Introduction: Our Game, Too: Influential Figures and Milestones in Canadian Baseball

“Make an endeavor to see more baseball; you need it.” So urged journalist Jack Calder, writing in the Chatham (Ontario) Daily News on July 31, 1934.

In various eras, and at diverse locations across Canada, such exhortation would not have been necessary. Not to the crowds as large as 10,000 who viewed the matches between London and Guelph in the 1870s, traveling between the cities on the newly-opened railroad, at a time when the combined population of the two cities was less than 27,000. Nor to the thousands who flocked to Vancouver’s Powell Street Grounds in the 1920s and ’30s to watch their local heroes, the Asahi.

Not to the thousands more who jammed cramped ballparks hosting the big-money semipro tournaments on the Prairies for two decades in midcentury. And certainly not to the more than four million who packed the recently-opened SkyDome for the Toronto Blue Jays championship seasons of 1992 and 1993.

Canadian baseball has a rich, diverse, and deeply rooted history, one that spans fully two centuries. In its early days, baseball’s development north of the border was shaped by the same social and economic influences, and the same competitive and entrepreneurial spirit, as was found south.

The stories in this book tell the tales of the influential figures and milestone events that defined and directed the game’s growth in Canada between the 1830s and the 1960s. While some names and subjects will be familiar to ardent baseball fans, these articles shine a spotlight on the movers and shakers, the pioneers, the leagues and games and tournaments, and the regions all across the country that hosted them.

The book is an initiative of the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research, and SABR’s Hanlan’s Point (Greater Toronto) Chapter.

It is the collaborative effort of more than 30 SABR members, almost all of them Canadian: Richard Armstrong, Bob Barney, Gary Belleville, Warren Campbell, Patrick Carpentier, Stephen Dame, Michel Dugas, Eric Frost, Larry Gerlach, Gary Gillette, Tom Hawthorn, Martin Healy Jr., Colin Howell, William Humber, Heidi LM Jacobs, Maxwell Kates, Martin Lacoste, Bill Lamb, Len Levin, Chip Martin, David Matchett, Andy McCue, David McDonald, Peter Morris, Andrew North, Bill Nowlin, Riley Nowokowski, Bill Pruden, Carl Riechers, David Siegel, Paul Sinclair, Allen Tait, Dennis Thiessen, Christian Trudeau, Max Weder, and Daniel Wyatt. Original cover art was generously provided by Sean Kane of Guelph, Ontario.

Make an endeavor to read more Canadian baseball; you need it.

ANDREW NORTH is a retired developer of statistical software. He is a director of the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Canadian Baseball. A SABR member since 1982, he lives in St. Marys, Ontario, where he maintains the research library at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

• Read more: Find more essays from Our Game, Too in the SABR Research Collection online
• Biographies: Read player and executive biographies from Our Game, Too at the SABR BioProject
• E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Our Game, Too for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, Kindle/MOBI and EPUB formats.
• Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Our Game, Too paperback edition from the SABR Store ($17.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Kindle Direct Publishing can take up to 4-6 weeks.)