| Labatt Park (nee Tecumseh Park): London, Ontario by William Humber If ballparks were merely a place of commerce for a few hours of idle amusement they would inspire no memories or interest in their preservation. In fact they are important civic monuments which from generation to generation provide moments of unique physical performance. They are supremely public places in which a community shares a common experience in ways innocent of violence and surrounded by celebration and good feeling. If one place could be said to encapsulate the history of baseball in Canada and the passage of this common experience from one generation to the next, it would be the splendid site of London, Ontario's Labatt Park just west of the downtown area in an area bound by the Thames River on the east, the Dundas, Riverside and the Queens combination of streets on the south, and Wilson Ave. to the west. Home to the double A Eastern League London Tigers before their transfer to Trenton, New Jersey following the 1993 season, the park has been associated with organized baseball and senior amateur ball since 1877 and before that was a popular site for recreational games. There may be no other site in organized baseball that can make such a claim. Baseball in London corresponds to all stages of the game's evolution in North America. There is some irony in the fact that the city's ascendancy over other centres in southwestern Ontario was at least partially due to the American leanings of rivals St. Thomas and Delaware. Governor Simcoe reserved London as the colony's future capital in the late 18th century and later administrators saw it as a bulwark against the American radicalism of the region which culminated in the failed rebellion of 1837. Yet this same American influence also brought to the region many of its key early entrepreneurs - George Goodhue, postmaster and retailer, whose business provided everything from groceries to the rope used in public hangings, and tanners Simeon Morrill, London's first mayor, and Ellis Hyman, prominent in the London, Huron and Bruce Railway which linked London with its northern hinterland. Among the pleasures of emigrating Americans, many of whom were merely passing through on their way to the American midwest but liked what they saw and stayed, were their bat and ball games. The game of choice was one that resembled English rounders but had been shaped in the northeastern states at New England town meetings. Known as townball its distinguishing characteristics were five bases, few limits on the number of players on the field, and soaking or tossing the ball at a runner between bases (if it hit him he was out). Researchers Robert Barney and Nancy Bouchier confirmed the details of one such game near London in Beachville, Ontario on June 4, 1838 (the traditonal celebration of King George III's birthday), played by local farmers and merchants before a crowd of Scotch volunteers off to fight some remaining rebels in the Detroit area. Oddly though there may be another influence on the bat and ball tradition of London which came directly from England. In a 1911 London Free Press account, William Peters recalled games of rounders in the late 1830s on the old courthouse square by Ridout Street. Acknowledging the rounders' soaking rule Peters noted, "the boys used to be pretty good shots with the ball." In the year of the Beachville game the British stationed a garrison in London and except for the 1853 to 1861 Crimea War period it remained until 1869 on the site of the present day Victoria Park in an area bound by Clarence and Dufferin. The garrison brought with it the game of cricket. It was popular by the 1840s yet within 30 years it had almost disappeared before the onslaught of baseball. There is a curious feature to this apparent clash of two bat and ball games and their apparently different cultural supports. Given that the 1837 rebellion based on American ideals of government had failed and further that among those executed with the rope from George Goodhue's store was a Beachville wagonmaker Cornelius Cunningham, how was the prototypical American game of baseball able to not only establish a foothold but cement its place in the sporting affections of Londoners. They were if nothing else loyal to the crown and daily influenced by the presence of the British garrison. Does it not seem strange that Beachville residents, in light of the fate of their fellow townsman, would choose an "American" game to celebrate King George's birthday, and would do so in front of a crowd of colonial troops. The answer quite simply is that baseball's status as an American game occurs after the American Civil War. Londoners and the residents of southwestern Ontario are unique among all baseball places in the world in that they participated alongside the various regions of the northeastern United States in the game's evolution at a time when it was still too young to warrant national claim. London's first formal baseball team met in 1855. Their game resembled the Massachusetts Game with eleven aside and the pioneering New York game established by Alexander Cartwright with its limit of 21 runs for a victory. On August 27, 1874 the Earl of Dufferin's dedication of the old military garrison site as a public park merely confirmed the shared use of the site by those playing cricket and baseball. The two bat and ball enthusiasts had co-existed amicably for twenty years, warring only with cattle which were allowed to roam city streets and ball pitches at will. Fences were built to keep out the intruders and removed just as quickly by nearby residents who objected to the barricades across their short cut. By 1876, when the London Tecumsehs (established in 1868) had emerged as the dominant professional Canadian team, games were played just north of this site on the old fair grounds. Demands for use of the field during fair week created problems for the team's financial backer and pioneering oil tycoon Jacob Englehart, whose personal worth was said to be in excess of $150,000. Born in Cleveland, Englehart (1847-1921) covered his Jewish roots by passing as an Anglican in very Protestant London. He applied to use the old military grounds for a new park. Local residents petitioned against the construction of a fence around the ball grounds in what was after all a public park. Englehart disputed the claim that the fence was unsightly, indicated his desire to spend $2000 beautifying the grounds, and expressed a willingness to vacate the site if notice was given. Harry Gorman, the London newspaperman who ran the team's business affairs, argued that baseball provided enjoyment for thousands in western Ontario, many of whom arrived by train and spent their dollars in other parts of London. An innocent, manly recreation was being threatened by an inveterate, unreasonable croaker, he concluded. The croakers turned out to be a group of tavern keepers, who hoped to force the team to relocate to the Exhibition Grounds near their establishments, where, no doubt, thirsty fans would gather before and after the game. By mid-April of 1877, unable to wait for the politicians to make up their minds, the team leased a six acre site in the area known as Kensington, from the Reid family, one of whom had once played for the Tecumsehs. Kensington had opened as a subdivision in 1872 following construction of the Richmond Street Bridge and was a brief five minute walk from downtown and the railyards where the Great Western and Grand Trunk offered baseball fans in Port Stanley and elsewhere discounts for round trip tickets. The grounds were immediately dubbed Tecumseh Park. Though laid out on low lying ground, it was fenced, sodded, levelled and equipped with forced water to give it a permanent green look. Home plate was rather curiously placed in the northeast corner of the Park so batters faced the late afternoon sun, games not starting to 3:30 in order to allow workingmen to attend. Broadbent and Overall managed the construction of stands and seats which consisted of a covered section for 600 and open bleachers. Mr. Kitchen, formerly of the Great Western Railway and, at the time, with the Montreal Telegraph Company, supervised the stringing of wire from the London office to the stadium's press box, so that scores of games from around the continent could be announced to fans. With the old courthouse visible in the distance along the third base line, the Park spoke to London's baseball past and its ever present respect for contemporary authority. The Canadian Illustrated News called Tecumseh Park without doubt the best for its purpose in the Dominion. London and Guelph were both members of the International Association's inaugural 1877 season. It was the National League's first serious rival and may deserve consideration as a major league at least in terms of its quality of play, independence, and attempt to provide smaller cities with a level of baseball comparable to that found in big cities. Led by the great curveballer and future Chicago star Fred Goldsmith, the Tecumsehs were narrowly defeated 7-6 by the eventual National League champion Boston Red Stockings, in a May 24 exhibition before 8,000 fans from as far away as St. Thomas, Exeter, Stratford, and Strathroy. In late August the Tecumsehs did beat the previous season's National League titleholder Chicago. London won the Association's pennant with a season ending victory over the Alleghanies of Pittsburgh before 2,000 hometown fans who skipped work for the game, hastily arranged to fit into Pittsburgh's barnstorming schedule. In the off season the Tecumsehs listened to a National League offer of membership but rejected it owing to restrictions on exhibition games with non-league teams. It would be another 90 years before another Canadian team received a similiar offer. Within a year expansion and the ironic attempt of the Association to regularize a more formal schedule along the lines of the National League brought about the demise of many clubs including London. Tecumseh Park continued to be used for baseball until the great flood of 1883 damaged the grounds. When London joined the minor International League five years later they returned to the old exhibition grounds north of Victoria Park. This site was abandoned however in 1890 with the stands sold off as scrap lumber and the property subdivided for building lots. Tecumseh Park regained its earlier prominence, though for much of the 1890s it was better known as a bicycle racing centre. In 1893 home plate was placed closer to Dundas with teams batting towards the north. There was a professional team in the Canadian League in the latter years of the decade, and another in 1911 in a re- formed league. Posssibly the most noteable membership was from 1919 to 1924 in the MINT or Michigan-Ontario Class B League. In 1921 they defeated Boston's American League team, and three years later their infield included future hall of famer Charlie Gehringer. Senior amateur teams provided an almost continuous presence but by 1936 Tecumseh Park's days appeared to be numbered. The June 26, 1936 London Free Press proclaimed, "Citizens are solidly supporting need to save Tecumseh Park". A booster day celebration included a visit by their 1877 star Fred Goldsmith. In 60 years admission fees had risen by a dime to 35 cents. The overflowing Thames River once again wiped out the stands but at the park's moment of peril, the Labatt family purchased the site, donated it to the city, and provided $10,000 towards the rebuilding of the park in 1937. A greatful city renamed the park after the brewery providing an ironic touch to the company's later purchase of an American League franchise for Toronto. In the early forties the Pittsburgh Pirates sponsored a class D team in the PONY League. Though the relationship was to last only two years, the Pirates contributed a modern lighting system allowing for night baseball. One of London's great baseball moments occurred under those lights in 1948 when the city's senior amateur team, the Majors, won the world sandlot title, defeating Fort Wayne in a seven game series. Pitcher Tommy White won consecutive night victories in games six and seven. He later recalled learning how to throw a knuckleball in that series as his arm was almost dead by game seven. In the absence of organized baseball, the game's continuity at Labatt Park was maintained by the city's Inter County League team whose membership lapsed for only one season in 1957 when they entered the Great Lakes League. By the late 1980s however plans were floated about selling the site for a condominium project. The return of professional baseball in 1989 when a group of London businessmen secured the double A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, however forestalled that development. The city invested close to a million dollars to bring Labatt Park up to standards which the team repaid through a surcharge of 50 cents (later 55 cents) on each ticket. And while there was some initial concerns about on street parking near the park and later controversy surrounding the introduction of beer in 1991, neither proved to be a neighbourhood hazard. In 1990 London won another baseball title at Labatt Park as the Tigers won the Eastern League championship in the fifth and deciding game. Attendance went downhill after that however culminating in 1993's total of 105,000. The team has been moved to New Jersey and at the time of this writing the owners are hoping to secure the Blue Jays' single A affiliate in St. Catharines and move them to Labatt Park. Ultimately minor league franchises are transitory items. No more so than now as their speculative value increases exponentially and cities engage in ever more costly new stadiums. Even though it was a community enterprise for a group of London businessmen, the economic opportunity of moving their franchise on a "lease to sell" basis to Trenton with its 16 private skyboxes outweighed the hometown sentiment and the attraction of Labatt Park with its historical longevity, serene setting amidst the trees of the Thames, and its award winning turf. Major League Baseball's call for even stricter minor league ballpark standards - things like private passageways from clubhouses to dugouts to minimize the access of fans to players - ensures that the romantic quality of baseball places will receive little consideration in the game's ultimate evaluation of its balance sheets. For Tecumseh Park this likely means a short term future of senior amateur ball and an unhealthy long term prognosis in which alternative real estate proposals will compete with the site's remarkable baseball heritage. - 30 | |
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