Inductee In An Instant
We go to London, Ontario for our next team inductee from the Canadian Baseball HOF
Not only do we go to London, Ontario but we head back to the 1800s on the calendar for this particular team—specifically 1877 and the 1877 LONDON TECUMSEH’S. Let’s get into it…
LONDON TECUMSEH’S
Formed: 1868 - by the merger of the Forest City Base Ball Club & London Base Ball Club
The team and ballpark (from 1877 onwards) were named after Shawnee Chief Tecumseh who fought with the British during The War of 1812.
During their inaugural season in 1868, they lost to the Woodstock Young Canadians by a score of…..89-46 in 5 hours. Woodstock then went on to beat the Guelph Maple Leafs in a relative pitchers’ duel, 36-29, to win the Canadian Silver Ball Championship.
During this time and through the early 1870s their main rival was the Guelph Maple Leafs. Here’s where it gets a bit interesting…Guelph’s main sponsor was a brewery owner named George Sleeman…who also owned the Woodstock Young Canadians. Which is bananas to think about but that’s how you ball in the 1800s I guess. The Leafs were the first team in Ontario to start paying for professional players in 1875. London didn’t wait too long and also joined the pro-paying ranks with their rather wealthy new owner named Jacob Englehart (oil refiner from Ohio & future VP of Imperial Oil) in 1875.
For the 1876 season, the Tecumseh’s joined the Canadian Association of Baseball and won the title against teams from Hamilton, Guelph, Kingston, and Toronto.
The International Association For Professional Baseball Players (International Association) was the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame team’s home for 1877. They battled teams from Rochester NY, Manchester NH, Columbus OH, Guelph ON, and Lynn MA, and won the league over the Pittsburgh (PA) Allegheny’s. This London Tecumseh championship would be Canada’s first title in an international league/event.
During the 1877 season, the team started playing at Tecumseh Park, which is now known as Labatt Memorial Park. It is the oldest continuous-use ballpark on the planet (1877 - present)
Two amazing notes - One for the London team and the other for the International Association overall and the Lynn squad specifically:
London had a star pitcher named Fred Goldsmith. Goldsmith is believed to be a co-inventor of the curveball. They were 14-4 over 193 IP during their championship season.
During the 1878 season, Bud Fowler pitched for Lynn. Fowler is the first known African-American player in organized baseball.
London’s 1878 season led to……folding and leaving the International Association. A new franchise came back to play in the International Association for the 1888 & 1889 seasons before folding another time. The Tecumseh’s came back in one more iteration while playing in the Michigan-Ontario Baseball League from 1919-25.
The 1877 London Tecumseh was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in Oct. 2021 while being inducted on Nov. 16, 2021.
Thank you for checking in today. That will be a wrap and I’ll be talking with you in a while. Until then…KEEP IT 80 GRADE.
Sources, Resources & Additional Info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labatt_Park
https://baseballhalloffame.ca/hall-of-famer/1877-london-tecumsehs/
https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-1877-international-association-championship-game/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Tecumsehs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Association_for_Professional_Base_Ball_Players
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=491cfa3f
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Fowler