Early Batteries From The Great White North

On September 6, 1993, Denis Boucher pitched his first game for the Montréal Expos in front of 40,000 hometown fans. The lead story was that he was the first player born in Montréal to suit up for the Expos1 but it was also noted that Boucher and Joe Siddall, born in Windsor, Ontario, formed an all-Canadian battery. The rarity of the latter event was acknowledged but complete information was not available about other Canadian pitcher-catcher combos.2 The gap in the historical record inspired this search to identify the earliest major-league games that had a Canadian pitcher throw to a Canadian catcher.

WHAT IS A CANADIAN?

According to the Canadian Citizenship Act, a person is Canadian if they were born in Canada, they became a citizen through the naturalization process, or they were born outside Canada and one of their parents was a Canadian citizen at the time of their birth.

Every major leaguer with a Canadian birthplace is included in this analysis even if they emigrated at a young age. Ongoing research can revise biographical information, so Baseball-Reference, a regularly updated online database, was the primary source to confirm places of birth.

Family histories about naturalized citizens or foreign-born players with Canadian parents are harder to find than places of birth. This usually requires anecdotal evidence that doesn’t have a centralized and searchable database, so it is acknowledged that the list may be incomplete, and that new Canadian players in these two categories may be found in the future. Players of this sort have been identified but, at the time of this writing, no nineteenth-century foreign-born Canadians have been found to have participated in a Canadian battery.3

Another issue is the definition of Canada, which was created by the British North America Act on July 1, 1867, with additional territory added through 1947. This creates a concern because every Canadian major leaguer who debuted before 1890 was born before Canada existed.4 This paper assumes that anyone born somewhere that later became part of Canada is Canadian, even if they were born before Confederation.

WHICH LEAGUES ARE MAJOR LEAGUES?

Today there is a clear distinction between the 30 major-league clubs and the minor leagues, but over the years there have been several rival organizations that warrant inclusion, so it is important to define which ones are to be considered. The Special Baseball Records Committee of 1968-1969 convened by Commissioner William Eckert ruled on a number of points, including a decision about which leagues to define as major leagues. In addition to the National League (1876 to the present) the other major leagues of the nineteenth century were the American Association (1882 to 1891), the Union Association (1884), and the Players’ League (1890). All other leagues have been excluded.5

METHODOLOGY

A year-by-year list of the major-league careers of all Canadian players who either pitched or caught was sorted to find teams that had both a Canadian pitcher and catcher in the same season. Box scores from those team seasons were then reviewed to find games with a Canadian battery. What follows is a review of every nineteenth-century major-league team that had innings pitched and games caught by Canadians. Unless otherwise noted, all biographical and statistical data and all team schedules and results were found at Baseball-Reference, and all sorting of this data was done through Stathead Baseball. This was last confirmed between October 4 and 7, 2021.

THE FIRST CANADIAN MAJOR-LEAGUE PITCHERS AND CATCHERS

Through the 2021 season, 257 players born in Canada had appeared in the major leagues; 134 pitched and 38 caught. Eighteen of these catchers played in the nineteenth century, but they collectively donned the tools of ignorance for a total of only 212 games, about 4 percent of all of the major-league games caught by Canadians. Twenty of their countrymen pitched in a total of 438 games in this period, only 3 percent of the Canadian hurlers’ overall total.6 Despite this dearth of opportunities, the first all-Canadian batteries played in the nineteenth century.

The first Canadian to pitch in the major leagues was Edward Sylvester “The Only” Nolan (Trenton, Ontario), with Indianapolis of the National League in 1878, and the first catcher was William B. “Bill” Phillips (Saint John, New Brunswick), with Cleveland of the National League in 1879. Nolan and Phillips were teammates with Cleveland in 1881, but Phillips played only first base that season so they never formed a battery. The first Canadian battery followed a couple of years later.

1883 NEW YORK GOTHAMS (NATIONAL LEAGUE) – TODAY’S SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

The 1883 New York Gothams were the first team to have a Canadian at each of the battery positions. James “Tip” O’Neill (Springfield, Ontario) is better known as an outfielder, but he began his big-league career that season as a pitcher with a 5-12 record and an ERA worse than the league average. Catcher John Humphries (North Gower, Ontario) played two major-league seasons, the first of which was the 1883 campaign.

This was New York’s first season in the National League, but the Gothams were far from being a typical expansion team. Hall of Famers Mickey Welch and John Montgomery Ward pitched over 80 percent of the team’s innings, with O’Neill taking most of the rest, including 19 starts. Another Hall of Famer, Buck Ewing, was the regular catcher; he started behind the plate for all but five of the team’s first 45 games, with manager John Clapp as his backup. Humphries was finishing his studies at Cornell and didn’t make his debut with New York until July 7.

O’Neill and Humphries were the starting battery on July 13 in a complete-game 6-3 loss in Buffalo. All of Buffalo’s runs were unearned due to nine New York errors, including two apiece by O’Neill and Humphries; the overall poor defensive showing was compounded by Humphries’ two passed balls and a wild pitch by O’Neill. Humphries was shut out at the plate but O’Neill foretold his future hitting prowess by contributing a double.

O’Neill and Humphries were not the first to represent a nation with an international battery. Irishmen Curry Foley (Milltown) and Sleeper Sullivan (born in Ireland, city unknown) accomplished that with Buffalo of the National League in 1881, and Sullivan caught countryman Tony Mullane (Cork) with St. Louis of the American Association earlier in 1883. But O’Neill and Humphries formed the first Canadian-born major-league battery.

O’Neill’s next start was a 10-1 loss in Cleveland on July 18. Humphries began the game in right field and Ewing was the starting catcher, but was injured during the game and he and Humphries swapped positions.7 Bill Phillips was Cleveland’s first baseman and in the eighth inning he became the first Canadian-born batter to face a Canadian battery, delivering a single to drive home his team’s last run.8

O’Neill started again on July 28 in a 4-2 loss at Detroit, as he and Humphries were batterymates for the third time. George Wood (Pownal, Prince Edward Island) was the Wolverines’ leadoff hitter; he had a single in four at-bats as the second Canadian to bat against a Canadian battery. He was the last to do so for over a century.9

O’Neill didn’t pitch again until September 5. Humphries caught for him that day, but it was an exhibition match against a team from Staten Island, so it is excluded from their major-league totals. They had one last regular-season game together on September 8 in Philadelphia. New York fell behind 3-0 after two innings before tallying 13 runs in the third frame and cruising to a 16-6 victory. O’Neill went the distance for the win but, as noted in the Times (Philadelphia), the battery had a rough day:

“O’Neil [sic] pitched for the visitors and was terribly wild. Six of the home nine reached first base on called balls and he made six wild pitches, besides breaking his catcher up. Dorgan came in to catch in the second inning…”

Humphries was sufficiently “broken up” to not catch again for three weeks, and O’Neill’s next start, his last of the season, was with Mike Dorgan as his catcher. The game on September 8 was therefore the last of four in which O’Neill and Humphries formed a Canadian battery.

Humphries began the 1884 season with Washington of the American Association, then returned to the Gothams for the last two months of the schedule after the Nationals folded. He spent the following three seasons with minor-league teams in Syracuse, Toronto, and Rochester before ending his professional playing career and devoting most of the rest of his life to being a teacher. O’Neill also switched leagues for 1884. He pitched better, going 11-4 with a 2.68 ERA for St. Louis of the American Association, and he raised his OPS by 268 points while playing most of his games in left field. He never pitched after 1884, but became a hitting star of the Association, winning the Triple Crown in 1887. He remains one of the greatest Canadian-born major leaguers, and an annual award presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is named in his honor.11

1884 PHILADELPHIA QUAKERS (NATIONAL LEAGUE) – TODAY’S PHILLIES

The 1884 season saw the inauguration of the single-year Union Association and an expansion of the American Association. The number of major-league teams doubled, allowing over 300 players to make their debuts, including 20 Canadians. Two of the Canadian rookies played with Philadelphia.

Jonah William “Joe” Knight (Port Stanley, Ontario) pitched in six games with a 2-4 record and a 5.47 ERA. His debut was a 9-0 loss at home to Buffalo on May 16, and his last game with the club was on June 25. He finished the year with Muskegon of the Northwestern League, then became an outfielder and returned to the majors in 1890 with Cincinnati of the National League. He played professionally until 1899.

Finding a reliable catcher was a season-long problem for Philadelphia, which employed 13 players at the position, a major-league record to this day.12 One of the backstops was Onesime Eugene “Gene” Vadeboncoeur (Louiseville, Québec), who played in four games between July 11 and July 22. His professional career lasted until 1888 but these games were the extent of his big-league experience.

Vadeboncoeur’s first game with Philadelphia was 16 days after Knight’s last, so although the 1884 Quakers had both a Canadian pitcher and a Canadian catcher, the two of them never had the opportunity to form a battery.

1884 CHICAGO WHITE STOCKINGS (NATIONAL LEAGUE) – TODAY’S CUBS

Another Canadian rookie in 1884 was Joseph E. “Joe” Brown (born in Canada, city unknown). Brown started the season with Fort Wayne of the Northwestern League and ran up a record of 15-21 with a 1.72 ERA while pitching over 300 innings. He accumulated those impressive totals by mid-August, then signed with the White Stockings, for whom he made his debut on August 16 in a 13-9 victory over New York.

The White Stockings also had a Canadian who caught one game in 1884, but it can be stated with full certainty that the team didn’t have a Canadian battery because the catcher was Joe Brown. After pitching a complete-game loss on August 20, Brown was Chicago’s starting catcher the next day. According to Sporting Life, “Brown’s catching was inferior and manager Cap Anson relieved him in the fifth inning.”

Brown never caught again, but he was the starting pitcher in another four games, he had one relief appearance, and he also made eight starts in right field. He finished the season with a 4-2 record, pitched four times for Baltimore of the American Association in 1885, and played professionally until 1887. He died the following year.

1885 DETROIT WOLVERINES (NATIONAL LEAGUE) – FRANCHISE FOLDED AFTER THE 1888 SEASON

Nineteenth-century pitchers were expected to go the distance, and those with Detroit were no exception, completing all but three of their starts in 1885. One of the team’s rare relief appearances was by outfielder George Wood, who was noted earlier for batting against Tip O’Neill and John Humphries.

One of Wood’s teammates that year was Jeremiah S. “Jerry” Moore (Windsor, Ontario). Moore debuted with the short-lived Altoona team of the Union Association in 1884, and after the franchise folded spent a couple of months playing in the Northwestern League before finishing the season with Cleveland of the National League. He joined the Wolverines in 1885, playing six regular-season games for them, all at catcher.

Wood played his usual left field through a spring barnstorming tour, but on April 13. 1885, he was given a pitching assignment in Louisville. He lost 8-0 with Moore catching but, since this was a preseason exhibition game, it doesn’t count in the search for major-league Canadian batteries.

Wood was back in left field once the regular season began, including the game played on May 22 when Detroit’s starting pitcher was Frank Meinke. Meinke had pitched 31 complete games for Detroit in 1884, but this was his only outing of 1885. With Boston ahead 12-0 in the sixth inning, he was relieved and switched positions with Wood, who pitched the rest of the game with his countryman Moore behind the plate.14 This was Wood’s lone appearance in the box in 1885, but it was enough for him and Moore to form the second Canadian-born battery. It was the only game in which they did this, but it was sufficient to brand Wood as the sole player to ever pitch in a Canadian-born battery and bat against another one.15

Moore caught his last major-league game on May 28, then finished the season in the Canadian League. He continued to play in various minor leagues through 1888 and died at age 35 in 1890. Wood’s big-league career lasted until 1892, and he played professionally until 1896. Even though he retired more than 120 years ago, Wood is still in the top 10 for Canadians in many career batting statistics, and as recently as 2013 he was the Canadian leader for games played in left field.17 Wood was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011.

1885 BUFFALO BISONS (NATIONAL LEAGUE) – FRANCHISE FOLDED AFTER THE 1885 SEASON

Arthur Albert “Art” Irwin and John Irwin (both born in Toronto, Ontario) were the first of five sets of Canadian-born brothers to play in the major leagues, and the first to be teammates.18 The second pair in each category was Peter Burke “Pete” Wood and Frederick Llewellyn “Fred” Wood (both born in Dundas, Ontario).

The Wood brothers (no relation to the aforementioned George Wood) began the 1885 season playing for the Hamilton Clippers in the inaugural campaign of the Canadian League. Both were released after objecting to the benching of their teammate and brother Jeff,19 soon signing on with the league rival Primroses team, also of Hamilton. Their stays were short-lived.

After only two games with the Primroses, Pete Wood was engaged by Buffalo, replacing future Hall of Famer Pud Galvin in the rotation. He played his first big-league game on July 15 at the tender age of 18 years and 164 days; he remains the youngest Canadian-born player in major-league history.20 He pitched 24 times over the last three months of the season with a record of 8-15 in almost 200 innings.

After leaving the Clippers, brother Fred played a few games for the Primroses, then moved to the league’s Toronto franchise before being released in late August. He rejoined the Primroses and wrapped up his Canadian League season in September. Concurrently, Buffalo’s roster was being decimated by the transfer of most of its top players to Detroit, so manager Jack Chapman was looking for warm bodies to ride out the last few weeks of the season. Fred had appeared in a dozen games for Detroit in 1884 under Chapman, and that connection, plus a brother in the starting rotation, led him to make the move southeast to Buffalo.

The Wood brothers formed a battery on September 28 in an exhibition game in Hamilton won by their old Clippers team,21 then, on September 30, they formed the major leagues’ third all-Canadian battery in a 5-3 loss at home to Boston, Pete going the distance and Fred catching and contributing a single. The score was tied until Boston recorded two unearned runs in the eighth inning to take the game that the local press dubbed “[b]y far the best general playing that the local team has done since it was bereft of the ‘Big Four.’”22 Buffalo played another six games that season, but the September 30 match was the last of the year for each of the Wood brothers.

Apart from three games in 1889, the stint in Buffalo was Pete’s only major-league experience, but he also appeared in over 100 games in various minor leagues between 1885 and 1890. He studied medicine after retiring as a professional baseball player, living in Ontario and Montana, and spent his last years in Chicago, where he died in 1923. The game on September 30 was the final one of Fred’s major-league career, although he returned to Buffalo in 1886 to join the city’s new entry in the International League. His playing career lasted another few years, after which he became a dentist and practiced until his death in 1935 in London, Ontario.

Although the Wood brothers were teammates for only one major-league game, that game gave them a spot on the list of Canadian-born batteries, and they were the last of their compatriots to be the starting battery of a major-league game until Denis Boucher and Joe Siddall repeated the feat with the Montréal Expos 108 years later.

1898 LOUISVILLE COLONELS (NATIONAL LEAGUE) – FRANCHISE FOLDED AFTER THE 1899 SEASON

The Wood brothers’ game kicked off a decade with few Canadian-born pitchers or catchers in the big leagues. Between 1886 and 1896 only three Canadians caught (11 games total) and just nine pitched (25 games), and no major-league team had a player at each position in the same season. That started to change in 1897 when William J. “Bill” Magee (born in New Brunswick, city unknown) pitched 23 times for Louisville.

The Louisville franchise was a perennial doormat of the National League, and the Colonels entered 1898 with a string of five seasons finishing either last or next to last. That season didn’t start much better, and their catching corps was one of the problems. Bill Wilson was the regular, backed up by Charlie Dexter, but the former couldn’t hit and the latter was better suited to the outfield; as a result, the team acquired the contract of Abraham Conrad “Cooney” Snyder (Chinguacousy, Ontario) from league rival Washington. Snyder played his first game on May 19, starting 17 times over the next month.

Pitching was also a concern. Bert Cunningham was the team’s ace, but the rest of the rotation was subpar. Magee was a swingman, getting only three spot starts and one relief appearance in the season’s first 25 games before Snyder joined the team.

New York visited Louisville on Monday, May 23, and they pounced on starter Pete Dowling for nine early runs before Dowling was replaced by Magee. Snyder was catching, and for the last four innings the Colonels had the major leagues’ fourth Canadian-born battery. The Louisville Courier-Journal noted, “… Magee, who succeeded Dowling, did little better on account of his wildness.” Magee gave up six walks in his short outing and Snyder committed a passed ball, although he did contribute a single in four plate appearances. New York won 12-4.

Snyder caught roughly every second game for the next three weeks, but Magee didn’t get off the bench until a relief appearance on June 14 when Snyder had the day off. Magee’s next game was a start in the opener of a doubleheader on June 19, but Snyder caught only the nightcap.

By mid-June Dexter had moved to right field, Wilson had worn out his welcome with an OPS+ of 32, and Snyder was even worse, so Louisville acquired the contracts of catchers Doc Powers and Malachi Kittridge. Starting June 22, Kittridge caught 86 of the team’s last 98 games, and Snyder was out of a job. He was released before the month was over and joined the Toronto entry in the Eastern League.

Magee was the starting pitcher the day of Kittridge’s first game with Louisville and he tossed a complete-game shutout, earning a spot in the rotation for the rest of the season. This was only his eighth appearance, but by the time the schedule was complete he had pitched almost 300 innings with a record of 16-15.

Snyder had one more year of organized ball, with Reading of the Atlantic League in 1899, then he retired at age 26. Magee split the 1899 season among three major-league teams, then played two full seasons in the Eastern League before he got a late-season call-up to the big leagues in 1901. Despite having won 16 games in 1898 at age 22, Magee after that season compiled a major league record of only 9-24, and he was finished as a ballplayer by 1906.

SUMMARY

Snyder was the last Canadian catcher until John Bannerman “Larry” McLean (Fredericton, New Brunswick) in 1903, so Louisville had the last Canadian battery of the nineteenth century. The era had four all-Canadian batteries appear in a total of seven games:

 

1883	New York (NL), 4 games Tip O’Neill (P) and John Humphries (C)
1885	Detroit (NL), 1 game George Wood (P) and Jerry Moore (C)
1885	Buffalo (NL), 1 game Pete Wood (P) and Fred Wood (C)
1898	Louisville (NL), 1 game Bill Magee (P) and Cooney Snyder (C)

 

The New York games on July 13 and 28 and September 8, 1883, and the Buffalo game in 1885 each had a starting Canadian battery. In the New York game of July 18, 1883, O’Neill started but Humphries entered the game as a replacement catcher. The Detroit and Louisville games each involved a starting catcher and a relief pitcher. The lone win was in the fourth New York game.

POSTSCRIPT

The Deadball Era featured five of the seven most prolific Canadian-born catchers. They accumulated over half of all of the major-league games caught by their countrymen, but a lack of pitchers resulted in only two more Canadian-born batteries by 1920:

 

1908	Cleveland (AL), 1 game Jack Graney (P) and J.J. Clarke (C)
1918	New York (NL), 1 game Bob Steele (P) and George Gibson (C)

 

After this period there were very few Canadian-born catchers until the start of the twenty-first century, and there were only two more batteries in the next 87 seasons:

 

1955	Kansas City (AL), 1 game Ozzie Van Brabant (P) and Eric MacKenzie (C)
1993	Montréal (NL), 2 games Denis Boucher (P) and Joe Siddall (C)

 

The Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948 are now recognized as major leagues; they were considered in this review but, based on current records, no Canadian-born player ever caught a game in these leagues. As a result, there are no Negro League batteries to add to the list.

Canadian batteries have become more common in recent years, mainly because of the careers of catchers Russell Martin (East York, Ontario) and George Kottaras (Scarborough, Ontario), and how teams are now employing expanded bullpens, opening up many more opportunities for Canadian pitchers:

 

2006	Los Angeles (NL), 1 game Eric Gagné (P) and Russell Martin (C)
2008	NL All-Star Team, 1 game Ryan Dempster (P) and Russell Martin (C)
2010-12	Milwaukee (NL), 32 games John Axford (P) and George Kottaras (C)
2013	Pittsburgh (NL), 1 game Chris Leroux (P) and Russell Martin (C)
2014	Cleveland (AL), 4 games John Axford (P) and George Kottaras (C)
2014	Pittsburgh (NL), 9 games John Axford (P) and Russell Martin (C)
2015	Toronto (AL), 1 game Andrew Albers (P) and Russell Martin (C)
2015	Toronto (AL), 10 games Jeff Francis (P) and Russell Martin (C)
2018	Toronto (AL), 28 games John Axford (P) and Russell Martin (C)

 

This review included postseason and All-Star games. The 2008 midseason classic is the only one to have a Canadian battery, and there has never been a Canadian-born battery in a playoff game.²⁷

There have been a total of 99 major-league games with Canadian-born batterymates; Axford/Martin accounted for 37 of them and Axford/Kottaras 36. John Axford (Simcoe, Ontario) pitched 73 of these games and Martin caught 51 of the total.

If the definition of Canadian is expanded to include players born abroad to Canadian parents, or those who moved to Canada at a young age, then four other batteries can be included:

 

1908-09	Cincinnati (NL), 26 games Jean Dubuc * (P) and Larry McLean (C)
1913	Detroit (AL), 2 games Jean Dubuc * (P) and Henri Rondeau * (C)
1915	Pittsburgh (FL), 12 games George Leclair * (P) and Yip Owens (C)
1918	Pittsburgh (NL), 2 games Bob Steele (P) and Jimmy Archer ** (C)

* Born in the United States to Canadian-born parents.

** Born in Ireland, raised in Canada.

 

This part of the list is likely to grow as more research is done and biographies are written about players who had Canadian ties other than their place of birth.

No Canadian-born catcher has appeared in the major leagues since Russell Martin’s last game on September 28, 2019. A possible future Canadian battery is pitcher Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ontario) and catcher Noah “Bo” Naylor (Mississauga, Ontario) with the Cleveland Guardians in 2022. Quantrill is already established as a pitcher for the team, while Naylor is a top prospect who played for Double-A Akron in 2021.28

DAVID MATCHETT grew up in Lachine, Quebec, and had his sixth birthday a month before the Montréal Expos played their first game. He earned a degree in finance and later moved to Toronto to pursue his career, arriving the same day the Blue Jays acquired Dave Winfield for their World Series run in 1992. David first discovered SABR when he bought a few back issues of the Baseball Research Journal on his initial trip to Cooperstown in 1981, and he has been a member for over 25 years. He is a certified financial planner and lives in downtown Toronto, a 15-minute walk from Rogers Centre. When he isn’t watching a game or doing research, he enjoys travel, movies, and taking in all of Toronto’s cultural activities with his friends.

 

Notes

1The Montréal Expos played from 1969 through 2004, and in that time 16 Canadian-born players wore their uniform. Three were born in Québec: Claude Raymond (St. Jean, 45 kilometers southeast of Montréal) from 1969 to 1971, Denis Boucher (Montréal) from 1993 to 1994, and Derek Aucoin (Lachine, a suburb about 15 kilometers west of downtown Montréal) in 1996.

2 “Expos Story,” Montréal Gazette, Tuesday, September 7, 1993: F3. The article was not attributed but it was likely written by either Michael Farber or Jeff Blair: “Prior to the arrival of Joe Siddall from Windsor, there have been five Canadian catchers in the big leagues in this century. The roster: Nig Clarke, Amherstburg, Ont. (nine years between 1905 and 1920), George (Moon) Gibson, London (1905-18), Frank (Yip) Owens, Toronto, (1905, 1909 [sic]), Joe (Stubby) Erautt, Vibank, Sask (1950-51), Eric MacKenzie, Glendon, Alta. (1955). Nig, Moon, Yip, Stubby. Perhaps the Expos rookie should be called Joe “L” Siddall. ‘Amherstburg is about 20 miles from Windsor,’ Siddall said. ‘You heard it here first. Windsor, Cradle of Canadian Catchers.’”

Note: This article failed to mention Larry McLean (Fredericton, New Brunswick), Art McGovern (Saint John, New Brunswick), Tom Daly (Saint John, New Brunswick), Ed Wingo (Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Québec), and Jim Lawrence (Hamilton, Ontario), all Canadian-born players who also preceded Siddall as major-league catchers in the twentieth century. It also excludes Owens’ two seasons in the Federal League in 1914 and 1915.

3One nineteenth-century pitcher who was considered in this analysis was Leon Viau. Viau was born in Corinth, Vermont, to a French-Canadian father. Little is known about Viau’s heritage but the French name and proximity of his birthplace to the border were enough to at least infer some Canadian roots. Viau pitched for four major-league teams between 1888 and 1892, and was twice a 20-game winner. His teammates included Canadians Joe Knight (Port Stanley, Ontario – 1890 Cincinnati, 127 games in left field), Pat Lyons (Belleville, Ontario – 1890 Cleveland, 11 games at second base), and Spud Johnson (born in Canada, city unknown – 1891 Cleveland, 79 games in right field and one game at first base) but since none of them was a catcher, Viau never had an opportunity to form an all-Canadian battery.

4Forty-three Canadian-born major leaguers played at least one game between 1876 and 1889, and 42 of them were born before July 1, 1867. The exception is Ed Springer (Oil Springs, Ontario), whose birthdate is listed as simply “1867,” so there is a chance that he was born after Confederation. Phil Routcliffe (Frontenac, Ontario), who played one game in 1890, was born on October 24, 1870, and is the first Canadian major leaguer with a confirmed birthdate after Confederation.

5 Some resources consider the National Association (1871 to 1875) to be a major league. Through its five-year history only two Canadian-born players appeared in the league: Bob Addy (Port Hope, Ontario – 1871 and 1873 to 1875) and Tom Smith (Guelph, Ontario – 1875). They were never teammates and neither one pitched or caught so the National Association didn’t have any Canadian batteries. The other major leagues – the American League (1901 to present), the Federal League (1914 to 1915), and the recognized Negro Leagues (1920 to 1948) – didn’t operate in the nineteenth century and were therefore excluded from this analysis.

6 Stathead Baseball was used to identify Canadian-born major leaguers. The Batting Player Season Finder found 250 players who played between 1876 and 2021, and the Player Pitching Season & Career Finder found another seven who pitched in the DH era, played for only American League teams, and never played in an interleague game in which pitchers batted [Ryan Braun (Kitchener, Ontario), Barry Cort (Toronto, Ontario), Steve Green (Greenfield Park, Québec), Peter Hoy (Brockville, Ontario), Trystan Magnuson (Vancouver, British Columbia), Chris Mears (Ottawa, Ontario), and Dustin Molleken (Regina, Saskatchewan)]. The two Stathead searches were merged to get the total of 257, and that list was filtered to find pitchers and catchers. The 134 pitchers completed a total of 41,601 innings in 13,130 appearances. The 20 pitchers who played in the nineteenth century appeared in 438 games (3.34% of the total) comprising 3,483 innings (8.40%). The total games caught by all Canadian-born major leaguers is 5,048, 55% of which was accumulated by Russell Martin (East York, Ontario – 1,579 games) and George Gibson (London, Ontario – 1,194). The 212 games caught by the 18 pre-1900 catchers represent 4.20% of the total.

7“Out and In-Door Sports,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, Thursday, July 19, 1883: 4: “Ewing’s hands were so battered that in the eighth inning he went to right field and Humphries went behind the bat.”

8 The timing of the position switch between Ewing and Humphries is key to determining if Bill Phillips came to the plate while Humphries was catching O’Neill. The most comprehensive report of the game action can be found in the Cleveland Leader and, based on its description plus a few details gleaned from other publications, the top of the eighth inning can be summarized as follows:

Fatty Briody was retired on a fly ball to right field.

Fred Dunlap hit a double to left field, then stole third.

Pete Hotaling hit a single to center, scoring Dunlap, then advanced to second on a wild pitch.

Jack Glasscock singled to right to score Hotaling, stole second, and went to third on a passed ball.

The result of Tom York’s at-bat was not recorded in any of the publications that were reviewed, but he made it safely to first base. Glasscock didn’t score and York didn’t walk or get a hit, so the most likely scenario is that he reached on one of New York’s errors, and Glass-cock was unable to advance on the play.

Bill Phillips singled to left to score Glasscock, and moved up a base when New York’s second baseman committed an error on the throw back in from the outfield.

York was put out at third base for the second out of the inning, but the details of the play have not been found. This could have been a continuation of the play after Phillips’s hit, or York could have been picked off or caught stealing home during the subsequent at-bat.

Mike Muldoon ended the inning by hitting a fly ball to center field.

The game summary in the Cleveland Leader, Thursday, July 19, 1883: 3, noted that Ewing caught Briody’s fly to start the inning, and that he threw the ball that second baseman Dasher Troy muffed after Phillips’s single, which means that Humphries had to have been the backstop as the inning began, confirming Phillips’s at-bat against the Canadian battery.

9 The next Canadian-born batter to face a Canadian-born battery was Justin Morneau (New Westminster, British Columbia) of the Minnesota Twins against the Milwaukee Brewers’ pitcher John Axford (Simcoe, Ontario) and catcher George Kottaras (Scarborough, Ontario) on May 23, 2010. Joey Votto (Toronto, Ontario) of the Cincinnati Reds confronted the same battery on June 26, 2012, and, after Axford and Kottaras had moved to Cleveland, they engaged Michael Saunders (Victoria, British Columbia) of the Seattle Mariners on June 29, 2014. In all three cases Axford struck out his countryman. The list is longer if the definition of Canadian is expanded to include foreign-born players with Canadian-born parents. Examples include Canadian-born George Gibson having 17 plate appearances against US-born Jean Dubuc and his Canadian-born catcher Larry McLean in 1908 and 1909, and US-born Freddie Freeman batting twice against Canadian-born Jeff Francis (Vancouver, British Columbia) and Russell Martin on April 19, 2015.

10“The League Games,” Philadelphia Times, September 9, 1883:2.

11 The James “Tip” O’Neill Award is presented annually by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame to the Canadian player judged to have excelled in individual achievement and team contribution while adhering to baseball’s highest ideals. More information can be found at the Hall’s website at http://baseballhalloffame.ca/museum/awards/.

12 The next highest total is 11 catchers for Indianapolis (AA) in 1884, and five other teams are tied for third place with 10 catchers. All of these teams played in the nineteenth century. Ten teams have employed nine catchers in a season, including the 2021 Chicago Cubs. The most recent team before that was the 1914 Pittsburgh Pirates.

13“Providence vs. Chicago,” Sporting Life, August 27, 1884: 5.

14Sporting Life, May 27, 1885: 7.

15The Postscript of this paper summarizes the 99 major-league games with a Canadian-born battery; with the exception of George Wood, none of the pitchers batted against another Canadian-born battery.

16Wood ranks first among all Canadian-born major leaguers in triples, third in runs scored, fourth in hits, fifth in at-bats, sixth in plate appearances and stolen bases, eighth in doubles, and ninth in games played and runs batted in.

17 Wood was the leader until Jason Bay passed him during the 2013 season, 121 years after Wood’s last major-league game.

18Jim Shearon, Over the Fence Is Out (Kanata, Ontario: Malin Head Press, 2009), 245. Under the title “Canadian Brothers in the Major Leagues,” the author lists the following five sets of Canadian-born brothers in the major leagues:

Arthur and John Irwin (Toronto, Ontario)

Fred and Pete Wood (Dundas, Ontario)

Gene (Milton, Nova Scotia) and Russ Ford (Brandon, Manitoba)

Rob (East York, Ontario) and Rich Butler (Toronto, Ontario)

Jeff and Jordan Zimmerman (Kelowna, British Columbia)

Arthur Irwin played in the major leagues from 1880 until 1894, appearing in a total of 1,010 games. His brother John played professionally from 1882 until 1899 but most of his career was spent in the minor leagues. John appeared in one major-league game in 1882 when he played first base for Worcester (National League) with Arthur at shortstop. They were teammates again in 1889 with Washington (National League), where they played together 52 times at third base (John) and shortstop (Arthur) between July 29 and the end of the season. Arthur was the manager of Boston (American Association) in 1891 and he got into a handful of games, one of which was with John, on May 31. That was the last game to have Canadian siblings as teammates, but the Zimmerman brothers got into one game as opponents on July 2, 1999, when Jeff pitched the eighth inning for the Texas Rangers and Jordan faced one batter in the ninth inning for the Seattle Mariners.

19 In each of their first 12 games the Clippers had at least one Wood brother (Pete, Fred, or Jeff) in the starting lineup, with three of the games featuring all three. Fred Wood played in eight of the Clippers’ first 12 games, including five as the team’s catcher. On June 24, Jerry Moore was catcher. Once he joined the Clippers, Moore caught more than 60 percent of the team’s games over the rest of the season. One catcher who participated in a major-league Canadian battery (Moore) therefore replaced another one (Fred Wood) for the Hamilton Clippers of the Canadian League in 1885.

20Pete Wood is the only Canadian to make his debut at age 18, and one of only four Canadian-born teenagers to play in the major leagues.

21 “Ball Games Yesterday,” Buffalo Morning Express, September 29, 1885: 2.

22“Boston 5, Buffalo 3,” Buffalo Morning Express, October 1 , 1885: 2.

23Pop Smith (Digby, Nova Scotia) caught one game for Pittsburgh (American Association) in 1886, Fred Lake (Cornwallis, Nova Scotia) caught four games for Boston (National League) in 1891, Kid Summers (Toronto, Ontario) caught one game for St. Louis (NL) in 1893, and Lake caught five times for Louisville (NL) in 1894.

24Nine pitchers appeared in 10 seasons (two for George Wood), pitching in a total of 25 games.

25“New York Took the First Game,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 24, 1898: 6.

26The main Canadian Deadball Era catchers were George Gibson (1,194 games caught), Larry McLean (761), J.J. Clarke (Amherstburg, Ontario – 462), Yip Owens (Toronto, Ontario – 215), and Tom Daly (144). These five players caught a total of 2,776 games, 55 percent of the 5,048 games caught by all Canadian-born major-league catchers. The other two catchers in the top seven are Russell Martin (1,579) and George Kottaras (246); no other Canadian-born player has caught more than 75 major-league games. Irish-born Canadian Jimmy Archer also played in the Deadball Era and he caught 736 games. This period could be named the Golden Age of Canadian catchers.

27John Axford and George Kottaras both played for Milwaukee in the 2011 postseason, but were not in a game at the same time and didn’t form a battery. No other postseason roster included both a Canadian-born pitcher and catcher.

28 Quantrill and Naylor both appeared in Cleveland spring-training games on February 28 and March 10, 2021, but Naylor entered each game after Quantrill had left, so they have yet to form a battery, even in a preseason exhibition game.