Part 2 -10 interesting facts I learned at the 2024 Canadian Baseball History Conference

November 8, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Here are five more interesting facts I learned at the seventh annual Canadian Baseball History Conference that took place at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont., on the weekend:

1. Over the years, I’ve had people ask me why Sparky Anderson was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. The primary reason I mention is that he had his first pro managerial gig with the International League’s Toronto Maple Leafs in 1964. The Leafs finished 80-72 and in fifth place. But until I’ve watched presentations from former Leafs bat boy Bill Park at the Canadian Baseball History Conference the past two years, I couldn’t tell you much about Anderson’s first year as a professional manager.

In Park’s presentation at this year’s conference called “Identifying the Disposition of a Minor League Team: Comparing the 1964 and 1965 Toronto Maple Leafs,” he indicated that the players on the 1964 Leafs were mostly “indifferent” to Anderson who was just 30 years old. Park shared that nine players on that Leafs team were older than Anderson while five others were the same age. Park added that the 1964 Leafs also had no team curfew. So, Anderson’s first season as a pro skipper seemed like an unlikely beginning to a Hall of Fame managerial career.

In contrast, when another future Cooperstowner, Dick Williams, took over the Leafs’ dugout in 1965, he was about to turn 36 and had 13 major league seasons as a player under his belt. Park said Williams instituted a curfew and often kept the player reports he filled out for the big-league Red Sox on his desk, within sight of the players. This seemed to motivate them. On the 1965 squad, there was only one player older than Williams and the bulk of the players were rising prospects. On paper, the 1964 and 1965 Leafs teams were similar statistically. But the 1965 squad, motivated by the surly Williams, finished 81-64 and went on to win the league championship. Williams, of course, later managed the Oakland A’s to World Series championships in 1972 and 1973 and then piloted the Montreal Expos to their first winning seasons (1979, 1980).

2. On Saturday night, Western Canadian baseball historian Max Weder educated me about a player named Ten Million. Yes, that was his real name. He was an outfielder from Mount Vernon, Wash., who batted .275 and had 181 hits in 160 games for the class-B Northwestern League Victoria Bees in 1911. Three years later, he returned to Canada to suit up for the class-D Western Canada League’s Moose Jaw Robin Hoods. He would hit .266 in 77 games for the Robin Hoods. Weder also informed me that Ten Million named his daughter “Decillion” (a number that starts with a 1 and is followed by 33 zeroes). And as fate would have it, in Matt Simpson‘s fascinating presentation about pre-war Canadian baseball cards on Sunday, he ranked a 1912 Obak T212 baseball card (shown above) of Ten Million as one of the top 10 Canadian pre-war cards.

3. Speaking of Simpson, his presentation “Collecting the Northern Hall: Pre-War Canadian Content in the Hobby that Defined our Childhoods” focused on the top Canadian baseball cards that were released prior to World War II. One of the things I learned from Simpson was that the true rookie cards of Hall of Famers Bob Feller and Joe DiMaggio were manufactured in Canada. DiMaggio’s rookie is in the 1936 World Wide Gum (V355) set printed in Granby, Que., while Feller is featured in the 1937 O-Pee-Chee (V300) set, which is the first baseball card set that the London, Ont.-based manufacturer made.

4. I always learn a lot from Canadian baseball historian David Matchett. Thanks to his presentation at this year’s conference, I now know the origins of the photo (above) of Jackie Robinson in an International League’s Toronto Maple Leafs uniform. Robinson is shown in the photo with his former Brooklyn Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen, who piloted the Leafs in 1962. Robinson was in Toronto as part of “Cavalcade of Champions Night” at Maple Leaf Stadium on June 26, 1962. Matchett shared that it was a Variety Club event designed to raise money for “the Variety Club’s technical school in Metro Toronto where physically handicapped boys are taught a self-supporting trade.” Prior to the Leafs’ game against the Atlanta Crackers that night, Robinson and Bob Feller coached two Pee Wee teams in a contest. Several other “top figures from the sports world” participated in the fundraiser, including Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas, who demonstrated how to throw a football pass, and hockey stars Bobby Hull and Tim Horton, who showed how to take a slap shot. Matchett shared that the attendance for the night was 7,519.

5. And in the last presentation of the event, Paul Cano discussed baseball references in Canadian songs. Through his presentation, I learned that Canuck songwriters like Neil Young, Dave Bidini, Gord Bamford and Bob Bossin all have references to baseball in their songs. I also learned that there are at least two songs about Fergie Jenkins – “Ferguson Jenkins” by Chuck D and “The Fall for Ferguson Jenkins” by Old Youth. I also learned that Cano, who is a rural family doctor and a faculty member of McMaster University, can play the banjo. He finished the event with a rousing singalong to “OK Blue Jays.”