Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - The 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1881

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

In this 1881st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with DM Fox, author of The Howleyites: Toronto’s Changing City, A Stadium Rising, and The Champions of 1926, about the 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

100 years ago today, the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team played their first game of what would be a historic season. My name is Doug Fox, D.M. Fox 705 on Twitter and Blue Sky. I write for the Toronto Star covering the Blue Jays Farm System, which I've been doing for the past 13 years on my own, frequent guest on the Fan 590. And I'm here today to talk all about baseball in Toronto in the 1920s, which is the subject of my new book, The Howleyites Toronto's, oh, I'm drawing a blank for a second. Toronto's Changing City, a stadium rising, and the champions of 1926.

And I am honored and thrilled to be here down in the basement with Mike. When you can't remember the name of your own book, that's a red flag. My publisher chose the name, so I'm still getting used to it. We'll get to the name. It's quite a mouthful. Welcome to episode 1,881 of Toronto Mike.

An award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at great lakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta! Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta. in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palma pasta.com for more. Fusion Corpso, Nick Aienes. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline.

And Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recyclemyelectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, they've been a pillar of this community since before the 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs baseball season.

They've been a pillar of this community since 1921. And yes, joining me today, making his Toronto mic debut to talk about the 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. It's Doug Ford. I almost called you Doug Ford. You know what? You know what? That's a bad sign.

Listen to me. I broke into Doug Fox. and I almost shouted out Doug Ford in the basement, his highly anticipated debut. But no, it's the highly anticipated debut of Doug Fox. Nice to meet you, Doug. Mike, it's so nice to meet you. So great to be here.

You are one of my go-to podcasts. I live in the Greater Collingwood area, which means I shovel a lot of snow in the winter, cut a lot of grass in the summer, and if I'm not listening to a ballgame, I'm listening to you. You know what? That's the nicest thing any guest has ever said to me. Oh, no, the nicest thing is what you said when you met me at the

door. You complimented my hair. On the, on the 2080 scouting scale, I told Mike, he has 80 great hair. And I say that as somebody who's folliculally challenged himself. Well, I'm saying you're wearing a baseball cap right now. What how are you wearing? This is the Vancouver Canadiens, the Blue Jays full season affiliate, high A in the Northwest League. My son, our youngest son and his fiancee live a 15-minute walk from that Bailey.

So I am there almost on an annual basis. And I would say to Blue Jays fans, if you, if you, uh, If you could take in a game in Vancouver, maybe when you're doing the Seattle trip sometime, you should do it. Treat yourself to a game at Nat Bailey. There's no place like it. I want to shout out another FOTM. So, Doug, you're now an FOTM friend of Toronto Mike.

So welcome to the club. Awesome. Mike Hanofin has been on this program a couple of times, and he's one of the official scorers at the Vancouver Canadiens games. Mike's a great guy. I have a whole bunch of baseball people that I love reconnecting with when we go to Vancouver. And Mike, when the C's are at home, which of course is when Mike is doing the official scoring, Sunday afternoons, he sits in for an inning or two on the broadcast. If people are watching on MLB.com, you can watch the games.

They're streamed online, Valley Live, too, I believe. But Mike just sits in with the C's play-by-playman, Tyler Zickle. They just talk about scoring decisions and other aspects of the game. And it's really interesting. That's something I look forward to when the C's are at home. Well, it's all about Hanifin on this episode because just yesterday I was visited by a couple of women who became fast friends when they worked together at the Weather Network. And Hanofin was there and also friends with them, particularly Kim McDonnell, who was here. And I want to shout out Kerry Oliver, whose dad is the man who would say, how about them blue jays?

You know, Mike, baseball to me, the more I, and this is the third book, actually, that I've written, the first one that a publisher has taken over. me, but one thing I've discovered is that baseball is a game of connections. And it just, it doesn't surprise me that we somehow get to Furgy Oliver through your guest. And I see you did what many people do. You kind of add the eye in there, like you make it Furgy Oliver, but of course it is just Oliver. Yes. Listen, some of the greats have got that name wrong.

I knew that, but just something about my mouth wants to say all. True. I feel like we're even now. By the way, so your name is Doug Fox. I follow you on Blue Sky. You shouted out your handle on Blue Sky. and I believe your DM Fox. Am I right?

Your DM Fox on... DMFox. Dot B-S-K-Y dot social. So the book is attributed to DM-Fox. And I asked you, before we started, are you DM-Fox? You told me, so I'm calling you Doug Fox. I'm not calling you Dougie

because I heard that's... I'm not supposed to call you Dougie. But, like, why are you DM-Fox, not Doug Fox, when you write about things like the Blue Jays Farm System? I think I just wanted, I think that just sounded to be a little bit more prestigious. My dad was Doug as well. And so I was Dougie Jr. for my whole life.

My dad passed away a year ago this month. Sorry. Oh, thank you. He lived a great long life. Some of my favorite writers, I'm thinking of a four. W. P. Concella. And a former Sports Illustrated writer named E.M. Swift. And I just thought to emulate that.

But yeah, when I do radio hits on the fan with our good. mutual friend Blake Murphy. And let's, I love the Raptors, but let's hope they have a short playoff run so Blake can get back to hosting Jay's Talk Plus and have me on. But I'm Doug there and Doug in public, but DM in print. Okay, now we got that sorted out here. So what I want to do before we dive in, because I even got, I got some music. We're going to basically go in the time machine.

We're going to go back 100 years. A hundred years, a full century we're going back, okay? Wow. Peter Gross was in diapers. Okay, this is how long, far away we're going. And then we're going to get into that season. And we're going to, and I'm going to try to say the name of your book, because I heard you do the first part right and then you sort of got lost. I can do the second part right.

I get screwed up in the first part. So I believe, tell me if I'm right. The Howley Lights. No, see? I'm putting it down there. The Howleyites. Yes. Okay, the Howley Lights.

No. You know what? Who named the book? No, no I and Fergie. or in Oliver. Right. Well, there isn't I in Fergie. Just like Mom.

Okay, shout out to you just like Mom. Please tell me, Doug, one more time. Who named this book? I love the book, by the way. The book is, was basically named. I had a name for it, and it started with the Howleyites. Okay.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs manager, a legendary baseball figure who should be in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Dan Howley. Dan Howley. Teams back then were often named after their managers. The New York Yankees were called the Hugmen. by the press. So the Halliites just normally stuck to the Toronto Maple Leafs and other teams that Dan mentioned.

So the Halliites was the beginning of the title. My publisher thought, my publisher, shout out, by the way, his name is Kevin Richard with August publishing, an American company that puts out all kinds of great publications like Baseball Digest and lots of great baseball books. He thought that the second half of the title was a little unwieldy, so he changed that around. And I'm fine with it, but I just, I know from having worked with it for so long, with one version, that's still kind of in my head. So like the Blue Jays, today, I was a little bit slow out of the gate, but we're both going to turn it. But they were slow out of the gate last year. We're going to turn things around. Right, right. I do know they, they weren't very good at the start of the 2025 season either.

No. And look what happened. Absolutely. Okay. So I'm going to slow down after, I know how to say this now. The Howleyites, you got to slow down after you come out of Howley. You can't roll right into it, okay? Maybe a professional, maybe Bob McCowan can do that.

Maybe Blake Murphy can do that. I can't do that. So the Howleyites, Toronto's changing city, a stadium rising, and the champions of 1926. But first, tell me a little bit more. Like, you mentioned you popped on the, you pop on Sportsnet the Fan 590, and I know I follow you on Blue Sky. So there's lots of information about the Blue Jays farm system. But just bring us up to speed. Who the heck are you, Doug, that you can write this book about the 1926, Toronto Blue,

sorry, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club. I am many things. I believe my blue sky bios has something, the effect of husband, dad, author, Cocker Spaniel fan, former center fielder. I grew up in Midland, Ontario. And I grew up in an era when there were only two televised games per week. So live baseball was still far away. So we had a town team called Midland Indians,

and they were very dominant team in the 1960s and early 1970s. My dream was always to grow up and play center field. and bat lead off for the Indians. And in 1976, we had a huge arena fire. The stately Midland Arena Gardens burned down, and they were right beside the baseball field and the ultimate ensuing demolition of the arena construction. And the new one closed the field.

The team folded, and I never did get to wear the Midland Indians garb. But it's left me with just a fascination for grassroots baseball. And fast forward, I spent 30 years as an elementary school teacher. I'm still a part-time teacher, slowly winding the career down. But when our two sons were very active, very athletic, when they went off to university in the two tens, 2010s rather, I suddenly had lots of hours in my week that I formerly didn't have. I'd always wanted to write, I've always wanted to write about baseball.

In particular, there was a book called Ball 4, written by a man named Jim Bouten, no longer with us. and now it's closing in on 60 years of age, but it's still a very timely book, and I would recommend any baseball fan to read it. It was kind of the first tell-all book, and it certainly changed the course of baseball journalism and baseball books,

and it was very influential. My parents wouldn't let me read it, because the content was a little mature, and I was nine or ten years old, so of course I read it by flashlight under the covers at night. Right. So I always wanted to write. I always wanted to write about baseball,

and I was inspired by yet another FOT. Andrew Stoughton and his friends who had drunk Jay's fans, which I just thought was hilarious, just a different take, but a very informed take on baseball. And I knew I wanted to do something along those lines. So I began on blogger. I started a blog called Clutchlings, and I began writing about the Blue Jays farm system. I began contacting people throughout the system for information, for interviews, visited Lansing, Michigan, when they were a team in the Blue Jays system. now I visit Vancouver, go to Buffalo as well every year, and it's just kind of blossom from there.

So I've been doing it since 2013. This year, the Toronto Star agreed to take some freelance articles from me. That's cool. So I'm on there. I wrote a book 2021. I did a historical recreation of the 1934 Ontario baseball season, which was integrated 13 years before Major League Baseball, when the Chatham-Colored All-Stars took on the Penitanguishing Rangers,

and there's personal connection, speaking of connections for me there, because there's star pitcher. First of all, Penetang is right next door to Midland. And when I was growing up and playing hockey in the Penetang Arena a couple of times a year, there was a big old black and white photo of an old ball player. And that was Phil Marshall Dome, who Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer, who I believe was the first Canadian-born and raised Major League Baseball star of the modern era. Wow.

Yeah. So I wrote that book. I wrote a second book that was kind of connected. to that in 1932, I had discovered, well, not, I wasn't alive in 1932, my dad was, that a future Hall of Famer named Chick Heafee, who played for Dan Howley, speaking connections, took ill, a severe boat of the flu. So he was sent up to Port McNichol, Ontario. And yet shut, yet another shout out for North Simcoe County, where he recuperated at the home of Jim Shaw,

who managed the grain elevators in Port McNichol, and also makes appearance in the Howleyites, and he was a good friend of Dan's. So I just, to explain the book, I would say, imagine last September when Bob is shot injured his knee, imagine the Blue Jays sending him to tomogamy to recover. That's kind of what this story was like with Chikafee coming to Port McNichol to recuperate. And then I always wanted to write about the Toronto Maple Leagues ball club

because my dad is a young man, fresh off on an eastern Ontario family farm in the 1950s, was living in Parkdale, working as a telegram courier for Canadian Pacific Telegraph, he would go to Saturday double-headers at the stadium. And there's old pictures and photo albums. So I knew there was a connection there for me and I knew that's what I wanted to write about. So that in a very roundabout way is how I'm here to be in your basement today and talking about my latest book. No, that was perfect.

That's the ongoing history of Doug Fox. Loved it very much. Now, you mentioned you will pop on the fan 590, talk to Blake. Murphy about Blue Jays prospect. So how often do you get on the good old terrestrial radio? A couple of times the season. Blake has me on. Do you want me to make a call?

It should be more frequent. I think every month there should be a visit from Doug Fox. I think we're approaching that. But sure, sure. Whatever connections you can leverage, Mike would be great. Blake Murphy had a podcast for a short period of time with a chap. Goldsby, what was his first name? This is terrible.

He was on Dragrassy. He's actually an FOTM, so I'm quite embarrassed. Yes, yes. Yes. But I would listen to this podcast. because they were younger, they are younger than me. So it was like finding out, okay, so if you were born, I don't know, 10 years or 15 years later, what songs like resonate with you.

The thing about music is it's so tuned to your demographic. Like a song, an artist, like I was watching, my wife was watching Coachella performances on YouTube last night. And there's some pretty, you know, pretty good slots given to artists that I will tell you, I never heard of these people. Like it's amazing to me with music how If you are too old or too young You can completely miss like the apex of an artist's career But anyway I would listen to this

They call it Columbia Music Club or whatever Something like that Yeah, the Columbia Music Club Which of course we were all members of of course Because you got 12 albums for a penny or something like that And then they get you Then they get you. But anyway, I did like that podcast very much And I think it I know it was shuttered years ago

But I do think they should bring it back I think it's Jake Goldsby Yes, I think you're right. Yeah, I didn't know. My apology is Mr. Goldsby. I didn't know they had a podcast, but it would be very entertaining. Columbia Music Club or something to that effect. Oh, wow.

But anyway, we're going with. Okay, shout out to Blake Murphy, who visited during the pandemic, so we did it in the backyard. Okay. You're in the basement here. Let me see your inoculation record, Mr. Fox. You're up to date on your shots. I, uh, my demographic needs to be. So yes.

Okay, I'm just checking. I had Dr. Brian Goldman here last week. And we talked about the, uh, the slow up tip. for people to go get their COVID and their flu shots. And I'm like, to me, it's just something I do every, well, the COVID just sort of showed up, but the flu shot, just every year I get my flu shot. Like, this is just part of being alive.

Yep, absolutely. Okay, there you go. That's our PSA. Okay, I actually have music because, again, we're going to the time machine. This is exciting because you dropped a fun fact off the top that we were going, something happened 100 years ago today.

And I saw you post about that on Blue Sky. But here's a little bit of what people were listening to 100 years ago. This was the number one song of 1926. Let's get a taste of it. Quite the bop, right? This song is called Valencia. It's by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra, and it was number one for 17 weeks.

in 1926. It was the biggest hit in North America that calendar year, Valencia. This is what they were enjoying back in 1926. You know, my wife's parents were very much into that era, maybe a little bit later than that music. She might recognize it. My dad was more of a Chet Atkins-Anne-Murie fan. So Snowbird still when that song comes on. Right. Right. Watch out.

She's probably on a golf course right now. Yes. I've been trying to get her on Toronto, Mike. got as far as like her PR people who politely declined my invitation to have Anne Marie on Tronamite. I'm trying to collect all the... I know, keep trying. I'm trying to get all the people we can hear on tiers are not enough. And Anne Marie is a key cog in that wheel.

So even some vocals here. So if you were listening to popular music in 1926, you might have heard Valencia. I noticed they go hard on that sea there. Okay, so that puts us in the mood and drop again just to revisit the fun fact before we get into it. This is what you said off the top, but I did take this note from your blue sky account.

A hundred years ago today, the Toronto Maple Leafs opened their international league season on the road with a victory in reading. You got to buy the Reading Railroad. Reading. Reading. Reading. It's not reading.

Reading, Pennsylvania. So every time I played Monopoly since I was like a little kid, I've been calling it Reading Railroad. It's only through watching countless minor league baseball games as I do since 2013 that I knew it was Redding. No one's ever corrected me, Doug. I have said I'm going to buy Reading Railroad to, I don't know, 100 different people over the years. They just were being polite maybe? Or they didn't listen to minor league baseball?

They were ignorant, I think, is there. But, okay, they would play away from home for the first two weeks while the finishing touches were being applied to Maple Leaf Stadium. So let's get into it. Maybe start, would you mind? And again, I urge people to buy the book. The Howleyites, Toronto's Changing City, a stadium rising and the champions of 1926. Where would you like people to buy this book? You can buy it on Amazon, in paperback as well as Kindle.

You can go to August Publishing's website, Augustpublishing.com. Barnes & Noble is in the state. Barnes and Noble in the states carry it. It's on most digital platforms. We are working on getting it into chapters. We're finding with an American publisher and tariffs. There's a bit of an issue there, but my publisher, Kevin, is working on that. But definitely through Amazon.

You will have it. It's actually, I don't have any of the books yet. I meant to bring you one today, but I have a box of books, author copies in transit. So I will get one to you, but it's readily available. And hopefully you have some news, watch social media for some book signings in the GTA coming up. Well, maybe this summer you'll find your way to Christy Pitts. And we can meet up during the current iteration. of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

They've rebranded the Inter-County Baseball League. It's the Canadian Baseball League. And I know you're going to get me a book, so I'm going to give you a book right now. I saw that. Do you have this yet? No, that's... This is the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs,

and you're going to recognize a lot of the content there because... Wow, I will enjoy that. And yet another connection. The Blue Jays Minor League pitching coordinator, a gentleman named Ricky Minehold. He and I, he had just joined Blue Jays last year, and he and I began a rapport, and he and I talk quite often.

A lot of stuff I can't use, but just kind of background stuff is good for me. I was trying to explain about the Barry Baycats of the IBL, because there's a gentleman named Jeff Cowan, who starred for the Bay Cats for a number of years and was getting into teaching, and Jeff supply taught for me, the Simcoe County Board quite a bit.

Well, Jeff played in the Frontier League at the same time as Ricky Minehold, and I was trying to explain all this and explain Barry to Ricky. and Ricky said, I know, I know very well. I played for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Wow. There you go. It's such a small world after all.

So Toronto Maple Leafs baseball, manager there, of course, Rob Butler for the 2026 season. I know we're going back to 1926, but I'm going to give you the gifts right now because it's going to be all you the rest of the way and we're going to be back in 1926. I have a measuring tape for you, Doug, courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home.

Excellent. It doesn't go 60 feet, six inches, though. By the look to things, though. Maybe. Who couldn't use a measuring tape? Thank you. Also, delicious, fresh, craft beer brewed right here in southern Etobico.

You can't do better than Great Lakes Brewery. Yes. Fiercely independent. Yes, guy. I got to cut him a check. I was thinking, if you get somebody to do the reading of your book, the audio version, Hebsy's your guy.

Oh, interesting. Okay. Hebsy's your guy. He did his book. And Hebsy, Ball, Four. he went on and on about how much that inspired him. Absolutely. So, shout out to Mark Hebscher, whose ex-wife was in the basement yesterday.

Small world after all, like I said. Connections. Well, no, she wasn't in the basement. We talked about her because she works with Carrie Oliver at the Today's Shopping Choice, which I know better as the shopping channel. Okay. So you got your fresh beer. You got your Toronto Maple Leafs baseball book.

You have your Ridley Funeral Home measuring tape. A piece of advice. If you have old cables, old electronics, old devices, don't throw it in the garbage. Go to recycle my electronics.ca, put in your post of code, Doug, and find out where to drop it off to be properly recycled. So all of those USB cords sitting in a drawer? Oh my goodness, yes.

And they keep changing the standards now where USBC and then people still have the old ones from 10 years ago and no new devices can use them. Anyway, you know what to do. You go to recycle my electronics.ca. Okay, I have Friday morning in my calendar. I see Nick Iini's will visit and we'll record a new episode of Building Toronto Skyline and a new episode of Mike and Nick. This is kind of a wild thing we do. It's basically we talk about politics and I come at it from my unique perspective and Nick is a little further to the right

and it always makes for, you know, pop the popcorn and tune in to Mike and Nick, a podcast that you should listen to. And last but not least, do you Doug enjoy Italian food? Indeed I do. And I just want to say to my wife, Sherry, if you're listening, honey, I got dinner. Dinner's on Doug today, Sherry. Okay, we have That's an empty box. Don't take that with you. But there is a, just got delivered this morning actually,

a frozen lasagna courtesy of Palma pasta. Palma pasta's delicious, authentic Italian food. We love the Pacucci family. And I urge everybody to go to palma pasta.com to see their retail locations. And you can order online

and cater your events and they're just like amazing. So much love to Palma Pasta. Please tell me, Doug, who was, Dan? Howley. Dan Howley was a real life crash Davis long before, long before Bull Durham. So Dan is son of a Nova Scotia fisherman, grandson of a Nova Scotia.

No, I believe son of a Nova Scotia fisherman. Keegan Matheson, yet another FOTM, kindly wrote a blurb for the cover of my book. And he said what really sold him was the fact that Dan has Nova Scotia root. So Dan... Just sing some Stan Rogers and then you'll get Keegan going. Absolutely. Dan was a career minor leaguer, had only, I believe, 32 at-bats, four hits in those 32 at-bats for the 19-13 Phillies and was sent down to Montreal where he didn't want to report because he was going to have a cut in pay and he didn't want to go to a foreign country, but Montreal sweetened the pot for him. So not only did he go to Montreal, but the following year he took over his manager, managed for Montreal for several seasons. then was out of a job.

1917 came along, World War I, and there was a reorganization of the International League and of much of minor league baseball because they're just, we're not the players and fans were not attending games. So Dan was out of a job, but not for long. Yet another connection coming up here. Connection alert.

Ed Barrow, who was managing the Boston Red Sox at the time, later known as the architect of the New York Yankees' first dynasty, well, Ed managed in Toronto. Toronto in the early 1900s, came back and managed again and ran a hotel in downtown Toronto as well, and married a Toronto woman. So, Ed hired Dan in the spring of 1918 because he had this young prospect. Already played a couple years in the big leagues and was an outstanding pitcher, left-handed pitcher, but he was also a good hitter.

And so Ed wanted him to get into the lineup more often, wanted to get his bat into the lineup, And this young pitcher... Can I guess? You can go ahead. Okay. This gentleman's name was George Herman Ruth. Absolutely. The young babe.

So Dan Howley was basically hired to be Babe's chaperone for spring training of 1918, and he was a complete failure at it. And he actually wound up getting released. He was going to be a player coach, I guess, got released on the end of spring training, but then caught on with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 1918 Cs. and led the team to a pennant, was not brought back, some ownership issues going on at the time.

So Dan kind of wandered the wilderness. He managed in the Eastern League, became a Detroit Tigers coach, and he became very well respected as a teacher. When he came in, the Tigers had been, I believe, in 1921, the worst hitting team in the American League. So he ordered batting practice,

not to be just soft toss. like you used to if you show up to a Blue Jays game and catch the tail end of the visiting team's batting practice. He wanted live batting practice for the Tigers players, and it worked because they led the league in hitting the next year. Dan was sent to Toronto in 1923 because of his skills as a teacher and a leader, and he was sent to Toronto because at that time, some perspective for listeners here,

the modern farm system, like we know today, was not an existence in the 1920s. Certainly the foundation was being laid for it, but teams would often have a working agreement to send a few players to a certain minor league team. So the Leafs had one with Detroit, through Halle's connection with Ty Cobb. So he was sent in 1923 to manage the Leafs. And he was quite content here for a couple of years, but the team was building,

the team was growing, and he was the one who basically put the team together. In the 1920s, you didn't have a general manager. You didn't have analytics people. You didn't have, you had basically a manager, a coach, a trainer, and the owner. And maybe a business manager. The Leafs had a business manager.

That was it. So the manager was responsible for procuring a lot of their players outside of the ones big league teams sent them. So that's what Howley did. He basically took several seasons to construct a team that by 1926 was ready to win, which was good, because there was a dynasty that was ready to be toppled in the Baltimore Orioles. who had won seven straight international league pennants and were easily the greatest minor league team of all time. So that's how we get to 1926 with Dan Howley,

who was a big Irishman who loved to tell a joke and usually laughed hardest at his own jokes and was nicknamed Howling Dan as a result. Okay, Howling Dan. Love it. Now I need you to speak to me about Maple Leaf Stadium. This is, of course, on the mainland. Did you listen to the Howard Soccer episode

about pro baseball in Toronto before the Blue Jays? I did and I and uh, Harvey. Harvey, yeah. I'm, you know, I'm butchering all the names today. Harvey, of course it was Harvey. Harvey's book was awesome.

I loved the podcast. Loved Harvey's book. I'm just so happy that Toronto's rich, 140 plus year baseball history is finally getting, getting it to do. So yeah, the, the Toronto Ball Club played several places.

They played on, we remember sunlight, well, none of us were around to see it. Sunline, On the other side of the Don River, like Queen and Broadview-ish, and then they moved to the island for a couple of years, and then they came and they played in the mainland, and around Liberty Village, there's actually a plaque

that's going to be going up very soon to honor that stadium. It's no longer with us. And they moved back to Hanlon's Point, where Porter Aircraft take off and land as we watch from the Amsterdam Brew Pub this past weekend. So that's where Hanlon's Point Stadium was, and that's where the team played. Lots of people loved it, but there were lots of complaints about Hanlon's point. First of all, pedestrian safety, not really being a big issue in the 1920s,

people to get to the ferry terminal at the foot of Bay Street had to cross multiple railroad tracks. Yeah, so they had to dodge the railroads, the trains, line up for the ferry, and there were lots of complaints. You know, people, games, of course, were played then in the afternoon. There was no night baseball. And so people weren't getting home until 9 or 10 o'clock because there's such a lineup for the ferry because they were drawing 16, 17,000 people for a Saturday game. So there were lots of complaints about the stadium. And the Leafs were owned by a gentleman named Loll Salman, who was a Toronto entrepreneur, non-Parell.

He was called the King of Weekends. He helped build the Royal Alex. He helped build the first indoor arena in Toronto, the old Mutual Street Arena. he was just a man who was an entertainment impresario. He wanted a mainland stadium. And just walking around Union Station this weekend, looked back through my notes when we got home, he actually first wanted to build that stadium right about across,

so east, west, sorry, on the other side of, I believe it's Simcoe Street, Simco or York Street. He wanted to build a Maple Leaf Stadium right there. And Union Station, of course, wasn't there. not in its current format then. He couldn't get that site, but he was convinced to go a couple of blocks over towards Bathurst Street,

Bathurst Street to build there. And so he began actually lobbying the city in the early 20s to build the stadium. And Toronto was not thrilled with spending money on public works for a number of reasons. A chief one being, they built the Sunnyside Pavilion like 1922 or 23 and they spent great amount of money building this lavage facility only

to discover that people didn't want to bathe and swim in Lake Ontario because it was too cold. So it was very underutilized until they spent more money to build a big pool. Right. So Toronto City Council was not keen on building a stadium for the Leafs. They wanted Mr. Solomon to build the stadium. There was a plebiscite held New Year's Eve in 1923, which was turned out. So the people of Toronto voted the stadium idea down. So Salman kind of went around that and used the Harbor Commission

to help him get that piece of property. But he did eventually agree to put up some of his own money, wanted to build a 35,000 seat stadium, wound up downsizing to 20,000, but it was built in six months. And it's right in behind it, for those who aren't familiar with it, right in behind the tip-top Taylor's building.

Yeah. So the Fleet Street Flats. Yes. Yeah, Bathurst and Lake Shore, pretty much. And, yeah, the tip-top Taylor sign when that building was demolished. They did stick it on the condo building. They built there, so you can still see that tip-top Taylor sign. But wow, okay, I got a few questions here.

So one is you were telling me the island stadium had issues, wasn't particularly popular with Trontonians on the mainland. But you had an interesting comment from Ty Cobb himself. Do you remember what Ty Cobb thought of the Hanlon's point, Maple Leaf Stadium? Back in the 20s, major league teams often on their off days, would play an exhibition game in a top in a leading minor league city. And Toronto was often, Toronto was often on the dance card for big league teams passing through. So Ty Cobb and the Tigers came through, I believe, in 1924,

when the team was still playing Hanlon's point. And to the assembled media, Cobb said, If you guys had a mainland stadium, you can get a big league team. And that Solomon, I think, his original intention was to build with the city's help to build something that could have a second deck added on. But it never did happen. And as early as 1922, there were rumors that Solomon was in talks to buy the Boston Red Sox, if you can believe that. And move them to Toronto. But no, that's a time.

How far do those talks go? Was it just like little rumblings? How far do those talks go? I think that's kind of a mind blow that the Red Sox for a moment possibly maybe kind of could have moved to Toronto. Well, the Red Sox, they were going through quite a down period

and they were having trouble drawing fans and don't forget there was a second Boston team in town. It was the Boston Braves. Right. Of the National League. Yes. So my feeling it was not something

I scoured the newspapers for more and when I first stumbled upon it, but it sounds like it's the other owners. We're not thrilled. Well, this is what they get for selling Babe Ruth. Absolutely. Yeah. There's got to be a curse there somewhere, as I recall.

Okay. So that's amazing that it was six months, okay? So they built Maple Leaf Stadium on the Lake Ontario shoreline in just six months. I know they built Maple Leaf Gardens super fast, too, during the Great Depression. I'm reading. Is there no codes, no building codes back then? I think that could be it. In 1932, we're desperate times.

And Conn Smyth wound up issuing in lieu of a fifth of their pay for the trade. trades people, he offered them garden stock, which later became quite valuable. Sure. Okay. There you go. We'll have to cover that on building Toronto skyline with Nick Iienes. So, again, I had that lengthy conversation with Harvey soccer, and we talked quite a bit about, you know, the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club and the other pro baseball teams that

played in Toronto before the Blue Jay showed up in 1977. But I'm curious if you can give us a sense of how big baseball was in this city. in 1926. Like we always think of Toronto as a hockey mad city. How big was baseball in 26? In 1926, baseball was the game in town. The NHL was still, if you look at sports sections from that year, there was more reporting or just as much reporting on OHA games.

The NHL was still a little bit of a novelty. They had only, they were going to expand to 44 games from 30 for the 1926-27 season. So the 30 to 44. 30 to 44. Thank you. Sorry. And it was a very short season.

Training camp didn't open until November and everything wrapped up by the first week of April, if not the end of March. So pro hockey, the NHL was still very much a marginal sport. And I think when fans today, when they hear about AAA baseball, the International League, they think of the Buffalo Bisons, who play in a beautiful ballpark in downtown Buffalo. I love going to. But they're only drawing a couple of thousand fans. maybe getting into five figures for a weekend game. But the International League in 1926 was not minor league baseball in that sense.

The International League, speaking of Great League's brewery, they were fiercely independent. Yes, they needed players from big league teams to help draw fans and supplement their rosters. But they were in competition for players. And Baltimore, Baltimore especially illustrated that. They would get young players, develop them, like Lefty Grove, perhaps the greatest pitcher of all time, definitely the best left-handed pitcher of all time. He won 20 games seven years in a row for Baltimore before he was finally sold in 1925. So the International League was very much a rival to the National League,

certainly a step down in terms of competition level. And then again for fans, there was no television. radio was just coming along and quite often if fans were listening to a game, it would be in the evening and it would be a recreation, a studio recreation of the game because, again, no night baseball that was played during the day. So the CFL was still popular, but it was even shorter season.

It really didn't get rolling until the beginning of October and wrapped up by the end of November. So CFL was not a huge rival. There was no NBA. Of course, then. So baseball was the games from spring training in March until the end of September. The Leafs dominated coverage in the star and the globe. So it was the game in town, definitely 1926. You can win a few bar bets of that one, I think.

People just assume hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey. And of course, Kahn Smyth bought the Toronto Maple Leafs or bought into the Toronto St. Pat's ownership around the same time, just actually after 1926. baseball season ended. And he, shall we say, appropriated the name Maple Leafs. He said it was because he had the military background. He was awarded the Military Cross and was injured in World War I. And he remembers especially the Quebec Regiment, the legendary Van Dus,

with the Maple Leaf on their uniforms. And so he wanted that. But he didn't want red. He wanted blue because he had University of Toronto connections as well. Or City Blues, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I do not believe the baseball team was compensated in any way, shape, or form.

But it's funny when Blue Jays people from the U.S. come up. And I get talking to them, went for a beer with a couple of people on staff right before Game 6 of the World Series. Halloween. Yes, which we all know how that ended, unfortunately. But when I was trying to explain about my next book in Toronto Maple Leafs, they, of course, were thinking I was talking about the hockey team. Of course. Yeah. And so, and I'm sure for fans of a certain vintage, it's probably the same thing.

but the baseball team had the name first. They had it for over 20 years. Well, this comes up quite a bit on this program because the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team are a seasonal sponsor of Toronto Mike. And you'll see you got it up there and I'm wearing the hoodie right now. And I'll be at Christy Pitts this summer, of course,

and you've got the book there. But it is interesting. They sell a lot of those hats with the tea and then the Maple Leaf. I want one. You know what? I do know the owner. We got a hook.

So Keith, if you're listening at home, we got a hook, dug up with a baseball cap for sure. But I always have to tell people like, like, oh, no, even though it's a different iteration of the Toronto Blue Jays, obviously, through the year, I think since 69, this current, current version, if you will, but at Christy Pitts. But they had it first. So I find it interesting to learn that the hockey team, maybe that's why they are allowed

to coexist, because one question is, like, doesn't MLSE want to stop them from selling Toronto Maple Leaves, you know, swag? But, I mean, it's one of those things. I think they can coexist because the baseball team had the branding first. And I think that is the case. The ownership could definitely speak to this better than I could, but I believe there was when the Toronto Maple Leafs left Toronto for good, unfortunately after the 1967 season, drawing less than 400 fans for their last game,

there was an agreement when the inner county people moved in that they could take over the name. Right, right. Okay, so, okay, so obviously if you want to play, you know, you're so detailed in the book about the 1926 season. So we're not here to read the book here. We're kind of setting the table here and then, then we'll advance as I deem fit here. But I'm getting a sense of what baseball meant to the city.

Brand new stadium built in six months, the Maple Leaf Stadium. By the way, could Maple Leaf Stadium have been a major league stadium? Was it just too small? I think there were smaller major league stadiums in the 20s. The Leafs out drew a couple of big league teams in 1926, even though attendance was a bit disappointing. I don't think ultimately they could have. Jack Kent Cook, who some people may have heard of and may know more as the owner of the Washington Redskins. He owned the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He is a Toronto guy and owned the Maple Leafs in the 50s. And he tried to bring the Tigers. He tried to bring the St. Louis Browns. And somebody else's name is escaping. But he couldn't get them to come to Maple Leaf Stadium because the city would not agree to build centerfield bleachers. Oh. So Toronto had its chance. And look what we do now for the World Cup.

Exactly. We bend over backwards. Exactly. Toronto had its chance in the 1950s, but because Solomon had to, law Solomon had to fork out some of his own money in the 1920s, the original version had to be scaled down, unfortunately. I know I read many a book about how the Blue Jays end up here. And it's at that time, now we're in the 70s,

but there was a solid chance of the San Francisco Giants coming at Toronto. It looked very much. Like credit to Paul Godfrey, it looked very much like a sure thing. But, I mean, behind the scenes, levers were pulled and people didn't. I still don't think baseball was sold on Toronto as a market, even though Montreal had more than established that Canadian teams were viable. So we talked that there is a Toronto Maple Leafs playing Canadian Baseball League baseball at Christy Pits this summer. Come on out.

It's no ticket required. It's an amazing, amazing experience. but the owner, one of the owner, Godfrey's son is one of the owners. So Paul got, Rob Godfrey, I mean. So it's such a small world here because Paul Godfrey's son and Keith Stein. And I'm bringing up Keith Stein because there's a chapter in your book, Doug, about women's baseball in 1926, which I was personally fascinated by because I currently produce the official podcast of the WPBL, which starts play in August. and it's a return of a women's professional baseball. So I'm like my ears to the ground. I got an episode we're recording tomorrow,

and we had the commissioner on last week. I'm the producer, kind of a voice. You can hear my voice on the show, but it's hosted by a professional baseball player named Ashton Lansdell. And there's like five or six episodes in the can right now, but people can subscribe to the WPBL podcast because it's pretty awesome to be on the ground floor of a new league.

But Keith Stein is one of the owners of that league. I think you should start another podcast called Connections, Mike. Well, also, and of course, this is my last thing, but the second overall pick, they had their draft. First pick was a woman named Kelsey Whitmore, who was a guest on the WPBL podcast. The second overall pick was a Japanese pitcher named Ayami Sato, who I watched all summer play for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team.

Awesome. So if you're following on, Keith Stein, he's playing chess here, right? So he brought, he brings, Iami to Toronto from Japan, knowing the next, I'm all choked up of this play-by-play, but knowing the next summer, Ayami Sato will play,

I believe she plays for the L.A. franchise, and she'll be playing women's baseball. Awesome. And the Blue Jays, of course, have a Canadian woman's baseball legend in their organization, who they're grooming for bigger things named Ashley Stevenson,

who is a first base coach with the Danid and Blue Jays this year. Okay, it's all coming full. So, well, okay, so we're going to talk a little bit about the 1926 season and maybe much like the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays April and May

was a rough start for that team. A rough start, they had to start the season on the road as we talked about so that meant that they couldn't get apparently in as much batting practice as they would have liked, which I found a little interesting. And then the weather was not cooperative. Actually, you know, the Blue Jays opening game

in 1977, which we just celebrated the 49th anniversary. Harvey was there. Probably should not have been played, but given the import was, the same thing with the Leafs home opener in 26. It probably should not have been played. But they had canceled it the day before. There were all kinds of dignitaries in town. So they went ahead with the game, even though the temperature was around freezing at game time and only got worse and it was raining. So there were lots of rainouts in April and May and the double headers began to pile up. And the Leafs had some of the things.

something unusual that no other team in baseball had to deal with, and that was the Sabbath laws. So they couldn't play a home game on Sunday. So six times during that season, they would play a Saturday doubleheader at home, Saturday being a prime date for getting fans into the ballpark, and then they would pack up, and they would usually go to either Buffalo or Rochester. So it wasn't a huge long continental train ride, but still a long train ride, just the same. play a double header there on Sunday and then come back to Toronto to play a game on

on Monday there very very few off days that year so that was something that the least the do you know when those laws changed it was not until I believe the late 40s early 50s and even then there was a curfew that was involved and and I can remember and maybe you're not old enough but I can remember when Sunday shopping wasn't a thing in Ontario so I so I'm born in Like I have, what I remember is every boxing day, like the guy who sold the furs. What was his name? Oh, yeah. Yeah, like the news always, it was guaranteed every year when I would check out the news and we used to get the Toronto Star delivered and then you'd tune in.

I would tune in City Pulse or whatever on City TV. But the fur guy would always get fined for opening on Sunday and he'd always kind of laugh and say he'll make way more money by being open on boxing days. So that I remember. And it was kind of, I guess that you're at the tail end at that point. when Sunday shopping was, I'm not sure what year they allowed Sunday shopping. There was no Sunday Toronto Star until I think the early 80s, late 70s, early 80s. So the way the star got around that was on the Saturday edition, they would publish their Star Weekly magazine, which I can still remember in the 70s.

But the idea was it was full of longer form pieces that people would read on Sunday because you couldn't go to a ballgame or go shopping. Unbelievable. But I'm guessing, and you're not. I don't have to remember all this either, but maybe, I'm sure you could have live radio broadcasts on Sunday, right? Like, I'm just wondering how far did this Sunday thing go? I believe you could, but they were very, I mean, radio stations did not operate around the clock back then anyway. It was only a couple of hours of programming.

And don't forget, another connection coming up here, connection alert. A young radio engineer by the name of Edward Rogers developed this new type of radio that didn't require a huge battery set up. The batteries produced a greater hum than the radio did, but he produced a new radio that in the right time for 1926 introduced the medium to many, many people, but it was still growing in the 1920s. And of course, what does CFRB stand for? Do you know? Rogers Broadcasting. Yeah, it was Rogers' first radio battery list. Yes, yes. As I recall. And then just one last tie-in, because we could do this all day. But of course, Fergie Oliver's daughter was here and we talked about his visit because it's the only long-form chat he's had with anybody in like forever and many, many, many decades.

There's a variety of reasons for this, but it's all discussed on the podcast. But I just on the cuff, to Fergie, I said, why is there a Ted Rogers statue outside the dome? That should be Joe Carter. That's what I said to Fergie. And this is what Fergie said. Oh, you know what? We got to get more volume on that, Mike. How about this?

You're goddamn right. Fergie Oliver. And now as we speak, so since between that comment and the time we're talking now in April 2026, of course, Rogers has come to their senses.

And they're going to move Ted to Rogers HQ and they're going to put a statue of Joe Carter in that spot. Fabulous. Finally. I'd actually suggested, I have quite a back-and-forth

email exchange with Mark Shapiro and say what you will about Mark. I know he can come off as very corporate to a lot of people. he is an excellent communicator and he never fails to respond. Text them right now and ask him if he'll come on Toronto mic for the real talk.

You know what? I'll work on that. Atkins is a good friend of my my good friend, Stu Stone, but that's as close as I can get to share. But I suggested to Mark, this is going back to my first book, how about a statue of Phil Marshalldon,

Ontario born and raised boy, as I said, first Canadian born and raised star, the modern era, the Major League Baseball pitching, as he did in 1934 to Boomer Harding, who was the star first baseman for the Chatham-colored All-Stars, who broke the color barrier.

And I thought, how cool would that be? Well, good luck with that one. Good luck with that one. I'll take Joe Carter. We'll take Joe Carter, because at least Jay's fans know who that is. So we got some education to do here. So, again, we're not going to, so crappy weather, because you're right by the lake.

So we all, TFC fans can relate to this today. You get some tough crappy weather by the lake. April and May, particularly in 1926. It's a rough start for the team on the field. And again, I don't want to regurgitate the book because there's such amazing, if you're a fan of history, if you're a fan of Toronto history, or if you're just a fan of baseball,

I highly recommend your detailed, excellent book. I recommend it to everybody, Doug. Thank you so much. And we'll get a Pepsi to do a version people can throw on when they go for a run or something. Okay. So we have a very, we have a very, very detailed, you know, we walk through the season.

So yada, yada, I'm on Seinfeldon here now. But this, I don't know, it's not a spoiler, right? We can't spoil something that happened a hundred years ago. But at some point during the season, the ship is righted. And the Howleyites become a damn good baseball. I went slower. Became a damn good baseball team. I think that's because Howley, first of all, I think was a defensive-oriented.

player. I guess as a catcher, maybe that came with the territory, but he built a team that was built on pitching a defense. And Maple Leaf Stadium, with its very large dimensions, and the wind coming in off the lake was, it wasn't just pitcher-friendly, as they'd like to say, it was downright pitcher chummy. And so he built a team that played small ball. Some similarities with the Blue Jays of today, who tend to score their run sequentially,

rather than sitting back and waiting for the three-run homer. So I think the good thing about defense especially is that it never rests. It's always going to be there with you. It doesn't slump. If it doesn't slump, if it doesn't have a center fielder who's making bad reeds and his arm appears to be in the natural defense did slump. You remember this? That's true.

Losing is a disease, but curable. Yes. Winning is contagious and the opposite is also true. So it was really, it was pitching a defense. The International League was really competitive that year, which was great for a change because the Orioles had usually clenched everything, wrapped everything up by the end of June. And they often won the pennant by double-digit games.

So they were not only with Toronto there in the race, but so was Buffalo and so was Newark for a while. And so I think that sparked a lot of fan interest. But Howley's teams slowly took over. And then there was a landmark double header. And this is where my good friend, Mr. Shaw, from Port McNichael, comes in. landmark double header in early August. And the team had been on a bit of a slide, a mini slump.

And in those days, you could invite somebody to sit in the dugout with you. Major League Baseball actually in the late 40s banned that. But you could have somebody in street close sitting in the dugout. So Jim Shaw was invited to sit in the dugout with beside Dan Howley. It would be part of the team that day. The Leafs went on, they won the double header, and then they won 38 of their final 47 games to clinch the pennant and win the right to play in what was then called the Little World Series, the minor league championship.

Okay, was this called the, so what's the junior world series? Same thing. Again, shout out to my editor, Kevin, who actually tracked this down. It was called the Little World Series in the 1920s, but the name was changed in 1932. And it existed right up until I think the 60s or 70s. And now there's a one game, AAA championship. playoff. But it was a big thing then. Okay, so I think, okay, so I think, only because I pulled it from your book,

because what do I know, but the Junior World Series was basically the winner of the international league versus the winner of the American Association. Yeah. And they had a best of nine series. Yeah. And of course, there was the Pacific Coast League, which some fans might recognize still in existence today. It was not part of this.

There was a separate league. It would have been the travel, would have been owners. there was actually talk of the Leafs maybe going to play the Pacific Coast League winners if they defeated Louisville for the Little World Series. That never did happen. But yeah, this was a big thing.

The two leagues were rivals. Both produced really good players. Louisville had been in the final year before against Baltimore. So they had a very good team, and the Leafs made very short work of them. We won't give the plot away, but it was a pretty successful season as a result.

Okay, so you referenced the September 12th doubleheader we played, of course, it's a Sunday, September 12th in 1926. So this game was not in Toronto. We're learning that you can't play ball in Toronto, professional ball in Toronto on a Sunday. But it was in Buffalo. And we swept the Buffalo Bisons.

There's a name we know in love. Still with us. Still with us. We swept them and that clinched the very first international league pennant for the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball club. September 12th, 1926. Since Dan Howley had won in 1918. So in the end of the Orioles reign.

The Orioles won every international league title after that. Jeez. In the suing years. Yeah. Okay, quick aside. And we're going to come back to the 1926 champion Maple Leafs and the reaction. Go ahead. Can I add one thing?

My God. Well, we're on all this. Another thing that you could not do in the 1920s was have a beer at the ballpark. I feel like you couldn't do. that at exhibition stadium in the beginning, right? You couldn't. Prohibition, though, was on its last legs. People were ignoring prohibition.

And what was happening is, and I wrote about in the book, people were buying from bootleggers, and you were sometimes getting alcohol mixed with certain toxins, and there was something like 15 people died. Adam Bunch, if you had Adam? Adam Bunch comes on. He's going to be on again soon. He comes on once a year, and he's fantastic.

Adam's a great guy, and he wrote, about that incident, but there had been the police opened fire on some bootleggers who were coming ashore at Ashbridge's Bay. So wow. Prohibition was on the way out and actually the Conservative Party won the 1927 election by promising to end prohibition, but they didn't completely end it.

Of course, they agreed for this series of government-run liquor stores, which we now know today is the LCBO, but they strictly controlled the sale and the consumption of alcohol. And I can remember when, I began drinking in the late buying alcohol in the late 1970s, early 1980s even, there were not great displays. They were not people giving out samples. You went in and you filled out what you wanted on a little piece of paper and a clerk

went to the back and stuck it in a bag so nobody had to see it and you went home with it. And now you can go to a 7-Eleven and buy an octopus wants to fight IPA from Great Lakes Brewery. Absolutely. Like it's okay. Wow. So we've kind of turned the corner on that one. here in the 2020s here.

So I'm going to do a quick tangent, and then we're going to come right back to the 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club. The quick tangent is the Blue Jays are in their 50th season. So there's a lot of hoopla around their 50th year of professional baseball. And part of this is that they've brought back BJ Birdie. Have you seen this? Yes. Okay, so you probably know where this is going.

Yes. Because I've, you know, I grew up loving my. There's that 1986 Blue Jays calendar affixed to May 1986 because George Bell's month is, and that was my favorite ball player, I should play, I feel obligated to play this for you right now. Hi, I'm George Bell.

You listen to Toronto, Mike. Oh, awesome. Thanks to Hebsie for getting that. And then just because I do this recording at the Joe Carter Classic every summer, thanks to Rod Black hooking me up, who I hooked up with Keith Stein for the, Toronto Maple Leafs at Christy Pits.

But I did get this cut just recently. Hi, this is Ernie Witt. You're listening to Toronto, Mike. So there you go. There we go. Wait in there. So Mike, where are you going here? Oh, yeah.

So I've long been covering this, like, this fascinating history of B.J. Birdie because Kevin Shanahan is the guy behind B.J. Bertie. taught at my high school, Michael Power. And he went to Michael Power High School. All the Shanahan's went there,

including a guy named Brendan. Ever heard of him? Ever heard of him? Okay. Is he showing up in New Jersey? Did you hear this? Like the Devils might hire Brendan Shanahan? I feel like I just got that piece of information.

Anyway, lots of changes in New Jersey. But okay. So, and of course, Shanahan played for the Devils, as we recall. So where am I going? So Kevin Shanahan, he owns BJ Birdie. Yes. And at some point in the 90s, I guess, the Toronto Maple Leafs, no. The Toronto Blue Jays.

This is going to get confusing for me. The Toronto Blue Jays tell Kevin Shanahan his services are no longer required. Yes. Because they're getting rid of BJ Birdie because they don't own BJ Birdie. They don't own them. But they, every, every team's owning their own mascots and the Blue Jays figured out, hey, we can introduce two new mascots that look similar but different called Ace and Diamond. Okay.

So buy BJ. So fast forward. Go ahead. You chime in any time here. Let's face it. It's all about merchandising. It's all about marketing. I'm still a baseball fan

and I always will be but even the 50th anniversary season I mean when you turn 20 you don't say I'm in my 21st year I mean even more technically you are but they've always done this the Blue Chase but it's you know it's it feels like there's a merchandising

true but in 1986 because I remember I was a I mean the drive of 85 was everything to me and I'm watching I'm listening or watching every game in 86 disappointing year as it turned out but they had the logo on their jerseys that's a 10th season or something. Yeah, 10th season.

But they really always did that. They present, like, to me, you're right. You're right. If this team starts in 1977, we're starting our 50th year, but that's different than we're our 50th anniversary. And what are we celebrating next year? Right. You can double dip, I guess.

But the Blue Jays have always, I prefer the other way. I don't want to do 50th season. I want to do 50 years of Blue Jays baseball. Absolutely. I feel the same way. You know, we're not saying it's the 101, 101, 101, 101st Toronto Maple Leaf season. Right. Yeah.

So, okay. But they're just trying to have like, they're trying to sell things and like it's all about marketing. So all season long, they could do 50th season stuff. And as far as BJ Bertie goes, unfortunately, that's, that's the times in which we live. If, you know, if MLB or an MLB team can't monetize it. Right. Then they're not interested in it. And, but at the very least, they, uh, the Blue Jays,

owed Mr. Shanahan the courtesy of consulting with him first. That's where I'm going here. Okay, that's where I'm going here. So obviously when Kevin Shanahan gets the word, when I guess it was a 90s, late 90s, I think, when Kevin Shanahan gets the word from Toronto Blue Jays,

hey, your services are no longer required. He wanted the character to live on. So he tried to sell them basically, the rights to BJ Birdie. But the Blue Jays, no interest. They're going to create Ace and Diamond. They'll own it, they'll go on. So that's how it's been forever.

Although Diamond disappeared long. long time ago. It's been just A's. So Diamond, I even know the woman who was in the Diamond costume. Her name's Amanda Barker. Diamond Disappeared.

I kind of cover this on my blog, Toronto Mike.com, because who the heck else would care enough to cover this? So it was just A's for a long time. But now they're bringing back. So even Domer was brought back, who was the Skydome.

Yeah, and when they opened that in 1989, shout out to the late great Alan Thick. So I think it was him and Andrea Martin, I think we're doing the show. A lot of interesting things happened that day. Anne Murray. Anne Murray. Anne Marie.

Anne Marie. Anne Marie, absolutely. Singing, absolutely. So, okay, so to wrap up the Kevin Shanahan, B.J. Bertie story, because I'm even boring myself at this point, they bring back B.J. Bertie. But they don't even forget the fact asking permission or paying Kevin Shanahan for his intellectual property. Kevin finds out because, you know, buddies, people see it and say, hey, awesome that they brought back B.J.

Bernie. Kevin Shanahan wasn't even notified by the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club that they were bringing back B.J. They just did it. Like that's what do you think for a Rogers own property like worth how many I'm going to be? Right. Like like isn't that a, wouldn't a lawyer be like, hey, we don't own this character we're bringing back. Maybe we need to talk to the owner who lives in like Mississauga or something. I'm disappointed that nobody within the organization like you say,

didn't say, hey, wait a second. Should we not ask this guy? Like there's a reason we don't use BJ Birdie. We don't own BJ Birdie. But there's, and I don't want to be critical of the Blue Jays. front office, but I have reached out to the Blue Jays saying, hey, got any plans to recognize

the 100th anniversary of Maple Leaf Stadium and the Toronto Maple Leafs? It's part of Toronto's rich baseball history, which the Blue Jays are part of, and crickets. I have had no response from the Blue Jays. I'm not surprised by that. That's disappointing we expect better.

Okay, well, let's text Shapiro and get something done there, but you know, I'm not even surprised by that news here. So I just want to give some love to Kevin Shanahan. Absolutely. And just let him know that, man, I grew up in the era of B.J. Birdie, and that was a big deal. We lived in the golden age of mascots, Mike, like the Philly fanatic.

You be getting kicked out of a ball game by Tommy Lasorda. Or, well, Tommy Lasorda complaining and getting kicked out, you do not see. I mean, Ace, God bless whoever is in that costume, people aren't showing up to the ballpark to see Ace. Right, the seventh inning stretch. Okay, Blue Jays. Shout out to Keith Hampshire who sings that song. Excellent. And there's a base, since you do listen to Toronto, Mike, I can tell you,

you have to listen to Keith Hampshire because I get the details. I wanted to know everything about him recording OK Blue Jays. So it's all in that Keith Hampshire episode of Toronto Mike. I didn't know that. I only remember him, what was the song? The first cut is the deepest. Oh, and big time operator. Yes.

And another one. Dump, dumb, something. Yeah, he had that style. What was the big time operator? And there's another one just like that, oh, it's, I'm drawing a blank. Did he cover any Anne Murray songs? You know, but Anne Marie did cover her fair share of Beatles songs, as I recall. And I know she met, maybe at a Grammys or something,

she met John Lennon in the 70s who said he liked her version. I believe if I have that story right. Okay, so 1926, the Toronto May believes they clinched, their first international league pennant with a doubleheader sweep of the Bisons in Buffalo on September 12th. It was a Sunday. I need to know, like, how big a deal was this in Toronto

back in 1926 that we won? On the one hand, it was huge. On the other hand, you would think that because that meant they were going to the Little World Series, that fan interest would be over the top. But the first four games of the best of nine series were played in Toronto. and they drew like about an average of 4,000 or 5,000 fans a game.

It was a bit of a flop. So I'm at a bit of a loss to understand why. But I think, first of all, because the Leafs clinched so early, like they had to wait like about three weeks, almost four weeks before their season ended and Louisville's season ended so they could connect. And I think Toronto fans had made me moved on to other things and they were getting ready for the football season. Interesting.

And the other thing about Maple Leaf Stadium in its first year, two or even three, it was not easy to get to. The Handlin Point Stadium, ironically, was easier to get to. The TTC, which had only been formed in the like 1923, and it was changing the city dramatically at the time. But they had promised a streetcar route to run a long fleet street in front of the ballpark. Didn't happen in time for the first season.

So fans actually had to take the bathroom car to the end of bathroom street, walk over a wooden bridge over the railroad. tracks and then walk along the sidewalks for probably about maybe a little bit less than a kilometer to get to the ballpark. And it was a very industrial area. So the newspaper accounts at the time suggested it didn't smell the greatest. Well, the molting. Yeah.

They kept that building, but that, yeah, there was a lot of industrial buildings there. Yeah. Yeah. So the Leafs actually didn't draw as well as Loll Solman had hoped, not only in the, in the, in the playoffs, but in the season altogether for its first year. By the second season, things are. beginning to change a little bit. More and more people had cars so they could drive to get there.

But I always found that interesting that the Little World Series, which would have been a huge event, drew so poorly. When did they realize, hey, best of nines are too long. Best of sevens are better? That's a very good question. I think it was shortly after. It was a very short-lived experience. If only the Blue Jays had played a Best of Nine series last year,

maybe we would have had a parade. Well, now you're reminding me of I'm still haunted by the fact that in 1984, the ALCS was a best of five. And then, yeah, and then we were up, yeah. And we were up, you know, three to one, right? Yep. And that means we should have been on our way to our first world series back in 85. But alas, we lost in seven.

You know, Jim Sundberg, yeah, for sure. But George Brett, we should have walked that SOB early and often. That guy was just red hot. George Brett that year, Dion Sanders, the year of the year, the Blue Jays played the Brave in the World Series, and Lenny Dykstra, who hit that huge home run before Joe Carter's home run in game six.

Like those are three guys, the Blue Jays just could not get out, get out. And yeah, why throw anything near the strike zone? I feel like it wasn't in vogue back then. Like maybe there was a bit more of a code at play or something. When Barry Bond starts hitting everything,

you get in the strike zone, that's when it became, hey, you know, we don't have to pitch this guy. Well, and I mean, that's for another episode, the whole corporatization of the game with all these Ivy Leaguers coming into Major League front offices and using analytics, which I still believe have improved the game. But yeah, I don't know in 1985 whether Bobby Cox said to the troops, don't give George Brett anything to hit. I would think it would be understood. But I guess a lot depends on the situation too and runners on base and everything else. and yeah, Brett was on fire that series.

Unbelievable. Okay, so back to 1926 for a moment here. So for some reason, Toronto, and you mentioned some good factors at play there, but we don't come out to support our Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club when they play that, what you call the Little World Series. For some reason, I think it was called the Junior World Series,

but you're the expert, not me. My publisher is. Somebody's got that detail. right. But the, we don't, we don't come out in support. Maybe, maybe it was tougher. I don't know, everybody was reading the same newspapers and maybe it was tough to get the word out. I don't know, but maybe it was just like moved on to Argonauts or something like that, maybe.

Argonauts, varsity, football was huge in those days too, and I just, I can't help but wonder if that's what happened. Okay, so, please, we need a spoiler here. What is the final result in that best of not? nine series. The Leafs swept Louisville five games, and that was five games straight, and that was the first time it had ever happened at any level of baseball. Five games sweep. Well, you'll never have that happen again.

Yeah, and do you know what? I'm not sure the Louisville players were, uh, were, did they show up? They showed up with their golf clubs. And so they had actually, I think after the third game, they'd planned on, on, golfing the next morning, and their manager was so upset that he, uh, ordered workouts. So some were going to go to Niagara Falls. as well and do some sightseeing.

So maybe just winning their respective leagues, that was, you know, especially knocking off the Orioles. That was a huge accomplishment. They were a juggernaut. Yeah. So maybe this was, you know, kind of anticlimactic for both teams. Okay, so do they get a big parade? They get nothing.

They, there was a... Is it too late? It's 100th anniversary. Maybe we give them a parade now. I don't imagine any of the members of the team would be available. but yeah. Maybe someone's like 140. No, you're right.

No one's around. You're right. Somebody, I think it was W.A. Hewitt, father of foster, who wrote in the Toronto Star about Rogers Ornsby of St. Louis getting a car after the Cardinals won the World Series that year. And the Blue Jays got a hearty commendation, I think. And while we're on this, I know you like this story.

Yeah, yeah. The 1926 World Series. Yeah. Not to be going down to too many rabbit holes here, but this is one of my favorite stories of all time. Do you know how the 1926 World Series ended? I don't know offhand. Babe Ruth was thrown out trying to steal second.

And you don't really think of Babe Ruth as being a base stealer. He was maybe Vladdy Guerrero fast, kind of sneaky fast. But when reporters asked Ruth, so Ruth had walked with two out in the ninth inning of game seven of the World Series, and he's thrown out trying to steal second, and the reporter's asked him why, and he said, because I wasn't doing any fucking good standing on first base. Wow. First of all,

we'll forgive him because I think it's the next season that he hits his 27 homers or whatever. 60. Okay, yeah. I just remember as a kid reading a book about Babe Ruth, and I remember he had one season he had more home runs and the rest of the American League combined or something. And of course,

we know Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run in Toronto. Providence Gray's. Yes. In Hanlon's point. And then as I learned from, Harvey soccer, not his only home run in Toronto. I think a lot of casual baseball fans know he hit his first professional home run, but they don't know that he had, he went on to,

he would hit another home run in Toronto in his career. And it wasn't in 1926, but the Yankees did come for an exhibition game that year. Ruth played first base and he only managed a couple of singles, but what really, but there was another time he came back and went deep. I think multiple trips for Babe Ruth, exhibition games in Toronto. What really impressed me about that time in 1926 is apparently the Yankees train was held up for quite a long time afterwards. Oh, I thought held up by a robber. No, by Babe, by Babe Ruth certainly had his fault.

But he loved kids, he loved people, he loved the game. Larger than life, Babe Ruth. Wow. Okay. I don't want you to be driving home thinking, oh, my God, he played me off, you know, after whatever we've gone, 70-something. minutes and I didn't get a chance to say XYZ. Is there anything else that you wanted to share on your Toronto mic debut

before I say, and that? Do you know what? Like I said, Toronto has a rich baseball history and I was so thankful that I was able to share even just a tiny slice of it one year of it with you and with baseball fans. You should be very proud because you, you know, you wrote this book. I'm sure it's Is it in libraries yet?

Working on it. Actually, Cam Gordon mentioned this when you put out track changes. The minute it's in the library, it's gonna, like that's now a tangible thing that will, you know, live forever. You have documented in great detail the history of the 1926

Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club. 100 years ago, the timing here is perfect. I'm glad we could do this. I learned so much from the book. I learned even more from this conversation. And now in your bio, You can say, yeah, I'm on with Blake Murphy on the fan 590. But you know what else?

I'm an FOTM. It's going on the resume. Absolutely. I'll be checking your LinkedIn account later today to see if it's been updated. Mike, say, thanks so much for having me down to the basement. I've loved this. I loved it, too. Don't leave without your lasagna.

You got your measuring tape. You got your Toronto Maple Leaf's baseball history book. I'm surprised you didn't have a copy already. You're the kind of love that book. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. And that brings us to the end of our 1,881st show.

We couldn't wait for episode 1926. We had to get this done, 1881. Go to tronomelmike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. Oh, it's almost another Keith Stein tie-in, but I'll explain it more. On May 21st, when I'm headlining at the Elma combo, I would love for you to come out and be there. Me on stage with Paul Schaefer, I mean Rob Pruse, Elma combo, May 21st, 2026.

Go to Toronto Mike.com, click Elmo gig at the top and buy a ticket or two or three. It's going to be a great time. They serve Great Lakes beer there. So much love to all who made this possible. That includes Great Lakes Brewery. Palma pasta. I'm going to the freezer to get Doug's lasagna. Nick Aienis, I'll see him Friday morning.

Recycle my electronics.ca. And of course, Ridley Funeral Home. there's a new theme song for Life's Undertaking. You're going to hear it in the next episode, and I'll explain why, but the next episode of Life's Undertaking, which we'll record next Wednesday. See you all tomorrow.

When lowest of the low returns, that's right, Ron Hawkins, Lawrence Nichols, back in the basement, talking about the 35th anniversary of Shakespeare, my butt!