November 13, 2026
By Kevin Glew
Cooperstowners in Canada
Here are five more things I learned at the Canadian Baseball History Conference last weekend at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame:
1.In Justin Mckinney’s interesting presentation, “Base-Ballists Arrested: The London, Ontario Theft Case Against Billy Geer and Harry Luff,” I learned that two of the most unsavory characters ever to play pro baseball likely got away with a crime in the city I live in more than 150 years ago.
According to Mckinney, Geer and Luff arrived in London as part of the New Haven Elm Citys to play the local Tecumsehs on September 5, 1875. The New Haven club defeated the Tecumsehs handily, 19-4, on September 6. Three days later, when the New Haven team was departing, some of Geer and Luff’s teammates noticed that the duo was travelling with extra luggage.
Their luggage was examined and a number of expensive overcoats were discovered. Geer and Luff were arrested and charged with theft and robbery. Their trial was scheduled for the week of September 21, 1875 in New Haven. However, witnesses from London would have to come to New Haven – at their own expense – to testify. None of them showed up for the trial and the charges were dropped.
Given the track record of the two, it’s safe to say they weren’t innocent. Mckinney noted that Geer, who used at least 35 aliases during this life, had a rap sheet that included eight prison sentences. And Luff was even more despicable. A violent drunk who once shot a man, his list of offences included assault and neglecting his wife and four children. In one of his court cases, he was described as “the worst person in the world without exception.”
Surprisingly, none of this prevented Geer or Luff from having lengthy pro baseball careers.
Mckinney has written a book about Geer called, “The Shortstop Was a Crook: The Sordid Baseball Life and Crimes of Billy Geer.” You can purchase it here.
2. Continuing the theme of unsavory characters in pro baseball, Doug Fox shone the spotlight on another one of them in his fascinating presentation, “Did Harry Decker really exist, or was he the work of a 19th century opium-addicted short story writer?” Fox described Decker, a Lockport, Ill., native, as a “serial philanderer, forger and counterfeiter whose reach always seemed to exceed his grasp.”
One of the many stops in Decker’s pro playing career was with Toronto’s International Association team in 1887 and 1888, where Decker was fairly well behaved, according to Fox. In 1888, Decker enjoyed one of his finest pro seasons when hit .313 with 120 hits and 37 stolen bases in 79 games.
Decker landed in Toronto after he accepted offers from three different MLB teams – including the Washington Nationals – prior to the 1887 season. Fox noted that that this was discovered when Decker went to cash the cheques from the different teams at a Washington bank in which the bank manager was one of the Nationals’ club directors.
But when Decker wasn’t doing illicit things, he actually has some good ideas. For example, he and a partner worked dutifully on creating a glove for catchers and applied for a patent on it. But the impulsive Decker walked away from that partnership before the patent was sold to Spalding. The catcher’s mitt, of course, has become a staple of baseball and to this day, some refer to a catcher’s glove as a “Decker.”
But Decker just couldn’t stay out of trouble. His laundry list of criminal offences included forging cheques, engaging with underage girls, stealing a horse and creating counterfeit coins.
Decker was released from San Quentin Penitentiary in California sometime around 1915. After he was released, he used multiple aliases and disappeared from historical records.
3. Thanks to an excellent presentation by Max Weder called, “The Saskatoon Gems, The North Battleford Beavers and the Edmonton Eskimos: Canada at the Global World Series, 1955 to 1957,” I learned that there was a Global World Series played in the 1950s.
Weder explained that the National Baseball Congress held the first Global World Series in Milwaukee from September 23 to September 28, 1955. The event was spearheaded by former MLB commissioner Happy Chandler with support from NBC president Ray Dumont. The tournament featured teams from eight countries. The teams were allowed to carry semi-pro players.
The Saskatoon Gems represented Canada at the first Global World Series and beat Japan 5-2 in their first game, which was Canada’s first game in an international tournament. Ultimately, the Saskatoon squad finished third at the event, which was won by the Wichita Boeing Bombers.
The North Battleford Beavers, managed by NHL legend Emile Francis, represented Canada at the Global World Series the following year. But the Canadian squad didn’t fare as well, losing to Japan and Hawaii. The Fort Wayne Allen Dairymen won the championship over Hawaii.
In 1957, the series was moved to Detroit, where the Edmonton Eskimos represented Canada and finished second. Weder noted that the centre fielder for the Eskimos was future Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays all-star Ron Fairly. The Eskimos lost 4-2 to Japan in 11 innings in the championship game.
4. For longtime Toronto Blue Jays followers like myself, Arturo Marcano’s presentation, “How a Canadian Team Has Inspired Generations of Venezuelan Baseball Fans” was fascinating. I knew the Blue Jay were well connected in Latin America during their formative years, but I didn’t realize how closely linked the Blue Jays were to the Cardenales de Lara of the Venezuelan Winter League.
According to Marcano, the Cardenales de Lara had established a working agreement with the New York Yankees when Pat Gillick was the club’s scouting director from 1974 to 1976, but that partnership shifted to the Blue Jays when Gillick became the team’s vice president of player personnel prior to the 1977 season. Marcano noted that the first three Blue Jays to play with the Cardenales in the Winter League were Doug Ault, Garth Iorg and Willie Upshaw. And over the years, many of the team’s biggest stars would follow – including Jesse Barfield, Lloyd Moseby, Ernie Whitt, Tom Henke, Pat Hentgen, Shawn Green and Roy Halladay.
Marcano also noted that every Venezuelan player the Blue Jays signed between 1976 and 1997 played for the Cardenales. That list includes Luis Leal, Fred Manrique, Luis Sojo and Kelvim Escobar.
5. I was a hardcore baseball card collector as a teenager, so the conference’s final presentation by Matt Simpson called “Collecting the Northern Hall: Canadian Content in the Hobby That Defined our Childhoods in the Junk Wax era” was right up my alley.
Simpson highlighted the evolution of baseball cards in the 1980s and 1990s, an era commonly called the “Junk Wax Era” because companies flooded the market with products that are almost worthless today. Canadian companies were guilty of this, too. To this day, I go to card shows with my dad and it feels like 1991 O-Pee-Chee Premier baseball cards are still being printed. Simpson noted that Canadian food companies – like Hostess – also produced cards.
But as a Canadian baseball history nerd, I was most fascinated with the 1982 Topps Jamie Easterly error card that Simpson mentioned. It was never corrected but this card mistakenly has a photo of Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Cleveland (Swift Current, Sask.) on the front. And what makes it even more baffling is that Cleveland is pictured as a left-hander (He threw right). It’s probably a reverse negative photo.
Thanks for part 2 and the rundown of the Canadian baseball history conference.