The first recorded game of baseball in Canada was in Beachville, southwestern Ontario, on 4 June 1838. [1] Rules were similar to "New York" (or "Knickerbocker") rules established in 1845 2] by which baseball is played today. Four infield bases, in addition to a home base, were used. Foul lines were also marked, indicating that a ball could be 'out of play.' Baseball grew from cricket which had no foul lines. In southwestern Ontario baseball was played in the villages and was typically associated with the working-class.
In Saint John, New Brunswick, baseball had been played informally in the 1840s, but it was not until 1853 that the city organized its first club, the Saint John Baseball Club. [3] For fifteen years impromptu games were played in Saint John using a mixture of New York and Massachusetts rules, the latter of which were based heavily on the game of rounders. By the early 1870s New York rules became the standard for teams across the Maritimes and New England. [4]
When baseball was brought to the Maritimes, it was played by young middle-class men as it was in New England during the 1850s. [5] It enabled middle-class youth who were about to enter adulthood and the workforce an opportunity to bond and socialize while engaging in "gentlemanly" competition. [6]
After 1870 baseball was played more frequently by the lower class in large urban centres such as Saint John and Moncton and soon outdistanced cricket in terms of widespread popularity. Meanwhile smaller mining and shipping communities like Springhill, Amherst, and Truro continued to regard baseball as an elitist sport and did not play it with much regularity until the turn of the century. In these smaller communities cricket remained the most popular organized team sport. [7]
People, back row, left-right: [unidentified]; Fraser, James E.; Blakney, George M.; [unidentified]; Porter, Bradford Jonathan. Middle row, left-right: Davison, Archibald; Gibson, Arthur M.; Morse, James. Front row, left-right: Butler, Percy; Johnson, George Ray; Wathen, George A.
Mount Allison University Archives. Raymond Clare Archibald fonds, neg. 000 451. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
Baseball at Mount Allison emerged from these origins. In the 1860s the campus was an elite complex of three institutions in a working-class town. Sackville was a major ship-building centre between 1840 and 1880. Two iron and stove foundries established during the 19th century became major employers.
The first baseball game recorded at Mount Allison occurred in April 1878 [8] between the Academy and its affiliated Commercial College. A second game between the two was also recorded in The Argosy in May 1881. [9] The University had yet to start a baseball team. [10]
By 1884 baseball and cricket were played at both the Academy and University and there was peer pressure among the male students to join both clubs. William Seaman, a student at the University, remarked on this when he wrote to his father on 17 September 1884:
"A fellow has to go with the majority of the boys in anything they set up like Cricket, Baseball, etc. if he wants to get along well." [11]
Mount Allison University Archives. William Campbell collection, accession 8423/5. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives
On 27 September 1887 [12] the University team played the first game of a home-and-home series against St. Joseph's College, Memramcook, New Brunswick. Although Mount Allison lost this match, and the one played 11 days later [13], it was Mount Allison's first ever intercollegiate competition in any sport. The Mount A. squad also donned its new colours, "cardinal and old gold" [14], which had been adopted as the school's official colours two years earlier. [15] A rivalry between the two institutions in baseball grew, and the sport became more popular on campus.
In May 1888 a Ladies' College team was organized. They were known as the "Red Cap Nine" and consisted of eleven players. [16] An 1895 photograph [17] depicting Ladies' College baseball players (see below) is the only indication that women's baseball was played at Mount Allison until the beginning of the First World War.
At the turn of the century the University's main competitor continued to be St. Joseph's College. For example, in 1902 Mount Allison played two games against St. Joseph's, but lost 14-1 and 9-1. [18] A student from that time recalled, in an anniversary edition of The Argosy (9 March 1940):
"[Baseball] was the great event in the spring; it is at its best a truly splendid well-organized game. Mount Allison used to play home and home games with St. Joseph's and St. Joseph's always won. St. Joseph's was coached by a priest, who had been a famous ball player, and Mount Allison was always outclassed by them in baseball just as they were by us in football." [19]
People, left-right: Rowley, Mary Edna; Read, Anna L.; Wall, Jessie; Faulkner, Josephine; Murchie, Roberta Thompson; [unidentified]; Lewin, Bessie.
Mount Allison University Archives. Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/105. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
Mount Allison University Archives. Raymond Clare Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/6, unnumbered. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
In 1904, one year after baseball had been dropped for the season due to renewed interest in cricket [20], men's baseball fell under the direction of the Mount Allison Amateur Athletic Association [21], but the sport failed to grow. A dedicated baseball diamond was never built, and teams relied instead on a diamond that was marked out on the Athletic Field. [22]
Interclass games continued to be played at Mount Allison before [23] and, to a lesser extent, during the war years. [24] The University continued to play against local town teams [25] and St. Joseph's College [26] before the First World War. Intercollegiate matches against other institutions never materialized. Meanwhile, the Academy continued to compete against teams from the town during the war. [27]
Ironically, as participation in sports declined during the First World War, women's baseball at Mount Allison became more organized. In October 1915 baseball equipment for the women at the Ladies' College had been ordered. [28] Previously women had been playing with "improvised" balls and bats. [29] In October 1918 a game of baseball between the "New Girls" versus the "Old Girls" was recorded. [30] Unlike the men, who played baseball in the spring, women played in the autumn.
Mount Allison University Archives. Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/35. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
[1] Sport in Canada: a History, by Don Morrow and Kevin B. Wamsley, 2005, p. 105
[2] Concise History of Sport in Canada, by Don Morrow and Mary Keyes, p. 109
[3] Northern Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball, by Colin D. Howell, 1995, p. 23
[4] Northern Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball, by Colin D. Howell, 1995, p. 23
[5] Northern Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball, by Colin D. Howell, 1995, p. 16
[6] Northern Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball, by Colin D. Howell, 1995, p. 15
[7] Northern Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball, by Colin D. Howell, 1995, p. 33
[8] Argosy, vol. IV, no. 8, May 1878, "Sackvilliana," p. 93
[9] Argosy, vol. VII, no. 8, May 1881, "Sackvilliana," p. 93
[10] Argosy, vol. VII, no. 8, May 1881, "Sackvilliana," p. 93
[11] Mount Allison University Archives, William Seaman fonds, accession 9114/2/2
[12] Mount Allison University: A History, vol. I, 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, p. 193
[13] Argosy, vol. XVII, no. 2, Nov. 1887, [untitled], p. 18; Mount Allison University: A History, vol. I, 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, p. 193
[14] Mount Allison University: A History, vol. I, 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, p. 193
[15] Argosy, vol. XVIII, no. 2, Nov. 1888, [untitled], p. 1; Mount Allison Record, vol. XIII, no. 5, Jan. 1930, "Letter from the class of '88," by George F. Dawson, p. 81
[16] Argosy, vol. XVII, no. 8, May 1888, "Correspondence," p. 94
[17] Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/105
[18] Argosy, vol. XXVIII, no. 8, May 1902, "Athletics," p. 291
[19] Argosy, Mar. 9, 1940, "Forty Years Ago"
[20] Argosy, vol. XXIX, no. 8, May 1903, "Athletics," pp. 258-60
[21] Argosy, vol. XXIX, no 6, Mar. 1903, "Athletics," p. 191 (article says Athletic Association should take hold of baseball); [Sackville] Tribune, Apr. 21, 1904, p. 5 (article says Athletic Association elected baseball captain)
[22] Argosy, vol. XXXVI, no. 8, May 1910, "Athletics," p. 347
[23] Argosy, vol. XXXI, no. 7, Apr. 1905, "Athletics," pp. 254; Argosy, vol. XXXI, no. 8, May 1905, "Athletics," p. 311; [Sackville] Tribune, May 21, 1914, "Mt. Allison Closing Exercises," located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/12, p. 111
[24] Argosy, vol. XLIII, no. 7, May 1917, "Academy Athletics," p. 361
[25] Argosy, vol. XXXII, no. 7, May 1906, "Athletics," pp. 420-2
[26] Argosy, vol. XXXII, no. 7, May 1906, "Athletics," pp. 420-2; Argosy, vol. XXX, no. 8, May 1904, "Athletics," p. 249
[27] Argosy, vol. XLIII, no. 7, May 1917, "Academy Athletics," pp. 360-2
[28] Argosy, vol. XLII, no. 1, Oct. 1915, "Locals," & "Ladies' College," p. 71
[29] Argosy, vol. XLII, no. 1, Oct. 1915, "Locals," & "Ladies' College," p. 71
[30] Argosy, vol. XLV, no. 2, Dec. 1918, "Locals," p. 86