A Swing and a Miss: Ottawa’s Teams in the Can-Am League, 1936-1940

Ottawa enjoyed a five-year fling with professional baseball between 1936 and 1940, fielding teams in the Class-C Canadian-American (Can-Am) League, which stretched across New York, Vermont, Quebec, and Ontario. While their tenures were brief and met with mixed success, these teams left their mark on baseball in the nation’s capital.

1936 OTTAWA SENATORS: A PROMISING START

The first Ottawa Senators of the Can-Am League took the field in 1936 under the ownership of Don Stapleton1 and the leadership of Walter “Wally” Masters, a 29-year-old Pennsylvania native who juggled the roles of president, business manager, and field manager. A jack-of-all-trades, he also played for the team. As he recalled in David Pietrusza’s definitive Can-Am League history, “I pitched that year, and played other positions too, even the outfield.”2 The team played their home games at Lansdowne Park, a football stadium alongside the Rideau Canal that could seat 10,000 spectators. While the stadium provided a scenic backdrop, it lacked a fundamental baseball feature: an outfield fence—at least, not to start the season.3

The Senators clinched the second-place finish in the league with a solid 53-37 record (.589). Despite making the playoffs, their season ended with a 3–1 series loss to the Brockville Pirates.4 Ultimately, the Perth Royals—who had gone by the moniker “Blue Cats” until they changed their name in July 19365 emerged victorious as league champions. Offensively, Billy Caldwell led the team with 80 runs scored, while Jimmy Nolan recorded 111 hits.6 “Nolan’s worth to his club is also reflected by his batting average of .335,” observed the Ottawa Journal.7 Masters left Ottawa at the end of the season for Philadelphia.8

1937-1938 OTTAWA BRAVES: STRUGGLES ON THE DIAMOND

In 1937, the Ottawa team rebranded as the Braves, reportedly as a way “to line up a pennant contender.”9 Unfortunately, the name change failed to translate into on-field success. Managed by player-coach Clair Forster in 1937 and George Army in 1938, the Braves struggled to find their footing, finishing eighth in the league both seasons with records of 32-75 (.299) and 38-83 (.314), respectively.10

One of the few bright spots of an otherwise dismal 1937 season was the play of first baseman Ed Mohler, a 22-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate who joined the Braves midseason. Mohler finished the season with a .305 batting average, 47 runs scored, 100 hits, 17 doubles, two triples, and five home runs. Ottawa sold him to the Boston Bees of the National League at the end of the season.11

The Braves’ 1938 campaign might have unfolded differently had they secured several key players. If the team managed to sign talented pitchers Joe Dickinson and John “Whitey” Tulacz, or trade for talented shortstop Al Tarlecki, the local press speculated the outcome of the season might have been dramatically different.12

1939 OTTAWA SENATORS: ANOTHER DISAPPOINTING SEASON

The team began 1939 as the Braves but reverted to its former Senators name when Utica joined the league and adopted the Braves moniker. This once again resulted in Ottawa’s hockey and baseball teams sharing the Senators name—a fact not lost on the local press. “There was a suggestion last night at the hockey dinner to discard calling the football team Rough Riders and hang ‘Senators’ on them, too,” quipped the Ottawa Journal. “What with the hockey and ball clubs and the Upper House [the Senate], the town has about all the senators it can well stand.”13

The name change didn’t improve their fortunes. The 1939 season proved challenging for the Senators, even under the guidance of former big-league catcher Wally Schang.14 Hired as player-manager, Schang’s contract offered a unique incentive: a weekly bonus for keeping the team in the top three, along with additional rewards tied to attendance figures.15 Despite Schang’s efforts and the financial incentives in his contract, the team finished in sixth place with a disappointing record of 55 wins and 69 losses, placing them 27 games back from the league-leading Amsterdam Rugmakers. Ottawa once again missed out on the playoffs.16

1940 OTTAWA-OGDENSBURG SENATORS: PENNANT WINNERS

The 1940 season marked a high point for Ottawa baseball in the Can-Am League. The irony was that for all its pennant-winning success, the city had to share half the glory with Ogdensburg, New York. This arrangement was necessitated by two wartime challenges. First, the Canadian army required Lansdowne Park for military training, which took precedence over baseball and would make scheduling games at the stadium next to impossible. Second, exchange rate issues stemming from the war created financial difficulties.17 As a result, owner Don Stapleton secured permission to play approximately half the team’s games across the U.S. border in Ogdensburg.18

Despite this unusual circumstance, the Ottawa-Ogdensburg club, under the leadership of 25-year-old manager Cy Morgan, finished the season in first place.19 They lost in the semi-finals in five games to the Amsterdam Rugmakers, who went on the win the league title.20 Following the loss, the owners declared the team would not be returning for the 1941 season.21

The roster featured several players who went on to play in the majors: pitchers Bill Peterman, Paul Masterson, and John “Specs” Podgajny, catcher Homer “Dixie” Howell, and infielder George Jumonville.22 “It wasn’t so much that they were a strong team, although they were,” wrote David Pietrusza. “It was that their parent club, the [Philadelphia] Phillies, was so putrid and their farm system so small, that they were willing to grab any player, anywhere, that looked halfway decent for a tryout.”23

STEVE RENNIE is a former journalist now working in the Canadian government. He grew up in the village of Osgoode, which is now part of the city, and got to see the Ottawa Lynx in their heyday. His baseball writing includes articles for the SABR Team Ownership Histories Project and an upcoming piece on the short-lived Eastern International League of 1888. In the spring of 2024, he presented on Ottawa’s early baseball history at the Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference in Cooperstown, New York. He is the president of SABR’s Ottawa-Gatineau and Eastern Ontario chapter.He has a particular interest in nineteenth-century baseball in Canada and enjoys unearthing forgotten games and teams from the sport’s early history for the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research and Protoball. He lives in Ottawa with his wife Joanna and their two children.

 

NOTES

1 David Pietrusza, Baseball’s Canadian-American League: A History of Its Inception, Franchises, Participants, Locales, Statistics, Demise, and Legacy, 1936-1951 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2006), 42.

2 Pietrusza, 66.

3 Pietrusza, 115.

4 “Brockville Eliminates Senators From Can-Am Playoffs,” Ottawa Journal, September 15, 1936: 16.

5 Pietrusza, 12.

6 “Can-Am League,” Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed August 2, 2024, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Can-Am_League.

7 “Can-American Leaders,” Ottawa Journal, September 23, 1926: 19.

8 “Wally Masters to Leave for Home in U.S. Shortly,” Ottawa Journal, September 30, 1936: 20.

9 “Local Baseball Club Now Known as Braves,” Ottawa Citizen, February 24, 1937: 13.

10 “Can-Am League.”

11 “Ed Mohler, Sold to Boston Bees, Ranked With Best in Can-Am Loop,” Ottawa Evening Citizen, September 11, 1937: 13.

12 “Lost Opportunities,” Ottawa Evening Citizen, September 2, 1938: 10.

13 “Senators Building for Baseball Season,” Ottawa Journal, February 14, 1939: 18.

14 “Wally Schang to Pilot Ottawa Baseball Team,” Ottawa Journal, February 7, 1939: 15.

15 “Senators Building for Baseball Season.”

16 “Can-Am League.”

17 Gary Belleville. “August 7, 1939: Ottawa Senators’ Wally Schang homers two weeks before his 50th birthday,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed August 2, 2024. https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-7-1939-ottawa-senators-wally-schang-homers-two-weeks-before-his-50th-birthday/.

18 “Can-Am Directors Okay Splitting Ottawa Games with Ogdensburg in ’40,” Ogdensburg Journal, February 19, 1940: 4.

19 “Can-Am League.”

20 “Amsterdam Eliminates Senators in Fifth Game by 6–4,” Ottawa Journal, September 12, 1940: 23.

21 Jack Maunder, “Another Angle,” Ottawa Journal, September 12, 1940: 22.

22 Pietrusza, 204.

23 Pietrusza, 84.