End of an Era: The Demise of the Montréal Royals

One could make a case that, between 1941 and 1953, the Montréal Royals were the gold standard for minor-league teams in North America. After becoming part of the Brooklyn Dodgers chain in 1939,1 they followed much the same path as their parent club, going from perpetual also-rans to perennial contenders. In those 13 seasons, they won five league pennants and six Governors’ Cups (awarded to the International League’s playoff champions), and earned the right to call themselves the best minor-league team on the continent by winning the Junior World Series three times. The team finished in the second division only once during that period, drew great crowds, and – let’s not forget – integrated “organized” (a.k.a. White) baseball in 1946.

This golden age was followed by a precipitous fall from grace. On September 7, 1960, less than seven years after the Royals clinched their third Junior World Series title, the team played its final home game in front of 1,016 nostalgic fans.2

Many things had changed in those seven years. Television transformed the entertainment habits of Canadians. Delorimier Stadium, the club’s home ballpark since 1928, became antiquated. It was located in a residential neighborhood where parking was scarce, which became more and more of a liability as the 1950s went on.

Most importantly, the baseball world was changing rapidly. Starting in 1953, five Triple-A markets (Milwaukee, Baltimore, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Minneapolis-St. Paul) were elevated to major-league status in rapid succession. Montréal was mentioned as a possible landing spot for a number of major franchises, and for a club in the new Continental Baseball League that Branch Rickey tried to launch. But nothing came to fruition.3 Minor-league fatigue among baseball fans in the city probably played a role in the club’s rapid drop in popularity.

The biggest factor in the Royals’ demise, however, may have been when another Triple-A city, although not one to which Montréal could be compared in any way, got its first major-league team. For two decades, Montréal’s geographic situation had been instrumental in the club’s position as the number-one farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. But after 1957, it was apparent that the Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t quite know what to do with such a far-flung farm club. After an unexpected Governors’ Cup championship in 1958, many of the players who had made that title run possible were taken from Montréal’s roster and sent to the Dodgers’ other Triple-A affiliates. The Royals dropped to sixth in the standings and eighth in attendance in 1959,4 and 1960 was even worse.

By the time September 7, 1960, rolled around, many in the press and the fan base had come to terms with the fact that there would be no Royals in 1961. The team was dead last in the standings, 26 games below .500. Tommy Lasorda, the longest-tenured and most recognizable Royal, had left the club in July after almost coming to blows with manager Clay Bryant.5 Rumors were swirling that the team was losing money, and that the Dodgers had no interest in operating the Royals going forward; the cities of Atlanta and Syracuse were mentioned as landing spots for the franchise.6‘7

“The game took a backseat to memories of better days” said La Presse of the farewell game.8 Future Athletic and Yankee right-hander Billy Kunkel toed the rubber as the Buffalo Bisons, who were fighting for their playoff lives, were in town.

The Bisons took the lead with a first-inning tally. The Royals scored two in the sixth, only to see the opposition come back with successive two-run innings in each of the seventh, eighth, and ninth. Veteran Buffalo infielder Bobby Morgan, who had spent three seasons in Montréal during the club’s heyday (1948, ’49 and ’51) clobbered the last home run in the history of Delorimier Stadium, a solo shot in the ninth inning.9

Down by five in the bottom of the ninth, the locals tried to mount a comeback and managed to score two runs. But 38-year-old former major leaguer Max Surkont came on in relief and struck out Cuban center fielder Angel Scull for the final out of the final Royals game in Montréal.10

In the locker room, players had little to say about the team’s situation. They were mostly happy that this dreary season would be over after one final series in Rochester. Manager Bryant told the press he hoped to be back in Montréal next season, although he said the exact opposite four days later.11 Cuban-born pitcher René Valdés, in his third season wearing Royal blue, took his time before removing his uniform. “If the Royals aren’t around next year, I don’t know where I’ll land. Montréal remains my favorite place,” Valdés told reporters.12

About 125,000 fans went through the turnstiles in 1960, roughly the numbers the Royals used to draw for the playoffs when things were going well.13 It came as no surprise when the Dodgers announced, a few days after the conclusion of the season, that they were not picking up the lease on Delorimier Stadium. Their two-decades-long association with the city of Montréal was over.

That didn’t mean that the Royals were gone, however. A group of Canadian sportsmen wanted to buy the team and run it as an independent franchise. Some players would be bought from the Dodgers, while others would come to Montréal through a deal with a major-league club. (The Orioles were rumored to be the club in question.) That deal, however, would not make the Canadian Royals, as they were to be called, an Orioles farm team. But the prospective ownership group wanted a better lease on Delorimier Stadium than what the Dodgers had, and the owners of the park were unwilling to budge. An expanded Jarry Park (a baseball stadium) and the current home of the Montréal Alouettes football team, McGill University’s Percival-Molson Stadium, were mentioned as possible alternatives. The deal fell through.14

The task of saving the Royals went to 77-year-old former team manager and GM Frank Shaughnessy, who had just stepped down after 24 years as president of the International League. After asking $125,000 of other potential suitors, the Dodgers were ready to sell the club to Shaughnessy for $90,000, and were willing to furnish 15 to 16 players for 1961. But again the question of Delorimier Stadium’s rent was a problem. There was a $25,000 gap between what Shaughnessy was willing to pay and what the ballparks owners were asking for.15 Those efforts also proved fruitless, and the franchise was transferred to Syracuse, New York, in early 1961.

But the Royals were still not dead. The 1960-61 offseason was an eventful one for the International League. In addition to Montréal losing its club, the Miami Marlins moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico. But the new Marlins drew poorly early on. After an Opening Day crowd of 6,600, a grand total of 6,400 attended their next eight games.16 Given how expensive it was to fly a baseball team to Puerto Rico, the league quickly decided to transfer the club, and Montréal was on the short list to provide a new home for the St. Louis Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate.17

The hopes of having the International League back in town were dashed in early May. The new tenants of Delorimier Stadium, the Cantalia club of the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League, had spent $3,500 to get rid of the dirt infield and the pitching mound. They did not wish to share the building with a baseball team. And contrary to, for example, the National Football League, which had plenty of teams playing in baseball stadiums, the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League did not allow its members to play on a pitch with a dirt infield.18 The circuit ceased operations after the 1966 season.

With the only building that could have housed professional baseball being taken out of the equation, the Royals were now officially dead. There was sadness among the diehards, those who were still around for the franchise’s final game. But those who believed the city should move on from minor-league baseball thought it was a good thing. “Isn’t it better for our city,” wrote Devoir sportswriter Gérard Gosselin, “to be completely deprived of baseball for a while, so interested parties will open their eyes and prepare a concrete, well planned and adequate gesture toward getting a major league franchise?”19

Historian MARCEL DUGAS is a graduate of the University of Montréal. He’s been researching the Montréal Royals since 2012. In 2013 he live-tweeted the team’s 1946 season for the benefit of his followers across Canada, the United States, Latin America and elsewhere. In 2019 he published Jackie Robinson, Un été à Montréal (Jackie Robinson’s Summer in Montréal), a deep dive into the historic 1946 season.

 

Notes

1 William Brown, Baseball’s Fabulous Montréal Royals (Montréal: Robert Davies Publishing, 1996), 55.

2 “Devant Une Vieille Garde de Partisans, Les Royaux ont-ils Présenté Leur Performance d’Adieu aux Montréalais?,” La Presse, September 8, 1960: 53.

3 Rolland Ricard, “Montréal dans la Ligue Continentale en 1961? Un Sportman Newyorkais Achèterait la Franchise des Royaux,” La Presse, March 16, 1960: 46.

4 Brown, 171-172.

5 Brown, 176.

6 “Les Dodgers Laissent Tomber le Bail des Royaux,” Le Devoir, September 14, 1960:12.

7 Marcel Desjardins, “Si les Propriétaires du Stade Delorimier Faisaient un Geste,” La Presse, December 5, 1960: 39.

8 “Devant une Vieille Garde de Partisans …”

9 “Royals Bow to Buffalo in Final,” Montréal Gazette, September 8, 1960: 30.

10 “Devant une Vieille Garde de Partisans …”

11 “Clay Bryant ne Désire pas Revenir à Montréal,” La Presse, September 12, 1960: 37.

12 “Devant une Vieille Garde de Partisans …”

13 “Les Dodgers Laissent Tomber le Bail des Royaux.”

14 Marcel Desjardins, “Choix d’un Gérant Exceptionnel et Entente avec un Certain Club Majeur,” La Presse, September 15, 1960: 53.

15 “Tentative de Frank Shaughnessy pour Sauver la Cause du Baseball à Montréal,” La Presse, December 16, 1960: 17, 41.

16 Marcel Desjardins, “À cause de l’Impossibilité d’Obtenir le Stade Delorimier, La Franchise du Club San Juan ne Pourra Être Transférée à Montréal,” La Presse, May 4, 1961:42.

17 “Richardson ‘Redécouvre’ Montréal,” Le Devoir, May 4, 1961:11.

18 “À cause de l’Impossibilité d’Obtenir le Stade Delorimier.”

19 Gérard Gosselin, “Cavalcade Sportive,” Le Devoir, December 2, 1960: 14.