May 6, 1937: After the glove has gone: Minor-league Orioles lose mitts, game in Toronto

The close bond between baseball players and their gloves is well-documented. And it’s more than just superstition, if the results of the May 6, 1937, game between the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Maple Leafs of the Double A International League1 are any indication.

The night before, while both teams enjoyed a banquet to celebrate Opening Day in Toronto, a thief or thieves entered the visiting clubhouse at Maple Leaf Stadium and made off with the Orioles’ gloves. Some of the Baltimore players borrowed mitts from their hosts, while others opted for “new hand coverings that were strange and stiff,” according to the Toronto Star.2

The game went into extras, and a 10th-inning home run briefly gave Baltimore a 4-3 lead. But the Orioles made five fielding flubs over the course of the game, and the last two—throwing errors in the bottom of the 10th—helped hand the Maple Leafs a come-from-behind 5-4 victory.

The 1937 IL season had been under way for about two weeks when the four teams considered most “northern”—Buffalo, Montreal, Rochester, and Toronto—played their home openers.3 Skipper Dan Howley’s Maple Leafs had played respectably on the road, entering the day in third place with an 8-5 record. Guy Sturdy’s Orioles, on the other hand, were worst in the eight-team league with a 1-10 record.4

The Orioles’ poor showing had kicked off with three straight losses to the Maple Leafs in a season-opening series in Baltimore.5 An early-season Baltimore Sun analysis blamed many factors, including poor pitching, hitting slumps, and a few key injuries. The Sun also suggested that the Orioles needed to work harder: “If the club is to win it will have to bear down afield as well as at bat and vice versa. It isn’t going to coast anywhere.”6

The previous season, Sturdy’s Orioles had finished fourth—one place ahead of Toronto—to grab the final spot in the IL’s four-team Shaughnessy-style playoffs.7 The 1936 Orioles knocked off second-place Rochester in the first round of the playoffs before losing the finals to regular-season champion Buffalo, four games to two.

The hono(u)r of starting Opening Day 1937 for the Maple Leafs went to 31-year-old right-hander Mike Meola. He’d pitched three games for the 1933 Boston Red Sox, then resurfaced for a total of 15 appearances with the Red Sox and St. Louis Browns in 1936. That turned out to be the sum of his major-league experience, though he continued to pitch in the minors through 1939. For the full 1937 season, Meola went 10-17 with a 4.18 ERA in 33 games, including 27 starts, all with Toronto.

The Orioles countered with another 31-year-old righty with limited big-league experience. Hy Vandenberg’s three games with the 1935 Red Sox marked his only big-league work to that time, though he’d been pitching professionally since 1930. Vandenberg subsequently pitched in 22 games with the New York Giants between 1937 and 1940, then received a reprieve in the World War II years, returning for 65 appearances with the Chicago Cubs in 1944 and 1945.8 The 6’4” Vandenberg went 15-17 with a 4.28 ERA in 40 appearances with Baltimore in 1937. He also started and lost a single game for the Giants on October 1.

On a cool day in Toronto, a crowd variously estimated at 14,000, 15,000, or 17,000 turned out to see the return of professional baseball. (All accounts agreed that about 11,000 of that number were paid attendees.9)

Vandenberg cruised through the first four innings, allowing the Leafs only a weak flared single.10 The Orioles, in contrast, filled the bases with two out in the first—aided by Maple Leafs right fielder and Toronto native Bobby Porter, who misplayed a windblown fly by Alex Monchak into a double. A hard smash through the box by veteran center fielder Woody Abernathy ended the threat, as shortstop Joe Gantenbein fielded it and stepped on second base for the inning-ending force.11 Gantenbein also started a double play in the third to squelch a Baltimore threat.12

The Orioles assembled the game’s first run in the top of the fifth. Catcher George Savino and Vandenberg singled, then moved to third and second base on Monchak’s sacrifice. Still another single, by third baseman John King, scored Savino.13

Toronto claimed a 2-1 lead in the bottom half, starting with a single to center by hometown boy Porter, who advanced to second on an infield out. Third baseman Don Ross smashed a ball back to the mound; Vandenberg made a rushed throw, and first baseman Les Powers dropped it for an error, leaving Porter safe at third and Ross safe at first. Ross stole second, putting him in position to follow Porter across the plate when catcher Tommy Heath singled to left field.14

Abernathy had led the IL the previous season with 42 homers, and he re-tied the score in the top of the sixth by driving a ball over the right-field fence for a solo round-tripper. One batter earlier, Orioles left fielder Ab Wright drilled plate umpire William “Chuck” Solodare in the head with a foul ball. The unconscious arbiter had to be carried from the field.15 Solodare’s partner, Bill Kelly,16 moved from the bases to home plate, while one player apiece from the Orioles and Maple Leafs was pressed into service to umpire on the bases.17

The Leafs parlayed a combination of hits and errors into a 3-2 lead in the sixth. Singles by Gantenbein and center fielder Mayo Smith put runners on first and second for Porter, who smashed a ball off Powers’ unfamiliar glove at first. Powers recovered the ball and threw to second for an attempted force, but his throw was off-target, and Gantenbein scored.18

In the later innings, the thief might have wished he’d stolen the Orioles’ bats instead of their gloves. Abernathy tied the score 3-3 in the eighth with his second homer off Meola, again to right field.19 Toronto pinch-hit for Meola in a scoreless ninth, and 20-year-old Paul “Lefty” Sullivan took over on the mound for the top of the 10th. Still another Baltimore solo homer—this one to left field by Wright, who led the IL with 37 home runs that season—gave the Orioles a 4-3 advantage going into the Leafs’ last ups.20

In a light rainfall, Gantenbein led off by topping a slow grounder back to the mound. He beat it out, then took second when Vandenberg threw wildly to first. Smith legged out a bunt, moving Gantenbein to third. Left fielder Ted Petoskey, who’d fouled an attempted bunt into his own face in the sixth inning, now flared a single into short left field, bringing Gantenbein home and tying the score.21

Baltimore manager Sturdy brought in 34-year-old left-hander Leon Pettit to replace Vandenberg, with two lefty hitters upcoming in Porter and first baseman Jimmy Walsh. Porter laid down a bunt, and when Pettit uncorked still another errant throw to first, the bases were loaded.22 Walsh was second on the Maple Leafs with 72 RBIs for the full season,23 and with the Orioles’ outfield playing in, he lined the first pitch over Abernathy’s head in center field.24 It fell in for the game-winning hit, as Smith came home to give the Maple Leafs a 5-4 victory. Sullivan earned the win, while Vandenberg was saddled with the loss.

Although the glove theft figured in the next day’s news coverage, the errors that hurt the Orioles the most were of the throwing variety, not fielding.25 The Toronto Star suggested that Vandenberg and Pettit deserved some mercy for their 10th-inning mistakes: “They had to handle a greasy ball, made so by the sprinkles which fell during the final stages.”26The Baltimore Sun, meanwhile, simply shrugged its shoulders in assessing its 1-11 ballclub: “Everything happens to the Baltimore Orioles.”27

The Orioles continued to use borrowed gloves for series against Toronto and Montreal, then visited a sporting goods store in Rochester, New York, to outfit themselves en masse with new leather.28 Searches of Baltimore and Toronto newspapers found no indication that Toronto police ever rounded up the glove thieves.

Over the full season, the Orioles pulled themselves together and duplicated their 1936 performance—a fourth-place finish, followed by a first-round victory in the Shaughnessy playoffs and a loss in the finals.29 They accomplished this despite committing 258 errors, most in the league, suggesting that their fielding woes were a sustained problem not solved by the acquisition of new gloves.30 The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, slumped to a 63-88 record for a seventh-place finish, 45½ games behind first-place Newark.

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference and Retrosheet for general player, team and season data. Neither Baseball Reference nor Retrosheet offers box scores for minor-league games, but the May 7, 1937, editions of the Baltimore Sun and several Toronto newspapers printed box scores.

Photo credit: Mike Meola, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 At the time, Double A was one level below the majors.

2 Jesse A. Linthicum, “Sunlight on Sports,” Baltimore Sun, May 7, 1937: 19; “Baltimore Birds Were Handicapped,” Toronto Star, May 7, 1937: 14.

3 Associated Press, “60,000 to Watch Openers in Int.,” Rochester (New York) Journal, May 6, 1937: 33. The league’s other four teams were Baltimore, Jersey City, Newark, and Syracuse. (Syracuse is, geographically, north of Buffalo, and all three of the IL’s upstate New York cities can be equally frigid in April.)

4 “International League,” Rochester Journal, May 6, 1937: 29. The Newark Bears, with a 9-4 record, held first place.

5 C.M. Gibbs, “Toronto Again Defeats Orioles, 11 to 9,” Baltimore Sun, April 25, 1937: Sports:1.

6 C.M. Gibbs, “Orioles Play Bisons Today,” Baltimore Sun, April 26, 1937: 11.

7 The “Shaughnessy-style playoff” was developed by Frank “Shag” Shaughnessy, who at various times was a big-league outfielder, a minor-league manager and general manager, and finally the longtime president of the IL. In a Shaughnessy-style playoff, the team that finishes first in the regular season plays the fourth-place team in the first round of the playoffs, while the second- and third-place teams face off. The winners of the two initial rounds then play for the playoff championship. Shaughnessy reportedly developed this system following the 1932 IL season, when the Newark Bears’ dominant performance removed any incentive or interest from the latter half of the season. Charlie Bevis, “Frank ‘Shag’ Shaughnessy,” SABR Biography Project, accessed September 2026, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/frank-shag-shaughnessy/.

8 Vandenberg excelled for the Cubs in the 1945 World Series, pitching six shutout innings across three appearances, giving up only one hit and three walks. This included a strong 3 1/3-inning stint in the deciding Game Seven; unfortunately, the Detroit Tigers had already leaped out to a 6-0 lead before Vandenberg was summoned, and they rolled to a 9-3 win.

9 14,000: Charlie Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener,” Toronto Star, May 7, 1937: 14; 15,000: Canadian Press, “Maple Leafs Rally to Beat Birds 5-4,” Montreal Gazette, May 7, 1937: 14; 17,000: “Leafs Beat Orioles in Tenth, 5 to 4,” Baltimore Sun, May 7, 1937: 19.

10 Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener.”

11 Good; Gordon Walker, “Leafs Win Opening Game in Tenth Inning, 5-4,” Toronto Globe and Mail, May 7, 1937: 18. Baltimore’s Thomas Woodley “Woody” Abernathy was in his 10th minor-league season at age 28; he never played in the majors. He is not to be confused with Virgil Woodrow “Woody” Abernathy, more than six years younger, who pitched briefly for the New York Giants in 1946 and 1947.

12 Good.

13 “Leafs Beat Orioles in Tenth, 5 to 4.” King, who was almost 30, had been at it even longer than Abernathy, having broken into pro ball in 1926 at age 19. He played 14 seasons in the minors—including parts of nine at Double A, then the highest level beneath the majors—but never played in the big leagues.

14 Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener”; Walker, “Leafs Win Opening Game in Tenth Inning, 5-4”; “Leafs Beat Orioles in Tenth, 5 to 4.”

15 Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener”; Walker, “Leafs Win Opening Game in Tenth Inning, 5-4”; “Leafs Beat Orioles in Tenth, 5 to 4.” The Toronto Globe and Mail placed Solodare’s injury in the fifth inning, while the Baltimore Sun specified the sixth. This author believes the sixth inning is correct based on the Orioles’ batting order. Wright batted three spots after John King, who singled in a run in the fifth, and it seems unlikely that the Orioles would have reached Wright’s spot in the lineup in the fifth inning without scoring any more runs.

16 Kelly is not identified by first name in newspaper coverage of the game. His first name is taken from a preseason news story listing all IL arbiters: Associated Press, “Umpires Are Assigned for International Opener,” Buffalo Evening News, April 21, 1937: 38.

17 The Baltimore Sun, as well as the box scores printed in several newspapers, identified the impromptu umpires as Orioles pitcher Gordon Rhodes and Maple Leafs outfielder George Blackerby. The Toronto Globe and Mail identified them as Rhodes and Maple Leafs pitcher Leon Pettit.

18 Walker, “Leafs Win Opening Game in Tenth Inning, 5-4”; Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener.”

19 “Leafs Beat Orioles in Tenth, 5 to 4.” Abernathy finished the season with 21 homers, in a four-way tie for fifth in the league. His teammate Ab Wright led with 37 homers.

20 Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener.”

21 “Leafs Beat Orioles in Tenth, 5 to 4”; Walker, “Leafs Win Opening Game in Tenth Inning, 5-4.”

22 Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener”; Walker, “Leafs Win Opening Game in Tenth Inning, 5-4.” The Baltimore Sun had Baltimore third baseman King making the wild throw on Porter’s bunt, but other news accounts, as well as box scores, credit Pettit with an error.

23 Ted Petoskey led the team with 74 RBIs.

24 Canadian Press, “Maple Leafs Rally to Beat Birds 5-4”; Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener.”

25 In addition to misplays mentioned in the story, Orioles second baseman Roy Schalk mishandled a grounder and was charged with an error. Game accounts do not indicate that it led to a run. Toronto second baseman Frank Madura was charged with the Leafs’ only error. Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener.”

26 Good, “Leafs Stage a Thriller in Winning the Opener.”

27 “Leafs Beat Orioles in Tenth, 5 to 4.”

28 “Thieves Send Orioles on Shopping Tour” (photo and caption), Rochester (New York) Journal, May 13, 1937: 31; “Birds Replace Stolen Mitts to ‘Mitt’ Red Wings,” Rochester (New York) Times-Union, May 13, 1937: 40.

29 The Orioles posted a 76-75 record, knocked off Montreal in the first round of the playoffs, then were swept by Newark in the finals.

30 By comparison, Montreal, the best-fielding team in the league, made 170 errors, and the league average per team was 208.