plays behind you.”
Evans gave an overview of McIntosh’s many accomplishments as a RLC Warrior.
McIntosh stood out on a Warrior nine featuring numerous stars. First-Year Head Coach Evans & Friends ran away with the GRAC crown in a record-setting 27-3 fall campaign, then claimed Section IV and Region XXIV titles before dropping a doubleheader on the final day of the Great Lakes District. Individual Warriors established nine of 11 offensive records and eight team batting marks.
All-Great Rivers Athletic Conference recognition for the second fall in a row was awarded to McIntosh, the MVP. He batted .404 (36-89) with 12 extra-base hits and 27 RBIs (five game-winners) and was 5-1 pitching with a 2.13 ERA for the champs. As a freshman, he hit .413 (19-46) in league play.
In the spring of 1986, Rend Lake College rated mention in USA Today’s “Across The USA in Sports” after three Warrior hurlers tossed no-hitters within six days; McIntosh shut out Parkland, 10-0, to begin the streak. The team was on a 49-10 roll until the final day, when the unbeaten Warriors needed to win just once over Grand Rapids (MI) to gain admission to the NJCAA World Series.
The Warriors’ 6-foot, 200-pound clean-up hitter was named Second-Team All-Region XXIV as a freshman, First-Team All-Region as a sophomore.
His .341 batting average for the combined fall-spring split season as a sophomore was only slightly better than his career mark of .338 (186-551). In 186 Juco games, he drove in 148 runs and scored 100, with 43 doubles, 15 home runs and another 110 bases on balls. Nine of his 21 mound wins (21-19) were by shutout, with 194 strikeouts in 207 2/3 innings pitched and a 3.12 ERA.
McIntosh played his last two seasons for NCAA D-I Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He currently lives in Springfield with his wife and children, and is an employee of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
2009 Induction Ceremonies
February 28, 2009
Rend Lake College Banquet Center
Nominating Process
The Selection Committee has the responsibility of evaluating all nominees to determine those individuals/teams to be inducted annually into the Rend Lake College Sports Hall of Fame.
Nominees may be from several categories – Former Athletes; Former Coaches; Former Teams; Alumni Coaches, and Sports Professionals (officials, writers, photographers and other professionals). Nominations are solicited each year from former players, coaches and students, college personnel and the general public...(more)