The Royal Canadian Baseball Association, est. 1919

[chey]

The Royal Canadian Baseball Association

“When the numbers acquire the significance of language, they acquire the power to do all of the things which language can do: to become fiction and drama and poetry. And it is not just baseball that these numbers, through a fractured mirror, describe. It is character. It is psychology, it is history, it is power, it is grace, glory, consistency, sacrifice, courage, it is success and failure, it is frustration and bad luck, it is ambition, it is overreaching, it is discipline. And it is victory and defeat, which is all that the idiot sub-conscious really understands.” – Bill James, 1977 Baseball Abstract

Out of the Park Baseball, even moreso than the genuine game of baseball, is really just a collection of numbers. It’s ones and zeroes and yet it can take the shape of life itself. There’s something magical about that, and it’s something I’m going to try to capture in this dynasty.

This dynasty tells the story of an alternate baseball, and an alternate Canada. In this world it was the Great White North, and not the Land of the Free, that birthed baseball’s greatest league. What would the sport, and the country, look like in such a world? That’s what I’m looking to explore here. In various ways this story parallels the history of baseball, the history of hockey (which in our world is replaced as Canada’s national pastime) and even the history of English soccer (because of course I’m going to be playing with OOTP 18’s new promotion/relegation feature!).

I’m letting the game engine do the work, at least for the first several decades (after which I may take on a low-level team and try to work my way up). The only monkeying I’ve done is in setting up the initial market sizes of the teams to roughly reflect real life. I’m following along just like you (if, in fact, anyone else is actually planning to do so, lol), sharing with you the chronicle of a prominent Canadian baseball historian. I’m not going to be dumping leaderboards and boxscores on anything resembling a regular basis; if you ever want any of that you can ask, but this dynasty is focused more on story – both The Story of baseball in Canada, and as many smaller stories of teams and players as catch my interest long enough to write about them.

Our story covers more than a century of baseball history, more than a hundred distinct baseball clubs, and more than 9,000,000 square kilometers of the second largest country on earth. It’s a story about a sport, a country, and a league that might have been. It’s about the powerhouse Yorkville Foxes and the mighty mite Newell County Pheasants. It’s about heroes and villains, dynasty teams and title droughts, the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. It’s about the complex ways that Canadian society is divided (and united) by race, ethnicity, religion and language. And of course it’s about baseball. I hope you like it.

[chey]

There has long been a debate over whether hockey first developed and was played in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Kingston, Ontario, or Montreal, Quebec. More recently, there appears to be strong evidence that baseball has its roots in Europe, where English school children would play a game called “town ball” that the modern baseball fan would recognize as a cousin, or maybe sibling, of Canada’s national sport. Of course, in the interest of selling more than five copies of this work, it would not be prudent for this author to suggest that baseball, the most Canadian of all games – slow, thoughtful, and fundamentally peaceful – is not, in fact, Canadian. Wherever the game finds its origins, it is unquestionably a game that has been defined by Canada at least as much as Canada has been defined by baseball. As historian Richard Harrison writes in his seminal work, ‘Hero of the Play’, “[w]hat’s important isn’t where the origins of baseball is found in Canada, but how Canada finds at least a part of its origin in baseball”.

Baseball has always been popular in Canada. Unlike its neighbour to the South, who quickly took to more exciting games like field hockey and gridiron football, the Great White North was a hotbed for baseball from the moment the first voyageurs took up a bat and ball. As settlers from the East moved West to seek their fortunes, they took with them the game that had already come to be known as Canada’s National Pastime. By the first years of the 20th Century, hundreds of ball clubs dotted the landscape from sea to shining sea.

The immensity of the continent prevented the creation of any sort of truly national league, at least at first. What sprung up instead were a collection of loosely affiliated and loosely governed regional leagues, each of them consisting of a fluctuating number of teams. In these early days, professional and semi-professional clubs came into existence and sputtered out regularly, often playing less than a single full season before faltering under the hefty cost of equipment and travel. Typically sponsored by local businesses or athletic clubs, these teams came to represent their towns, cities, communities and neighbourhoods.

The Ontario League, easily the most stable of the circuits, set the standard that would become uniform, or nearly uniform, across the young country. The teams played four-game series against one another, home and away, every year. The season began in early April and ran until early September, playing nearly every day to take full advantage of Canada’s short and glorious summers. The teams with the best record played a seven-game championship series at the end of every season, taking home a trophy with the players’ names engraved at the base. Member clubs were barred from playing exhibition games against non-league teams, and for the most part complied with this rule (although some clubs couldn’t stand to see extra money left on the table by passing up additional games – the Kenora Thistles famously played almost two hundred total games in 1903, taking on any unaffiliated amateur club they crossed paths with). As the years went on, the burgeoning leagues slowly but surely exerted their authority over the growing sport. The most significant standard of all, set first once again by the wealthy Ontario League clubs: ballplayers would be paid for their services. Men who played for successful organizations could expect to be compensated handsomely for playing the children’s game, and even a rookie would earn a wage comparable to any other gainfully employed adult.

The first decade of the 20th Century saw three major leagues establish themselves as the premiere level of competition in their respective regions, and by 1910 the table was set: the aforementioned Ontario League was joined at the top by the Western League, featuring clubs from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia; and the Ligue du Quebec, representing communities across Quebec, Atlantic Canada and a lone club from the Dominion of Newfoundland. It is these leagues that give name to the period of baseball history that predates the formation of the Royal Canadian Baseball Association: the Three Leagues Era, covering the early days of baseball in the late 19th Century through the founding of the Association in 1919.

Year-to-year each league contained anywhere between fifteen and thirty-five clubs, depending on the fortunes of the small towns and communities that supported them. In drought years the farm towns couldn’t afford to send grown men across the country to pay a children’s game, and when the fish weren’t biting the Maritimers had to put away their own dreams of baseball glory. Mining towns would pop up, field a team for a year or two before both the town and the team would unceremoniously fold.

As time went on, however, these leagues began to develop real footholds in both blossoming cities and smaller communities. The Three Leagues Era offered up some truly great baseball: the 1914 Vancouver Asahi, for example. The Asahi ballclub, representing the growing Japanese population in Vancouver, went 112-40 in ’14, a blistering .750 record that will be remarkably difficult for any team to match or beat. They faced off against Calgary Foothills in the Western League’s championship that year, and found themselves down three games to one before coming back for a 4-3 series victory.

Although they did enjoy some success in their time, the three distinct leagues were, ultimately, doomed. Forced to compete against clubs from towns with total populations that numbered fewer than the audience for a single Yorkville Foxes home game, big city teams grew increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo. The titans of industry who owned the big clubs wanted a way to compete exclusively against the best teams in Canada, and the small town teams were tired of being used as whipping boys for the mighty. Some sort of national association seemed beneficial for everyone involved, and the general consensus was that a unification of the leagues, sooner or later, was inevitable. Early meetings to this end took place over the summer of 1914, but the growing turmoil across the Atlantic Ocean would place a damper over Canada, and Canadian baseball, that winter.

The Great War saw many Canadian ballplayers putting away their gloves and picking up a rifle, defending the Queen against German aggression. The Three Leagues kept playing, but any significant advances in the sport would have to wait until the fighting men came home in the winter of 1918. Victory in Europe – a victory in which Canada played a significant part – was an important moment in the creation of the Canadian myth. The young northern nation had emerged as a small but gritty player on the national stage, and for the first time in history men and women began to identify themselves not as British subjects, but as Canadian citizens. It was a great moment for Canada and a great opportunity for Canadian baseball, poised to leap forward and entrance boys, girls and grown adults weary of war and longing for wholesome entertainment. Harrison notes this as well in ‘Hero of the Play’:

Baseball emerges in the Canadian past at the time the Canada we lived in then as separate communities was being made into Canada we live in now as a people. In mythic terms, baseball is one of the few things that could be said to be ours from the beginning of Canadian time.

And for all its simplicity, like all creation myths, baseball is also about Canadian light and Canadian darkness. All creation myths have a place for the way their people experience not just the light and the dark of the seasons of the day, but the light and the darkness in themselves. Baseball’s simplicity and childish roots offer us the play that we love for its own sake; its skills and speed give us what we admire in those dedicated to excellence. Its defeats and its failures give us a view into our own.

Whether you buy the pop psychology or not, the facts are a matter of public record. Baseball was thriving in Canada, and the Royal Canadian Baseball Association was about to be born.

[Sizeman21]

Yo, I loved this first part. I can already begin to imagine the history of this league and feel sucked into the story you are telling. I have forever wanted to do a small Canadian League with a few minors and such but always get distracted. Maybe this can be inspiration if I ever decide to!

Great start!

[Fullarmor]

That's the kind of dynasty reports that I like.

[MBarrett]

Excellent, excellent start! I'll be following along.

[chey]

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.

[JaBurns]

Going to follow your league with interest, good luck!
Just one point I think it should be Wilfrid Laurier not Wilfred.

[chey]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Going to follow your league with interest, good luck!
Just one point I think it should be Wilfrid Laurier not Wilfred.

Excellent catch! Thank you!

[Eugene Church]

Wonderful beginning... very well-written... great idea.

[chey]

I figured I've gone long enough now without actually introducing you to any of the teams! Starting with the six clubs that make up the Eastern Division, I'll be profiling each of the twenty inaugural Premier League teams. If some of the logos appear anachronistic, please understand that high-quality artwork from this era can occasionally be difficult to track down, so certain touch-ups may have been necessary.

Eastern Division


Truro Bearcats
Archibald Downs, Truro, Nova Scotia

The Bearcats hail from tiny Truro, Nova Scotia, home to the smallest market in the Premier League (and among the smallest in the entire Association!). Something special has happened in that little maritime farm town, though: Truro played nine straight winning seasons in the Ligue du Quebec, and their .589 total winning percentage was the best in the circuit. While they only qualified for a single LdQ championship series (which they won, in 1912), their consistent success against much wealthier teams was truly impossible to ignore, earning them their Cinderella bid for Premier League membership. There are some concerns about their aging core – 2B Jaybird Taylor and CF Amos Crow gave them unbelieve talent up the middle, but this overachieving club is going to need to reinvent itself if it wants to stay in the top flight long-term.


Trois Rivieres Aigles
Stade Fernand-Bedard, Trois Rivieres, Quebec

Les Aigles, or the Eagles for you Anglos, are another small town team that made the cut on the strength of their stellar performance in the Ligue du Quebec. Located almost exactly halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, Trois Rivieres is a blue-collar little city famous for being home to Canada’s oldest foundry and ironworks. The rough and tumble French Canadians here are fiercely proud of their team, having seen them go to back-to-back championship series in the LdQ immediately prior to the Association’s founding, winning it all in 1918.


Cartierville Canards
Parc Belmont, Montreal, Quebec

Les Canards made it into the Premiership on the back of their massive Francophone fanbase and cultural significance as the most popular ballclub among French-speaking Montrealers. On the field their results have been respectable, but not remarkable, and by merit they ought to have been assigned to the Senior League. Still, these French ducks have some real talent on their roster, headlined by Stefan “Menace” Coldwell, a local boy who won nineteen games in his rookie season last year and has made himself a fan favourite at Parc Belmont. Can Coldwell’s Canards hold onto their spot in the Premier League now that the only thing that matters is performance?


Montreal Supra
Connaught Park, Montreal, Quebec
The Supra are the Premier League’s other Montreal club, representing the hopes and dreams of the metropolis’s Anglophone baseball fans. Their rivalry with Cartierville is the most famous in baseball: their meetings are known as La Classique, or The Classic, and the winner every year gets to hold onto the Champlain Cup, named for Montreal’s founder. Supra is one of the country’s wealthiest and best-supported teams, owned by James Long, Canada’s youngest millionaire at only thirty-five years of age. Supra was dominant in the LdQ, appearing in four straight championship series from 1913 to 1916, but saw their fortunes fall in the circuit’s final year when they won a mere 57 games. Just like their crosstown rivals, Supra’s ability to stay up in the Premiership is in serious doubt unless James Long can find a way to add some superstars, and fast.


B.C. La Cite
Stade Canac, Quebec City, Quebec

B.C. La Cite are the strongest club hailing from Quebec City, where they play their games in the heart of the Old City. La Cite (the City) never won it all in the LdQ, but were perennial contenders in the old circuit and are looking very strong heading into Premier League action. Their marquee shortstop Ben Wilson (a rare American star) notched 165 hits in his rookie year, the LdQ’s last, while also delighting the hometown crowd with his defensive prowess. Can he lead La Cite to glory in the Premiership? Only time will tell, but the pundits have high hopes for this club in 1919.

Charlottetown Abbies
Confederation Park, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

The Abbies are the only Association club from the country’s smallest province, known as the Cradle of Confederation (for it was in Charlottetown that the Dominion of Canada was formed). Easily the most successful team from the LdQ – they won the whole thing four times in five years – the Abbies may have slipped an inch from their halcyon days but they remain a real contender in the Premier League. They don’t have the kind of young talent that their rivals enjoy, but the old guard – led by famous names like Drury Clay and Dan Worrell – is out to prove that experience matters.

[chey]

Next, the seven teams from our Central Division, representing the great province of Ontario.

Central Division


Corktown St. Pats
Gilead Place, Toronto, Ontario

The St. Pats are the first of our teams to highlight a unique element of Canadian baseball, particularly in the early 20th Century. The St. Pats hail from Corktown, an Irish ethnic enclave in Toronto, but they represent Irish immigrants and their descendants all across the country. The St. Pats are known for the rough and tumble brand of baseball they made famous while playing in the Ontario League, where they were consistently competitive despite never appearing in the circuit’s championship series. What truly sealed their membership in the Premier League, however, was the presence of Canada’s single greatest talent on their roster: Austin “Kid” Lawless, the most fearsome player in the country. In his three seasons with the St. Pats of the Ontario League, Lawless racked up 118 triples and stole 309 bases, leading the league in both categories every year he played. Still in his late twenties, Kid Lawless could easily lead any team to the Devonshire Cup.



Hamilton Wanderers
Simcoe Field, Hamilton, Ontario

The Wanderers Baseball Club originated as a barnstorming team without a home field – earning them their name – but came to play permanently in Hamilton around the turn of the century. Canada’s steeltown, Hamilton is proudly blue collar and even more proud of its wildly successful baseball team. One of the weakest club’s in the Ontario League’s early days, the Wanderers won back-to-back championships in 1916 and 1917 (and won an astonishing 119 games out of 152 in ’17, a .783 pace), securing themselves a berth in the Premier League’s inaugural season. They also happen to feature one of the Association’s rare European stars: Netherlands born RF Cornelis Donker, winner of three batting medals and two fielding medals. Donker (and the rest of those championship teams) is aging now, though, and the Wanderers will need new blood to compete in this new league.


Kanata Selects
Hazeldean Road, Ottawa, Ontario

The more successful of the two Association clubs hailing from the nation’s capital, the Kanata Selects ended their Ontario League tenure with a total winning percentage of .633, a truly impressive figure. They won the championship twice (and were runners up twice as well), and never finished a season with a record worse than 86-66. The Selects were easily the class of the Ontario League over the course of its existence, and seem poised to win in the Premier League as well. Unlike their competition, the Selects have never built around a single star: this entire team is outstanding top to bottom, and they should have no trouble competing against the best ball clubs across the country in 1919.


Kitchener Panthers
Jack Couch Park, Kitchener, Ontario

Formerly the Berlin Deutschlanders, the Great War against Germany caused the city of Berlin, Ontario to rename itself – and the ball club along with it. This Southwest Ontario city may not be proud of its heritage, but it’s proud of the Panthers. Although they’re one of the more anonymous clubs to earn a spot in the Premier League, Kitchenerians have made them one of the best-attended teams in the country: turns out Canadians of German descent love baseball just as much as anyone else. Who knew? They’ll need more than fans to stay competitive in the top tier of baseball, though.


London Tecumsahs
Labatt Gardens, London, Ontario

Named for the famous Shawnee leader who fought to defend Canada in the War of 1812, the London Tecumsahs are another of the Central Division’s more middling organizations. London never won the Ontario League’s championship, but were consistently competitive during the Three Leagues Era, recording only a single losing season (1916) in their history. Always well attended, the Tecumsahs have both the financial framework and the roster talent to compete in the new Premier League: rookie right fielder Dave Middleton – an African-American who came up from Georgia to play ball in Canada – won the OL’s Batting AND Fielding Medals for Right Field last season, and just signed a six-year contract to stay in London.


Oakville Canaries
Bronte Stadium, Oakville, Ontario

Oakville is a small shipbuilding town on Lake Ontario, but it’s also an economic and cultural hub for the region between Toronto and Hamilton – making it a suitable market for a Premier League ball club. The Canaries, so-named for the bright yellow uniforms their owner purchased for his players at a factory auction, have had up-and-down seasons in the Ontario League but played excellent baseball in 1918, securing themselves a spot in the Premiership with 90 wins, a 28-game improvement from ’17. If last year was a fluke, the Canaries will be bounced from the top division in short order.


Yorkville Foxes
Stollery Park, Toronto, Ontario

The Foxes aren’t just the wealthiest club in the Central Division: they’re the richest team in the entire Association. Despite settling into the Ontario League’s basement in the club’s early years, Yorkville has since emerged as a real powerhouse: the Foxes appeared in three straight Championship Series before finally winning it all in 1918. Routinely spending significantly more on player’s wages than their rivals, Yorkville draws huge crowds to Stollery Park in the heart of Toronto. Led by 30 year-old Jon F. Lemonade, arguably the greatest pitcher in the game, the Foxes are coming into the Premier League with the singular goal of winning the Devonshire Cup early and often.

[chey]

And finally, the Western Division, made up of teams from British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba -- theoretically Saskatchewan clubs would exist here as well, but the poor prairie province was shut out of the Premier League's first season! Sad.

Western Division


Calgary Foothills
Glenmore Grounds, Calgary, Alberta

The older of the two Calgary clubs in the Premier League, the Foothills Athletic and Baseball Club was founded in 1894 – mere weeks after the incorporation of the city itself. Named for the city’s proximity to the foot of the majestic Rocky Mountains, Calgary Foothills represented Alberta in the Western League Championship for three straight years, from 1913 to 1915. While they never won it all, Foothills has never suffered a losing season and are rightly considered one of the strongest clubs in the new Western Division. Their star player since the dawn of the Western League has been the now aged Steve “Snowball” Honey, the WL’s top pitcher. Curiously, Honey severed ties with Foothills at the end of last season and appears to be completely disinterested in playing baseball ever again (despite winning a career high 22 games for the club last season!). Without Honey, Calgary’s going to have a tough time against their new competition.


Fort Edmonton Park B.C.
Rutherford Field, Edmonton, Alberta

Park Baseball Club was formed by off-duty soldiers stationed at Fort Edmonton nearly fifty years ago, making them the oldest team in the Western Division. In fact, they actually pre-date the now City of Edmonton by almost thirty years. Longtime rivals with Calgary Foothills, Fort Edmonton have a single Western League title to their name (1916). Their star player-manager, Pete “Refund” Stewart, has won an astounding six Batting Medals as the WL’s top offensive second baseman, getting on base more than 40% of the time in every season he’s played. He’s getting on in years now, but Refund still has a few years of Premier League baseball left in him – does Fort Edmonton?


Inglewood Chiefs
Aberhart Park, Calgary, Alberta

The other team from Calgary. Hailing from the borough of Inglewood that sits on the south bank of the Elbow River, the Chiefs are actually a rare case of a Canadian ball club that has relocated. Originally the Dawson City Klondike Boys, the team moved south after the Yukon’s Klondike Gold Rush ended and the northern boom town all but evaporated. They’ve called Inglewood home since 1905, and are now crawling out from Foothills’ shadows as well: the Chiefs appeared in the WL championship each of the last two years, and won the league’s final title in 1918 after securing the services of “Wanderin’ Tom” Freeland, Canadian baseball’s first African-American superstar (but we’ll talk about him more later). Wanderin’ Tom led the league with 95 runs batted in, and has announced his intention to remain with the Chiefs into 1919 – the first time in four years he’s played for the same club for more than a single season.


Prince George Ravens
Hart Highlands, Prince George, British Columbia

The Ravens are the pride of Prince George, a blue collar lumber town that serves as the railway hub of northern British Columbia. One of the Premier League’s smaller markets, Prince George has nevertheless distinguished itself as a first grade baseball town. The Black Birds faced off against Inglewood in each of the Western League’s last two Championship Series, winning in ’17 before falling to the Chiefs in ’18. These northern men won over 100 games in each of those seasons, and expect to do the same in the Premier League. “Big Cat” Belanger, their mighty third baseman, had a remarkable 180 hits in 1917 and remains a serious threat every time he sees the ball, even as he enters his thirty year-old season.


Stanley Park Herons
Nat Bailey Stadium, Vancouver, British Columbia

Call it Yorkville-West. The Stanley Park Herons are the richest and most popular ball club this side of Lake Ontario – even if they haven’t really earned it on the field. Decidedly average for most of their history, the Herons finally saw some success in the dog days of the Western League, winning 105 games in ’17 and 99 in ’18 (even if neither figure was good enough to get them to the big dance). They also draw more than half a million fans each season, an astonishing figure in those days, raking in remarkable amounts of cash to lavish on star players. The most famous of those stars was 2B Bill Comeau, who had over 200 hits in a single season playing for Kenora before the Herons lured him to the Pacific Coast by offering to triple his salary. Money can buy players; can it buy the Devonshire Cup?


Vancouver Asahi
Oppenheimer Park, Vancouver, British Columbia

Across the city from Stanley Park, deep in Japantown, play the Vancouver Asahi. Founded by Japanese immigrants and embraced by their descendents across the country, the Asahi started out as a barnstorming team before settling into their small but beloved Oppenheimer Park where they won the league title in 1914 following a fantastic 114-38 season. Led by Japan-born Harry Mizoguchi, holder of the Western League records for wins (32), innings pitched (358.1) and strikeouts (197), the Asahi have a lot of great talent but their limited finances may keep them from achieving great Premier League success.


Wolseley Elms
West End, Winnipeg, Manitoba

The Elms are the only Manitoban team represented in the Premier League, and they only barely squeaked in after recording only a single winning season in the last four years. Named for a prominent elm tree in the west Winnipeg borough, Wolseley were dominant in the WL’s early years before losing steam in the last half decade. They don’t boast any real stars – their greatest player was Wanderin’ Tom Freeland, who spent five years winning with the Elms before he began his wanderin’ ways – and they don’t have the revenues to go out and buy them either. Still, they qualified for the top division by virtue of being easily the best team from the Wheat Province, and sometimes all you need is a seat at the table.

[JaBurns]

Originally Posted by chey

Excellent catch! Thank you!

You are welcome. The only reason I knew is that is where I went university in the '70's. Keep up the interesting dynasty.

[Bub13]

Lots of detail here, very nice!

And...sorry to be that guy, and it's just a minor quibble, but it's Tecumseh, not -sah.

[chey]

Originally Posted by Bub13

Lots of detail here, very nice!

And...sorry to be that guy, and it's just a minor quibble, but it's Tecumseh, not -sah.

Good catch! I would refer you to Michael McKinley's seminal work, "Baseball: A People's History":

The white, English-speaking Canadians who named the London ball club employed (and obstinately stuck with) a poor transliteration of his name, which results in the anachronistic spelling of the team we still know today -- of course, modern ball fans are far more familiar with the controversy over the use of a First Nations man as a mascot at all, evidenced by continued public outcry for a name change.

[Jamee999]

Awesome start!

[Bub13]

Originally Posted by chey

Good catch! I would refer you to Michael McKinley's seminal work, "Baseball: A People's History":

Ha! Good to know. Carry on, then.

[chey]

The Senior League contains competitive clubs from smaller markets, weaker clubs from important cities, and a few other teams who, for whatever reason, just didn't quite make the cut for the Premiership. Two of these teams will be joining the Premier League at the end of the year, while another two get dropped down a level. Will your favourite clubs make the cut?

Eastern Division


Charlesbourg Castors - Mercier Licornes - Saint John Whales - St. John's Rock BC - St. Lawrence Starlings - Val d'Or Foreurs

Central Division

Corso Italia - Kenora Thistles - Kingston Frontenacs - Mississauga Credits - Peterborough Petes - Soo Greyhounds - Sudbury Hardrocks - Timmins Timmies

Western Division


Coquitlam Green Stockings - Penticton Penguins - Regina Cyclones -Strathcona Bears - Victoria Salmon Kings - Winnipeg Maroons

[chey]

And, finally, the Junior League. There's nowhere to go but up for these teams, but only two will make it out in any given year. There's a lot of small towns in this group, along with some truly depressing clubs from growing cities (both teams from Halifax, the Moosehead B.C. and the Dartmouth Greys, ended up here in what must have been awfully disheartening for Nova Scotia baseball fans). Still, they're playing professional baseball and can dream about the Premier League.

Eastern Division


Baie-Comeau B.C. Drakkar - Bathurst Robins - Dartmouth Greys - Drummondville Tigres - Halifax Moosehead B.C. - Hull Festivals - Laval Associes - Sherbrooke B.C. Phoenix

Central Division


Etobicoke Rams - Rideau Hall Royals - Scarborough Gulls - Garden City B.C. - Windsor Roses

Western Division


Wheat City B.C. - Harbour City Clippers - Lethbridge Plowboys - Lloydminster Meridians - Moose Jaw Robin Hoods - Newell County Pheasants - Louis Riel Metis B.C.

[abell1198]

Chey, very well written. I'm going to stay true to my rather brief Canadian heritage and root for the Kanata Selects. Best of luck with your dynasty!!