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.


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