From a Canadian Baseball Researcher’s Notebook

Al Kermisch, who joined SABR in 1971, was a baseball researcher for over 60 years. His paper, “Walter Johnson: King of the 1-0 Hurlers,” appeared in the first SABR Baseball Research Journal in 1972, and in 1975 he debuted “From a Researcher’s Notebook”: seven small stories covering 4½ pages. This became a regular feature and many SABR members read the Journal back-to-front as it became the customary last article in the annual publication. The following is a tribute to Mr. Kermisch and his contributions to baseball research, with a Canadian twist.

KING GEORGE V AND THE OTHER ROYALS

From Sporting Life, September 14, 1901:

“Base ball is to be among the amusements furnished the Duke of Cornwall and York during his stay in Montréal The Torontos and Montréalers, the two Canadian Eastern League clubs, will furnish the base ball.”1

The Duke, son of King Edward VII, ascended to the throne as George V after his father’s death in 1910. The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York spent much of 1901 touring the British Empire; when asked what he would like to do in Canada, the Duke said, “I want a day’s duck shooting, and I want to watch a lacrosse match.”2 Added to the itinerary was the Eastern League baseball game of September 20, when the Toronto Royals played the Montréal Royals.3

The visiting Toronto squad, managed by Ed Barrow,4 scored a run in the top of the first when Jimmy Bannon hit a home run over the left-field fence off Montréal ace Harry Felix. The home team tied it up in the bottom of the fourth off future major-league starter Pop Williams, but Toronto regained the lead in the fifth frame and added insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings for a 4-1 victory.5 Thirteen of the 18 players were former or future major leaguers;6 the game was played in a brisk 1 hour and 20 minutes before 500 fans on a cool, cloudy afternoon.

What were the future King’s impressions of the contest? He had none because he wasn’t there. The tour’s organizing committee was overly enthusiastic in filling the Duke’s schedule, and the game was dropped from the program. The governor-general, Lord Minto, justified this by stating, “… baseball is looked upon as an American game and is not at all popular in Canada — moreover it had fallen entirely out of the hands of amateurs and has been taken over by the very low American professional element.”7 The English-born Minto donated a cup that is still being awarded to Canadian lacrosse champions, but he was clearly not a baseball fan.

The Duke got to see a lacrosse match in Ottawa and go duck hunting in Manitoba. He did eventually attend a baseball game in London, England, on July 4, 1918, between teams representing the US Army and Navy,8 but he missed a good contest at Atwater Park in Montréal in 1901.9

THE MONTRÉAL EXPOS’ 21-GAME LOSING STREAK

In 1969, their first year, the Montréal Expos were one of the worst teams in major-league history; their 110 losses have been exceeded by only 19 teams, and included in their season was a 20-game losing streak between May 13 and June 7, tied for the third worst stretch in the modern era.10 But they actually lost 21 in a row if an exhibition game is included.

The Expos ended a homestand on Wednesday, June 4, with their 18th straight loss. They flew to the West Coast the next morning to start a road trip in Los Angeles, but it wasn’t a direct flight: They stopped en route in Vancouver for an exhibition game against their Triple-A affiliate.11

Coach Bob Oldis quipped, “Go get ’em boys… [t]his is a sudden death game, the winner advancing to complete the remainder of the National League schedule.”12 Pitcher John Glass was called up from West Palm Beach of the Class-A Florida State League to start for the Expos,13 and he surrendered five runs on eight hits before being lifted in the fourth inning. Three major-league pitchers shut down the Mounties for the rest of the game, and Mack Jones launched what was regarded as the longest home run ever hit at Capilano Stadium,14 but it was too little, too late as Vancouver won 5-3 despite Montréal playing most of its regulars.15

Disregarding Oldis’s edict, the defeated Expos, and not the victorious Mounties, dashed to the airport after the game and arrived in Los Angeles at 3:00 A.M., 23 hours after their first flight left Montréal.16 Unsurprisingly, they lost their next two games, but on June 8, they held off a late Dodger rally to finally break their 20-game (or really 21-game) losing streak.17

WHY DID ERIC MACKENZIE PLAY FOR KANSAS CITY IN 1955?

Eric Hugh MacKenzie, from Glendon, Alberta, had one big-league plate appearance, playing one inning in the field with the Kansas City Athletics in 1955. Other than that day of glory, he never played a game above Single A. What series of events caused this cup of coffee to happen?

After the 1954 season the Athletics franchise shifted from Philadelphia to Kansas City, and this included a managerial change from Eddie Joost to Lou Boudreau. Boudreau went into spring training not knowing any of his players and, as noted in The Sporting News, because he had “… a fetish for competition, he has included 12 of his young hopefuls in the squad here.”18

One of the young hopefuls invited to training camp was Eric MacKenzie. MacKenzie had been signed by the Athletics when he was 18, and had started his career in the low minors in 1951. He spent 1954 in Class C with the Drummondville, Québec, team of the Provincial League and, despite a .265 batting average and a slugging percentage below .340, he was given an opportunity to audition for the big team.

In 1954 the Philadelphia Athletics had three players split the catching duties: Joe Astroth (64 starts), Billy Shantz (49), and Jim Robertson (43). They all returned for 1955, but Boudreau had MacKenzie catch nine spring-training games before he was farmed out at the end of March.19 When the regular season began, the Athletics’ catching duties were split as they had been the year before, but Shantz was injured on April 22, and Robertson was out of town as the defendant in a lawsuit, so, with Astroth as the only remaining catching option, MacKenzie was recalled to be a backup.20

One might ask why MacKenzie was promoted from Single A ahead of a catcher from Kansas City’s top farm club in Triple-A Columbus. Al Lakeman was that team’s regular backstop but, at age 36, he was hardly a prospect. He was in Detroit’s organization in 1954, and he didn’t appear in any games in the Athletics’ 1955 training camp, so he wasn’t known to Boudreau.

Twenty-four-year-old Mike Roarke was his backup, but his contract was the property of Milwaukee’s Triple-A team in Toledo, and he was only playing for Columbus on option. Paul Burris and Canadian Stubby Erautt also caught for Columbus that year, but not until later in the season.

With the only Triple-A options being a 36-year-old who was new to the organization and someone who was on loan from another team, it made sense that the Athletics would go to their next highest minor-league affiliate for MacKenzie, especially since he had seen significant action in training camp just a month earlier, and Boudreau was already familiar with him.

MacKenzie arrived in Kansas City on April 23 in time to see one of the biggest offensive outbursts in major-league history as the Chicago White Sox rolled to a 29-6 victory. Boudreau gave Astroth a break late in that game and had MacKenzie pinch-hit in the eighth inning. He grounded out to second base for the last out, then took the field as the Athletics’ catcher in the top of the ninth. Fellow Canadian Ozzie Van Brabant was on the mound, and MacKenzie’s debut resulted in an all-Canadian battery for three batters as the White Sox went down in order for the only time in the game.

MacKenzie didn’t get into another game, and he was returned to Savannah a few days later when Shantz was ready to play. Although he was only 22, he never made it back to the big leagues; in fact, he never even made it to Double A. He played three more seasons in the low minors before retiring as a player, but that was not the end of his baseball career. He moved back to Canada and became heavily involved in amateur baseball, including managing the Canadian National team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.21

It took a long series of unrelated events for Eric MacKenzie to appear in his lone major-league game. One can imagine that had any one of these events not occurred, MacKenzie would never have played in the major leagues.

THE FIRST RED SOX PITCHER

The National League was the lone major league from 1892 through 1900, at which point the big leagues doubled in size with the creation of the American League in 1901.22 A Canadian who took advantage of this expansion to make his debut with the newly-formed Boston Americans (in 1908 renamed the Red Sox) was pitcher Winford Ansley “Win” Kellum from Waterford, Ontario.

Cy Young was Boston’s ace pitcher, but a bout of tonsillitis sidelined him in April, so the honor of starting the team’s opener went to Kellum in his major-league debut. Baltimore jumped on him for three runs in the first inning and tacked on seven more for a 10-6 win. All of the runs were earned on 11 hits, including five doubles and three triples, plus four walks. Kellum was removed in the top of the ninth inning for pinch-hitter and fellow Canadian Larry McLean, also making his debut. Kellum’s next game was one of the worst pitching performances in team history; He surrendered 14 runs, 11 earned, on 20 hits in a 14-1 loss to Philadelphia on May 1.

Kellum started a total of six games for Boston in 1901, the last of which was on June 14. He was released a few days later with a 2-3 record and a 6.38 ERA, and finished the season with New Orleans of the Southern Association. He won 15 games with Cincinnati in 1904, and pitched for St. Louis the next year to end his big-league career, but he played in the minors until 1909.

Since the team was founded in 1901, 905 players have toed the rubber for the Boston Red Sox, including 14 Hall of Fame pitchers,23 and the first of them all was Canadian Win Kellum.

TUG THOMPSON IN PHILADELPHIA

From 1877 through 1882 the National League was not represented in the two largest cities of the United States — New York and Philadelphia. The unveiling of the American Association forced the hands of the league’s executives, and plans were made to groom teams from New York and Philadelphia to join in 1883. Sporting-goods entrepreneur Al Reach, a former player himself, ran the Philadelphia team in 1882 and they played over 140 games, almost half of them exhibition games against National League teams.

Twenty men appeared for the Philadelphias and most of them played in the major leagues at some point.24 Finding an adequate catcher, however, was an ongoing issue:

“The position that proved most vexing for Reach to fill was catcher. The club experimented with nine different players at the position during the season, all of whom displayed various shortcomings.”25

One of these catchers was London, Ontario’s John Parkinson “Tug” Thompson. His first appearance for Philadelphia was in a game played on August 9 at home versus a team from Atlantic City. Thompson caught and contributed a single and a run scored to Philadelphia’s victory.26 The local newspapers noted that this game was his debut: “Thompson made his first appearance with the Philadelphias. …” and “Thompson, the new catcher, made his first appearance. …”27

He played again the next day and appeared in six games in total for Philadelphia. Consistent with the team’s season-long revolving door for backstops, on August 29 — two days after his last game and a mere two weeks after his debut with the team, “Thompson was released by the Philadelphia club on Wednesday.”28 He failed to impress either at or behind the bat, as his final statistics included five hits in 23 at-bats (.217 average), 45 putouts, three assists, nine errors (.842 fielding average), and eight passed balls.

Evidence about Thompson’s origins appeared in the New York Clipper when he joined the Philadelphias: “Thompson, late of the Canadian Tecumsehs, made his first appearance with the Philadelphias. …”29 The Tecumseh team was based in London, Ontario, and a review of the local press found a fond adieu being bade to their local hero as he headed south of the border:

“Mr. J. Thompson, who has distinguished himself behind the bat for the Tecumsehs of this city, left to-day to accept a similar position for the remainder of the season with the Philadelphia Base Ball Club.”30

Thompson started the 1882 baseball season with this amateur team that played at least 16 games. Box scores for nine of them have been found, and those summaries show Thompson appearing primarily as the catcher, with a few games at third base. He also appeared in a game for a team from nearby Petrolia, Ontario, on July 4 at Port Huron, Michigan, and caught for a picked nine who played against London on July 14. He even pulled off the neat trick of catching for both teams in a match between the 7th Band and the Philharmonic Society played in London on July 17.31 The Tecumseh team doesn’t appear to have played any competitive games after July 27, and the team disbanded after a friendly game with a picked nine on August 3.

After Thompson’s departure from Philadelphia, the London Advertiser welcomed him back home and revealed his next assignment:

“John Thompson, London’s famous catcher, just returned from a short engagement with the Philadelphias, has accepted an excellent offer to play with the Cincinnati team for the remainder of the season. He left yesterday.”32

And the Fourth Estate in Cincinnati introduced him to the local cranks:

“Thompson, the catcher of the Tecumsehs, of London, will join the Cincinnatis at Louisville to catch, provided Snyder should get hurt, or Powers is not able to throw yet.”33

Thompson debuted with the American Association’s Cincinnati team on August 31, playing center field. He caught exhibition games on September 1 and 3, then sat on the bench until his release later in the month:

“Thompson, who was brought to this city from London, Ont., to take Powers’ place while the latter was laid up, will return home on Monday next.”34

Thompson played in the Northwestern League in 1883, and then joined Indianapolis of the American Association for 1884. During that season the press of the cities for whose teams he had played in 1882 acknowledged his return, first Cincinnati in May:

“‘Tug’ Thompson, who was under engagement to the Cincinnati Club in 1882 for several months, and played “one consecutive” afternoon, is now with the Indianapolis Club.”35

And then Philadelphia in June:

“‘Tug’ Thompson, who caught a few games for the Phillies in 1882, is catching now for the Indianapolis Club.”36

Thompson played his last game with Indianapolis on July 4, 1884, but that didn’t end his playing career. He spent a few seasons with teams in London and Hamilton in the Canadian and International Leagues, and finished up with a few games with Rochester of the International Association in 1888.

THE MOST CANADIAN HOME RUN

Over 250 Canadian-born players have appeared in the major leagues, and 89 of them have combined to hit over 3,000 home runs.37 Which of these is the “most Canadian” home run? This is, of course, a subjective matter, but the following criteria are offered to help answer the question:

1. The player who hit the home run was born in Canada.

2. The game was played in Canada.

3. The home run was hit on Canada Day (July 1).

4. The batter’s team was based in Canada.

5. The pitcher’s team was based in Canada.

6. The opposing pitcher was born in Canada.

For this to be considered a Canadian home run, the first two criteria must be met. Allowing for that, we can eliminate the third condition because a Canadian-born player has never hit a home run on Canada Day in a major-league game played in Canada. The closest were Larry Walker’s June 30, 1990, and June 30, 1993, home runs for the Expos in Montréal, Brett Lawrie’s June 30, 2012, home run, and Russell Martin’s on July 2, 2015, for the Blue Jays in Toronto.

Through 2021 there have been 207 home runs hit by Canadian-born players in regular-season and playoff games played in Canada. This has been accomplished by 17 batters, led by Larry Walker (58), Russell Martin (36), and Brett Lawrie (23), with Montréal-born Vladimir Guerrero Jr. quickly moving up the leaderboard with 15 and counting. None of these 207 home runs meet each of the last three criteria, but some meet two of the three:

♦ The batter’s team was based in Canada: This, of course, means that the batter played for either the Montréal Expos (1969 to 2004) or the Toronto Blue Jays (1977 to the present). Of the home runs in question, 110 were hit by Blue Jays and 48 were hit by Expos before that franchise shifted to Washington, DC.

♦ The pitcher’s team was based in Canada: Toronto Blue Jays pitchers have surrendered 36 home runs to Canadian-born batters in games played in Canada, while Expos pitchers allowed 14 through 2004.

♦ Both teams were based in Canada: For this to have happened, the game must have been played between the Expos and the Blue Jays. Interleague play started in 1997, and before the Expos left Montréal, the two teams met 43 times. Three of the Expos’ home games were played in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2004, so there were only 40 games played in Canada between the two Canadian teams: 23 in Toronto and 17 in Montréal. Only one Canadian-born player hit a home run in the series: Toronto native Rob Ducey of the Expos hit one off Toronto’s Chris Carpenter on June 15, 2001, in Montréal.

♦ The opposing pitcher was Canadian: Three of the 207 home runs were surrendered by a Canadian pitcher: Matt Stairs of Oakland hit a grand slam off Toronto’s Paul Spoljaric on August 13, 1999; Blue Jay Brett Lawrie took Boston’s Ryan Dempster deep on May 2, 2013; and Michael Saunders of Toronto cleared the fences against Seattle’s James Paxton on July 22, 2016. All three of these home runs were hit in Toronto.

So which is the most Canadian home run? We have three that were hit by a Canadian-born batter off a Canadian-born pitcher in a game played in Canada, and another one hit by a Canadian-born batter in a game played in Canada between two Canadian-based teams. Any one of these four could take the title.

THE MAJOR LEAGUES COME TO MONTRÉAL — IN 1918?

The following note was found in the Boston Globe from Wednesday, July 24, 1918:

“Montréal, July 23 – The Chicago National League team will play the Boston Braves … a regular scheduled game in Montréal, Sunday. This is the game scheduled to be played in Boston Monday, but the schedule has been advanced and permission granted to play in Montréal Sunday. The net proceeds will be devoted to patriotic purposes and if the attendance warrants it, practically every team in the National and American Leagues, it is expected, will play in Montréal on Sundays.”38

Major-league baseball arrived in Montréal with the birth of the Expos and the first big-league game played outside of the United States took place on April 14, 1969. Or did it? Is it possible that a regular-season game was played in the city five decades earlier?

Blue laws prevented Sunday baseball in Boston until 1929.39 The Lord’s Day was always an open date on the Braves homestands in that era, and Chicago’s July 1918 visit was no different, with games scheduled for Saturday, July 27, plus the following Monday through Wednesday. Raising money for “patriotic purposes” during a war is a reasonable motive for moving a game, and this scheduling change raises the possibility that many of the firsts accomplished by the Expos and their opponents in 1969 were not actually so. Alas, it was not to be. The Boston Globe noted a day later:

“A dispatch from Montréal, saying that the game to be played there Sunday between the Braves and the Cubs was a championship game, being the one scheduled for Boston on Monday, was in error. The game in Montréal will be an exhibition game, although both clubs will use their regular players. …’40

The Cubs beat the Braves in Boston on Saturday and the two teams traveled to Montréal for a 3:00 P.M. game on Sunday. It was played at Delorimier Park, a horserace track about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the future site of Delorimier Stadium, made famous in 1946 as the home of the Jackie Robinson-led Montréal Royals.41 Only four starters per team got into the game, despite the promise that the regular players would be used. Most of the other participants were backups, and Chicago even had coach Otto Knabe play second base.

Boston’s starting pitcher was an enigmatic player known only as Jackson who had previously been pitching for Richmond of the Virginia League. This was actually George Winn, who wouldn’t make his regular-season debut until the following April.42 The field wasn’t in the best condition but the players put on a good show for the packed house. It was a close game, with Chicago taking a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning before two bases-loaded walks gave Boston the win.43

The Braves returned the following weekend for a Sunday match against the Cincinnati Reds. That game was referred to as “Burlesque Baseball,” as the teams disappointed the 2,500 in attendance with a sloppy 11-6 Cincinnati victory with Jackson (aka Winn) again in the box.44 The Braves started a three-week road trip a few days later, and the season ended on September 2 because of World War I, so there were no more Braves visits to Montréal. Other exhibition contests with big-league teams were played in Montréal over the years,45 but no regular-season majorleague games ensued until the Expos showed up in 1969.46

STOCKY BALLPLAYERS IN 1881

From the New York Clipper, May 28, 1881:

“A FATMAN’S TOURNEY — A team of fat Canadians, none to weigh less than 200 lb, is being organized to take a trip through New York State this Summer, to play against local fatmen’s teams of Buffalo, Rochester, Troy, Albany and this city. They will meet with a right royal welcome when they come. Fat men of New York State, to the rescue. Organize your nines at once.”47

Despite a thorough review of newspapers from the noted cities, no box scores or game stories have been found. It remains to be seen if this planned tour of tubby gentlemen actually took place.

THREE CANADIAN PITCHERS

Through the 2021 season, 134 Canadian-born players have pitched in the major leagues. Seventy teams have had multiple Canadian pitchers in the same season, including five teams that had three.48 Has there ever been a major-league game in which a team fielded three Canadian moundsmen?

Four of the five teams that had three Canadian pitchers in one season (1885 Baltimore Orioles, 1961 Milwaukee Braves, 1992 Boston Red Sox, and 1999 Toronto Blue Jays) never had all three of these players on the active roster at the same time. The possibility of three Canadians pitching on the same day was therefore left to the fifth team, the 1965 Houston Astros.

Claude Raymond was drafted by Houston from Milwaukee after the 1963 season, and he pitched with the team through mid-1967. His teammate from the 1961 Braves, Ken MacKenzie, had bounced to the Mets, Cardinals, and Giants over the next three seasons before the Astros acquired him for 1965. Raymond was with the team all season and had 33 appearances, including all seven of his career starts; he pitched quite well, accumulating 2.2 bWAR, almost two-thirds of the total he amassed over 12 major-league seasons. MacKenzie was used exclusively out of the bullpen; he pitched 21 times before he was assigned to Triple A on August 6, ending his major-league career. Nine of his appearances were in games in which Raymond also pitched.

The third Canadian pitcher was Ron Taylor. Taylor was acquired in a trade from St. Louis in June; he pitched 32 times over the last 3½ months of the season, all but one game in relief. From Taylor’s acquisition on June 15 until MacKenzie’s demotion on August 6, a period that included 45 Houston games, the Astros had three Canadian pitchers on the active roster. This didn’t go unnoticed; The Sporting News published a photograph of the three of them holding the Canadian flag with the caption:

“The Houston Astros, only major league club with three Canadian players, lean heavily on Ron Taylor, Ken MacKenzie and Claude Raymond, holding the Canadian flag. Curiously, all of them are pitchers.”49

In this period Raymond pitched seven times, including five starts, Taylor made 16 relief appearances, and MacKenzie came in from the bullpen seven times. Taylor and MacKenzie both pitched on July 8 and 31, but Raymond didn’t play on those days. Taylor and Raymond both pitched on July 18 without MacKenzie.

But history wouldn’t deny them. It all came together on Friday, July 23, 1965, when Houston hosted the Cincinnati Reds. The Astros scored an early run as Raymond, the starting pitcher for the last time in his career, shut the Reds out until Pete Rose hit an RBI triple in the sixth inning to tie it up. Three singles by the first four batters in the seventh gave the Reds a 2-1 lead to end Raymond’s day; he was relieved by Taylor, who got out of trouble by inducing a double play from the first batter he faced.

The game went to the top of the eighth with Cincinnati clinging to a one-run lead, but then the wheels fell off, and the Canucks were to blame. Taylor faced four batters, giving up two singles and a walk surrounding a sacrifice. With the score then 3-1, he was removed and replaced by MacKenzie, who promptly allowed a fourth run to score on a wild pitch, then surrendered consecutive singles to Vada Pinson, Frank Robinson, and Tony Perez to give the Reds a 6-1 lead.

MacKenzie was pulled without retiring a batter, and it was left to US-born Danny Coombs to complete the inning without further damage.50 The Reds tacked on another three runs in the ninth, and Joey Jay completed the game for Cincinnati’s 9-1 win.

It wasn’t the best of days for the pitchers, especially Taylor and MacKenzie, but it was the first and, as of 2021, the only major-league game in which a team sent three Canadian pitchers to the mound.

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.

 

Sources

Statistics and roster information from https://www.Base-ball-Reference.com/. Transactions data from The Sporting News Player Contract Cards, courtesy the LA84 Foundation Digital Library Collections. Constrained player searches typically performed via Stathead Baseball at https://Stat-head.com/baseball/.

 

Notes

1 “Before Royalty.” Sporting Life, September 14, 1901: 3.

2 Carl Bridge and Kent Fedorowich, eds., The British World Diaspora, Culture and Identity (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003), 161-3.

3 Toronto’s entries in the Eastern and International Leagues had nicknames including Canucks, Canadians, Maple Leafs, and Beavers. The only season in which they were known as the Royals was 1901. Montréal’s teams of the era were always known as the Royals.

4 Barrow managed Toronto from 1900 to 1902, and again in 1905 and 1906.

5 “Last of the Season,” Montréal Gazette, September 21, 1901: 2.

6 Montréal’s major leaguers were Tommy Raub, John Shearon, Joe Delahanty, Fred Odwell, Abbie Johnson, and Harry Felix. The other Montréal players, Charles Dooley, Dan Sheehan, and Larry Quinlan, were never major leaguers. Toronto’s major leaguers were George Browne, Jimmy Bannon, Charlie Carr, Frank Bonner, Lew Carr, Harry Bemis, and Pop Williams. The other Toronto players, Billy Hargrove and Bob Schaub, were never major leaguers.

7 Bridge and Fedorowich, 162-3.

8 Jim Leeke, Nine Innings for the King: The Day Wartime London Stopped for Baseball, July 4, 1918 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2015).

9 Atwater Park was used by Montréal’s entries in the Eastern and International Leagues from 1897 through 1923.

10 Nineteen teams had between 111 and 134 losses, led by the 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the National League. Only eight teams have accomplished this dubious feat in the Expansion Era, 1961 to the present. Sarah Langs, “Longest Losing Streaks in MLB History,” MLB.com, August 25, 2021, accessed November 15, 2021: https://www.mlb.com/news/longest-losing-streaks-in-mlb-history. Since 1900 only the 1961 Phillies (23 games) and the 1988 Orioles (21 games) have had longer single-season losing streaks. The Expos are one of four teams to have lost 20 in a row.

11 This team was a shared affiliate of the Expos and their fellow first-year franchise, the Seattle Pilots.

12 Ted Blackman, “Funtastic California – Expos Made It in 26 hours,” Montréal Gazette, June 7, 1969: 30.

13 Clancy Loranger, “Can Glass Cut It?,” Vancouver (British Columbia) Province, June 5, 1969: 19.

14 “A Grand Night at Cap Stadium,” Vancouver Province, June 6, 1969: 21. “The veteran Jones, who leads the Expos in home runs with nine, hit a ball out of Capilano Stadium off Dick Bates in the sixth inning and precipitated a debate among the pressbox historians. It will probably never be settled satisfactorily, but it may have been the longest home run ever hit in the park since it opened in 1951. The prodigious wallop cleared the centre field fence by a few feet, just to the right of the scoreboard. It’s 415 feet to dead centre – and the fence there is about 25 feet high – so you figure it out.” Capilano Stadium was built in 1951 and was renamed Nat Bailey Stadium in 1978. It is still in use today as the home of the Vancouver Canadians, the Toronto Blue Jays’ affiliate of the High-A West League. “Nat Bailey Stadium,” City of Vancouver Park Finder website, accessed November 15, 2021: https://covapp.vancouver.ca/parkfinder/ParkDetail.aspx?inparkid=165.

15 Based on the box score from the Vancouver Province, the Expos starting lineup for this game included Gary Sutherland, Manny Mota, Rusty Staub, Mack Jones, Coco Laboy, Bob Bailey, John Boccabella, and Bobby Wine.

16 Ted Blackman, “Funtastic California – Expos Made It in 26 hours.” This story notes that the Expos’ flight left Montréal at 7:00 A.M. EDT on Friday morning and arrived in Los Angeles at 6:00 A.M. EDT (3:00 A.M. local time).

17 The Expos entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a 4-1 lead, but three singles, a walk and a balk brought the score to 4-3 with one out and runners on second and third. Relief pitcher Roy Face got Ken Boyer to hit a foul popup to third base, then Willie Crawford hit a fly ball to right field to end the game.

18 Ernest Mehl, “Lou’s Kiddie Camp First to Show New Spirit Spurring A’s,” The Sporting News, March 9, 1955: 8.

19 MacKenzie’s last spring-training appearance with the A’s was a start on March 28. He was sent to Triple-A Columbus two days later. Joe McGuff, “A’s Squad Is Cut,” Kansas City Times, April 1, 1955: 40, noted “… Boudreau lopped four more men off his roster, sending all of them to Columbus of the International league … Eric McKenzie [sic]…” “Deals of the Week, Class AAA,” The Sporting News, April 20, 1955: 37 noted that Columbus later assigned MacKenzie to Savannah.

20 Ernest Mehl, “Boudreau Looks Past Cutdown, Sees More Confidence in Squad,” The Sporting News, May 4, 1955: 18. Regarding the lawsuit, see “Ball Player Charged In FHA Fraud,” Indianapolis Star, April 13, 1955: 18 which notes: “… Robertson Jr., 27-year-old catcher for the Kansas City Athletics, American League baseball team, was arrested here yesterday on a Federal indictment charging a Federal Housing Administration fraud.”

21 Tyler Kuda, “’84 Team Canada Players Surprise Their Manager with a Commemorative Ring,” Sarnia (Ontario) Observer, August 14, 2016. Article accessed online on November 14, 2021: 84 Team Canada players surprise their manager with a commemorative ring | The Sarnia Observer (theobserver.ca).

22 The National League and the American Association each fielded eight teams in 1891. The Association then folded, and four franchises were absorbed into the National League for 1892. The League, with 12 teams, stood alone until the minor-league American League was reclassified as major after the 1900 season.

23 A search of the 905 players for Hall of Famers turned up 18 players, but four of them (Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Tris Speaker, and Harry Hooper) were position players with a single pitching appearance.

24 Eighteen of the 20 players appeared in the major leagues.

25 Robert D. Warrington, “Philadelphia in the 1882 League Alliance”, SABR Baseball Research Journal, Volume 48, Number 2, Fall 2019, 109.

26 “The ‘Quakers’ Win Again,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 10, 1882: 2.

27 “The ‘Quakers’ Win Again,” and “Philadelphia vs. Atlantic City,” Philadelphia Sunday Item, August 13, 1882: 7.

28 “Base Ball Gossip,” Philadelphia Sunday Item, August 27, 1882:7.

29 “Baseball,” New York Clipper, August 19, 1882: 346.

30 “Base Ball,” London Advertiser, August 7, 1882: 3.

31 “Base Ball,” London Advertiser, July 19, 1882: 1. “At the base ball match on Monday afternoon between the 7th Band and Philharmonic Society J. Thompson, of the Tecumsehs, caught for both teams.”

32 “Base Ball,” London Advertiser, Monday, August 28, 1882:4.

33 “Notes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, Sunday, August 27, 1882: 2.

34 “Notes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 21, 1882: 2.

35 “Notes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 7, 1884: 2.

36 “Base Ball Gossip,” Evening Item, June 13, 1884.

37 The 89 Canadian-born players who have hit at least one major-league home run hit a total of 3,166 from 1876 through 2021. If the National Association of 1871 to 1875 is included, then one extra player (Bob Addy) and one home run are added to the totals.

38 “Braves and Cubs to Play Game in Montréal Sunday,” Boston Globe, July 24, 1918: 5.

39 Charlie Bevis, Sunday Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2003), 240-1. The Boston Braves scheduled their first Sunday home game for April 21, 1929, but it was rained out. The Red Sox played the city’s first legal Sunday game on April 28, and the Braves had their inaugural home Sunday contest on May 5, 1929. The ability to play on Sundays in Montréal was not matched in all Canadian cities. Montréal’s national rival Toronto could not accommodate similar games because of blue laws that made early twentieth-century Boston look like a latter-day Las Vegas. It took three plebiscites before Sunday sports were first permitted in 1950, and a Torontonian couldn’t go to a movie theater on a Sunday until 1961. Allan Levine, Toronto, Biography of a City (Madeira Park, British Columbia: Douglas and McIntyre, 2014), 189.

40 “Braves-Cubs Clash at Montréal, an Exhibition,” Boston Globe, July 25, 1918:4.

41 “Village De Lorimier – The Plateau Stampede,” Linda Sullivan-Simpson, The Past Whispers website, accessed November 3, 2021. This article places the racetrack on “a lot of land bordered by Des Érables, Masson, Fullum and Mont-Royal streets.” Delorimier Stadium, built in 1928, was at the corner of De Lorimier Avenue and Ontario Street East. According to Google Maps, the walking distance from the intersection of Mont-Royal and Des Érables to De Lorimier and Ontario East is 1.5 kilometers (0.94 miles).

42 Jackson’s true identity was revealed the following year when James C. O’Leary of the Globe wrote on March 4, 1919: “Winn was playing with Richmond under the name of Jackson.”

43 “Boston Club Won Out in the Ninth,” Montréal Gazette, July 29, 1918: 10.

44 “Big League Clubs Go Through Moves,” Montréal Gazette, August 4, 1918: 10. “Burlesque Baseball on Interior of Delorimier Park Race Track.”

45 The Retrosheet list of In-Season Exhibition Games, accessed on November 3, 2021, lists several games played in Montréal from the 1920s to the 1940s. Examples include the Chicago White Sox on July 23, 1928, the Washington Senators on September 22, 1930, and the Brooklyn Dodgers on July 12, 1948, all versus the local Montréal Royals.

46 The Retrosheet list of Alternate Site Games, accessed on November 3, 2021, confirms that no regular-season major-league games have ever been played in Canada other than the home games of the Montréal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays.

47 “A Fatman’s Tourney,” New York Clipper, May 28, 1881: 154.

48 The Stathead search found six teams, but one should not have been included: the 1889 Philadelphia Quakers. They had three Canadians, but only two of them pitched for the team: Pete Wood and George Wood. The third Canadian was Arthur Irwin, who played only shortstop for Philadelphia. His pitching appearance was after he had been acquired by league rival Washington in June.

49 The Sporting News, August 28, 1965: 6.

50 Danny Coombs was born in Lincoln, Maine, only 62 miles (100 kilometers) from the Canadian border crossing at Saint Croix, New Brunswick. The Astros’ fifth and final pitcher that day was Dave Giusti from Seneca Falls, New York, 140 miles (225 kilometers) from the Canadian border crossing at Alexandria Bay, Ontario.