SABR Digital Library: Our Game, Too: Influential Figures and Milestones in Canadian Baseball

 

Our Game, Too: Influential Figures and Milestones in Canadian Baseball

Our Game, Too: Influential Figures and Milestones in Canadian Baseball
Edited by Andrew North
Associate Editors: Len Levin, Bill Nowlin, and Carl Riechers
Publication Date: June 29, 2022

ISBN (ebook): 978-1-970159-81-3, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-970159-82-0, $34.95 US / $44.99 CDN
8.5″ x 11″, 459 pages

Canadian baseball has a rich, diverse, and deeply rooted history, one that spans fully two centuries. As was true in the United States, the stories reflect the competitive and entrepreneurial spirits of a rapidly changing time. Baseball’s development north of the border was shaped by the same social and economic influences, and at roughly the same times, as it was to the south. Arranged chronologically, the essays in this SABR Digital Library book tell the tales of the influential figures and milestone events that defined and directed the game’s growth in Canada. The articles shine a spotlight on the movers and shakers, the pioneers, the leagues and games and tournaments, and the regions all across the country that hosted them.

Crowds as large as 10,000 viewed matches between London and Guelph in the 1870s, at a time when the combined population of the two cities was less than 27,000. Thousands flocked to Vancouver’s Powell Street Grounds in the 1920s and 1930s to watch their local heroes, the Asahi, a team of Japanese Canadians. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team played their first game in 1895. Almost 100 years later, over four million people would spin the turnstiles to see the Toronto Blue Jays. Canadians played in the Negro Leagues and in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGBPL), and Canada has been home to both affiliated minor leagues and “outlaw” leagues.

This book is an initiative of the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research and SABR’s Hanlan’s Point Chapter in Toronto. It is the collaborative effort of more than 30 SABR members, almost all of them Canadian.

Below: Find player biographies and essays from Our Game, Too: Influential Figures and Milestones in Canadian Baseball

Biographies

 


Essays

Introduction: Our Game, Too: Influential Figures and Milestones in Canadian Baseball

The Beachville Game

William Shuttleworth: A Man for His Seasons

The First Ever International ‘Base Ball’ Game

George Sleeman and the Guelph Maple Leafs

Robert ‘Bob’ Addy: And Now You Know the Rest of the Story

Canada’s First Professional Baseball League

A Canadian National Treasure: Tecumseh/Labatt Memorial Park

Labatt Park’s Longevity Claim

The 1877 International Association Championship Game

Black Baseball in the Maritimes: 1880-1980

The St. Thomas Atlantics’ 1882 Tour of the United States

Early Batteries From The Great White North

Tip O’Neill: A Season Of Firsts

Mixed Outcomes: Canada’s Black Baseball Legacy

Montreal Royals Beginnings

Professional Baseball Comes To Toronto To Stay: The Toronto Baseball Club In The Eastern League, 1895

Frank Shaughnessy: The Ottawa Years

The Vancouver Asashi

Batted Balls and Bayonets: Baseball and The Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1918

Punching Above Its Weight: The Quebec Provincial League

The Quebec Adventures of Chappie Johnson’s All Stars

The Broadview Buffaloes

A Second Strike: Baseball and the Canadian Armed Forces During World War II

Canadian Teams in the Pony League Pipeline to the Majors

Canadians in the AAGPBL

Montréal and Jackie Robinson

The Halifax and District League: Postwar Baseball in the Maritimes, 1946-1960

Indian Head and Canada’s Greatest Baseball Tournament, 1947-55

The True Greatness of the ManDak League

End of an Era: The Demise of the Montréal Royals

From a Canadian Baseball Researcher’s Notebook


Contributors: Richard Armstrong, Robert K. Barney, Gary Belleville, Warren Campbell, Patrick Carpentier, Stephen Dame, Marcel Dugas, Eric Frost, Larry Gerlach, Gary Gillette, Tom Hawthorn, Martin Healy Jr., Colin Howell, William Humber, Heidi LM Jacobs, Sean Kane, Maxwell Kates, Martin Lacoste, Bill Lamb, Len Levin, Brian “Chip” Martin, David Matchett, Andy McCue, David McDonald, Peter Morris, Andrew North, Bill Nowlin, Riley Nowokowski, Bill Pruden, Carl Riechers, David Siegel, Paul Sinclair, Allen Tait, Dennis Thiessen, Christian Trudeau, Max Weder, and Daniel Wyatt.

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