Discussions had begun in earnest even as the summer season of 1918 was winding down. The wealthiest owners – Fred Gosselin of the Yorkville Foxes, Jim Long of the Montreal Supra, and John Irvin of the Stanley Park Herons – had been working towards this end goal for some time, and had now enlisted in their efforts a man whose name carried the kind of weight necessary to pursue this impossible dream.
The Duke of Devonshire
The Duke of Devonshire, Governor General of Canada and Commander-in-chief of her Armed, Naval and Air Forces, was well known as a patron of the great sport of baseball (he personally financed the first seasons of the Rideau Hall Royals, who still play their games in Ottawa only a few hundred yards from the Viceregal Palace that lent its name to the club) and had agreed to sponsor this new association in the interest of promoting Canadian culture and unity. Of course, Devonshire is most famous for his donation of the Devonshire Cup, still awarded today to the winner of the Premier Baseball League’s annual championship, but his importance to the story goes far beyond the creation of a trophy. The British-born Devonshire deeply understood the value of a truly national game, having grown up watching the English Football League, and he personally drove the effort to convince reticent owners to sign on to this new, national entity.
Initial proposals had been much more modest: perhaps start with a National Championship Series, where the best teams from each of the Three Leagues could compete against one another for the right to call themselves the best team in Canada. It quickly became apparent, however, that Devonshire had his own ideas: an all-encompassing, national association with promotion and relegation between a top-tier, national first division and weaker leagues featuring smaller towns and counties, modeled after English football. It wasn’t hard to convince the powerful big city owners that they would benefit from playing exclusively against other baseball superpowers, and the weaker organizations appreciated the possibility of winning their way into the big league themselves. After several months of back-and-forth, Devonshire was successful, and he announced the formation of the Royal Canadian Baseball Association. The Association would accept the sixty most well-established teams from across the country, and divide them into three new leagues: The Premier League, the Senior League, and the Junior League. All that was left to decide were the specifics: which teams would play in which league?
Of course, the specifics can often be the hardest part. In theory, you would simply separate the teams based on their previous successes on the diamond – the best teams at the top and work your way down. In practice, however, there were other things to consider. Some teams had struggled mightily, but were simply too rich and powerful to ignore. The Stanley Park Herons, for example, were the wealthiest and most popular team in Vancouver and all of the Western League – despite having never so much as appeared in a Championship Series, they were included in the Premier League’s inaugural season. Political considerations were important too, especially in a league where teams represented not merely towns and neighbourhoods, but ethnic groups as well. The Cartierville Canards (Ducks, for you Anglos) had never won 90 games, but were the most significant Franco club in Montreal, which at this time remained Canada’s largest and most important city. In acknowledgement of the fact that any truly national league would have to represent both of Canada’s official languages, the Canards were included as well.
It wasn’t all big city teams, though – the Truro Bearcats, representing a small Nova Scotia shire town, were accepted into the top league on the back of their impressive attendance numbers despite their small market, as well as their Ligue du Quebec championship in 1912. At just over 6,000 residents Truro was easily the smallest market to be represented in the new Premier League. With the province’s other teams in larger markets perennially struggling, however (the Halifax Moosehead Baseball Club and the Dartmouth Greys had only recorded a single winning season between them), they had come to be embraced by Nova Scotians from Cape Breton to Halifax while winning more total games than any other team over the lifespan of the Lique du Quebec.
The leagues’ internal structure was also a matter of lively debate, but in the end the matter was settled exactly the way the wealthiest owners wanted it. Each league would be separated into three divisions (Eastern, Central and Western), reflecting the geographic boundaries of the old Three Leagues Era. Each division’s winner would qualify for the postseason, which with only three teams involved was a much shorter affair than today’s drawn out playoffs, ensuring that no one region would be able to dominate the championship hunt. The team with the best record league-wide would qualify directly for the Devonshire Cup Championship Series, while the remaining division winners would play their own seven game series to qualify. Separating 20 teams into 3 divisions, of course, meant that the numbers would be uneven; wily owner Jim Long of the powerful Montreal Supra somehow ensured that the Premier League would debut would only six teams in the Eastern Division, making for less substantial competition for his own boys (who had seen a distinct drop-off in talent since appearing in four straight LdQ championship series).
Promotion and relegation between the leagues would see the two teams with the worst record, irrespective of Division, demoted down the ladder. Replacing them would be the lower league’s Cup champion and runner-up.
Frank Sellick Calder
It was a contentious process, and certainly took longer than the Association – and the Duke of Devonshire – would have liked, but the new leagues were ultimately in place in time to begin the 1919 baseball season, establishing the RCBA’s three divisions as the only fully professional baseball circuits in the country (a monopoly they would maintain until the formation of the rival East-West League in 1932). The Association’s clubs unanimously elected as its first President – equivalent to today’s Commissioner of Baseball – Frank Sellick Calder, who had served in that role with the Ontario League since 1914 and was widely respected as a fair and honest dealer. Calder would serve in this role through 1943, making him easily the longest serving overseer of the Association; the Calder Trophy bearing his name is still awarded to the player deemed most outstanding in their debut season.
Speaking of trophies, there was certainly no shortage of public figures willing and eager to donate an award – bearing their name, of course – to the new venture. The cup awarded to the Senior League champions bears the name of former Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurer – a respected French-Canadian Liberal who passed away months earlier. In order to ensure balance between the various poles of Canadian identity, the Junior League championship trophy was named for Robert Borden, Canada’s then-Prime Minister who was, conveniently, both English-speaking and Conservative. The original Laurier Cup and Borden Cup both remain in circulation, handed over annually to the new champs of their respective leagues, just like the more prestigious Devonshire Cup of the Premier League.
And so it was that the Royal Canadian Baseball Association came into existence, trophies and all, under the leadership of Frank Calder and with the blessing of the Duke of Devonshire. Proud, competitive and distinctly Canadian, the RCBA was off and running.