10 interesting facts I learned at the 2025 Canadian Baseball History Conference – Part 2

November 12, 2025

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Here are five more facts I learned at the Canadian Baseball History Conference that took place at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont., on November 1 and November 2.

*You can read the first five facts I learned here.

6. Thanks to Maxwell Kates’ “Canadian Baseball Antiques Roadshow” presentation, I learned that the rarest Montreal Expos autograph on an Expos themed card is likely that of short-term pitching coach Mel Wright. In the fall of 1982, Wright was hired to be the Expos pitching coach under new manager Bill Virdon. Wright had served in the same role for Virdon with the Houston Astros, but he had missed half of the previous season fighting cancer. Wright’s cancer was thought to be in remission. Unfortunately, it returned in spring training in 1983 and Wright died on May 16, 1983 at the age of 55. Wright is featured on an Expos postcard and on a card in the 1983 Stuart set (see below). Good luck finding one of them signed.

7. Mike Dove discussed O-Pee-Chee baseball cards in his excellent presentation called, “Building Connections & Collections: O-Pee-Chee’s Cultural Impact on Baseball in Canada.” One of the things that Dove’s presentation reminded me was that O-Pee-Chee is an Ojibwe word meaning “the Robin.” It was also the name of the company founders J.K. McDermid and D.H. McDermid’s summer cottage in Grand Bend, Ont. Love shared that the cottage remains in the family and is still named O-Pee-Chee. Dove is also working on a documentary about O-Pee-Chee. You can learn more about that in this episode of The Card Life.

8. In his fascinating presentation called, “Collecting the Hall: Vintage Canadian Content in the Hobby That Defined Our Childhoods,” Matt Simpson noted that an extremely rare Sparky Anderson card was issued by Shopsy’s when Anderson was an infielder with the International League’s Toronto Maple Leafs in 1960. This card is, perhaps, the “Holy Grail” of Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame cards. Just two of these have been graded by PSA and Simpson, who owns the most extensive collection of high-grade cards of Canadian Baseball Hall of Famers, has not been able to land one.

9. In Christian Trudeau’s illuminating presentation, “Brooklyn vs. Canada: International Junior Competitions in the 1940s and 1950s,” he introduced us to a series of games that started in 1946 that pitted a team of the best junior players from Brooklyn against the “best juniors in the world.” The world team included players from Montreal and Toronto. Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was a driving force behind these games which were contested in many formats until 1958. Trudeau shared that Whitey Ford played for the Brooklyn team in the first year of the event. The following year, future Hockey Hall of Famer Dickie Moore competed for the World team.

10. Max Weder educated us about the diamond prowess of the legendary hockey-playing Bentley brothers in his presentation, “They Weren’t Just Hockey Players: The Bentleys and Baseball on the Canadian Prairies in the 1940s and 1950s.” Hailing from Delisle, Sask., the six Bentley brothers starred on the rink in the winter and on the diamond in the summer, while also juggling responsibilities on the family farm. Weder noted that there’s some debate as to which brother was the best baseball player. That may never be definitively answered, but Max Bentley, Weder shared, batted .459 for the Delisle Commodores of the Saskatoon and District Baseball League in 1948 to win the league batting title.

11. From Allen Tait’s presentation, “The Hamilton Franchise in the PONY League: A Cardinal in the Coal Mine?” I learned that legendary St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Ken Boyer played for the Class-D Pony League Hamilton Cardinals in 1950. I looked up Boyer’s stats and he batted .342 with nine home runs in 80 games in Steeltown before becoming a star third baseman in the big leagues. In fact, a strong case could be made that Boyer, who was a seven-time National League All-Star and the 1964 NL MVP, is worthy of a plaque in Cooperstown. In 2,034 major league games, he batted .287 with 282 home runs, captured five Gold Gloves and finished with a 62.8 WAR.

There were many other excellent presentations that should be recognized as well, including:

-Dennis Thiessen, “What Constitutes an Amateur Baseballist?” A Challenge for the Canadian Association of Amateur Baseball Ball Players in 1890.

-Jim Shearon (presented by Andrew North), “Who was better, Marchildon or Fowler?”

-Paul Cano, “A Ballpark Tour of the Intercounty Baseball League”

-Chip Martin, “Brother Matthias Boutillier: The Canadian Who Shaped Babe Ruth.”