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Baseball in Canada
A game in progress during the2017 Canada Games
Country	Canada
Governing body	Baseball Canada
National teams	Men's national team Women's national team
First played	Beachville, Ontario, 1838
Club competitions
Major League Baseball Minor League Baseball American Association of Independent Professional Baseball Frontier League
International competitions
Summer Olympics WBSC Premier12 Women's Baseball World Cup World Baseball Classic U-23 Baseball World Cup U-18 Baseball World Cup U-15 Baseball World Cup U-12 Baseball World Cup

Baseball in Canada is played at various levels throughout the country, including byMajor League Baseball'sToronto Blue Jays, founded in 1977 (Canada's first MLB team, theMontreal Expos, formed in 1969, relocated toWashington, D.C. in 2005) andMinor League Baseball'sVancouver Canadians, an affiliate of the Blue Jays competing in theHigh-ANorthwest League. There are also several teams that compete inindependent baseball leagues, such as theTrois-Rivières Aigles of theFrontier League and theWinnipeg Goldeyes of theAmerican Association.^[1]

Notable amateur leagues include theIntercounty Baseball League (Ontario),Ligue de Baseball Majeur du Québec (Quebec), and the collegiateWestern Canadian Baseball League (Alberta andSaskatchewan). There are additionally amateur-level baseball teams playing in each province in the summer months under the auspices ofBaseball Canada. Several American-basedsummer collegiate leagues have teams in Canada.

Adapted from the British game ofrounders—and by extension,cricket—the game ofbase ball or "townball" became popular in the early 19th century inSouthwestern Ontario (then Canada West orUpper Canada),New York andNew England.^[2] Originally, the rules of the game were informal in nature and often modified to reflect regional preferences.^[3]

InOntario, a variant of baseball known as "The Canadian Game" was most prevalent. It featured five bases, bats that resembled those used in cricket or rounders and eleven players per team. All eleven players went to bat eachinning, which would not end until they were all retired.^[4]

The American variant of baseball had nine players a side instead of eleven, and four bases instead of five. Southwestern Ontario was the first region in Canada to adopt this version of the game, doing so in1860.^[5] The so-called "Canadian Game" soon fell out of favour.

University of Western Ontario professorBob Barney researched the oldest verified baseball game played in Canada, based on a letter from Dr. Adam E. Ford ofDenver, Colorado, formerly ofSt. Marys, Ontario, andBeachville, Ontario, to the editor ofSporting Life, published on May 5, 1886. In the letter, Ford described in detail a game he witnessed on June 4, 1838—Militia Muster Day, played inBeachville, Ontario.^[6][7] Barney verified the names of participants and descriptions of the field; by researching tax forms, census records, maps, church records, and tombstones, and found that all of the participants and details in Ford's letter were correct.^[7][8][9] TheJournal of Sport History published Barney's findings in 1988.^[6] The Canadian claim to the oldest verified baseball game was subsequently recognized by theCanadian Baseball Hall of Fame, and theNational Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum inCooperstown, New York.^[9]

By the 1880s black Canadians were barred from playing in white professional leagues, butEmancipation Day black vs white matches provided an opportunity for black teams to shine, such as when the Northern Stars trounced a white team in Edmonton.^[10]

By 1891, academicGoldwin Smith described baseball as overtakingcricket in Canada due to its much shorter playing duration and lack of specialized turf requirements.^[11]

Barney opined that following theAmerican Revolution, settlers in Southwestern Ontario brought their recreational activities.^[6] Ted Spencer, curator of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and historian Tom Heitz, noted that records exist of earlier bat and ball games played in the United States thatevolved into baseball, and agreed that American settlers in Canada likely brought the game with them.^[8]

Rather than competing nationally in an east–west fashion, local baseball clubs would instead compete with theirAmerican neighbours to the south. This meant that teams from theMaritimes played teams fromNew England, teams fromQuebec played against teams fromNew York and teams fromBritish Columbia competed with those fromWashington.^[5]

TheLondon Tecumsehs ofLondon, Ontario, were charter members of the International Association and won its first championship in 1877, beating thePittsburgh Alleghenies.^[12]

The first Canadian to appear in aMajor League game wasBill Phillips, who played forCleveland. In his first game on May 1, 1879, theSaint John, New Brunswick native went hitless, although managed to get three hits the next game. In his second season, in1880, he became the first Canadian to hit ahome run in the Majors.^[5]

By 1913, there were 24minor league baseball teams in Canada, a number which has been unequalled since.^[5]

Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run on Canadian soil on September 5, 1914, at the formerHanlan's Point Stadium onCentre Island inToronto. Ruth was playing for theProvidence Grays against theToronto Maple Leafs baseball team of theInternational League.^[2]In 1985, the City of Toronto erected a small plaque to denote the location, but it is difficult to locate, given the parklike setting and remote nature of theToronto Islands.

In 1946,Brooklyn Dodgers general managerBranch Rickey assigned new-signingJackie Robinson to theMontreal Royals of theInternational League, Brooklyn's Triple-A farm team. Robinson would famously go on to breakMajor League Baseball's colour barrier the following year in 1947, but during his season in Montreal Robinson led the Royals to theGovernors' Cup, the IL championship, and became a beloved figure in the city. InKen Burns' documentary filmBaseball, the narrator quotes Sam Maltin, a stringer for the Pittsburgh Courier: "It was probably the only day in history that a black man ran from a white mob with love instead of lynching on its mind."

Following Robinson's breaching of the colour barrier, in the 1950s many other players from the decliningNegro leagues travelled north to play in Canada, including Hall of FamersLeon Day,Satchel Paige andWillie Wells, who like many other African-American players competed in theMandak League.^[13][14]

In 1957, formerCincinnati Reds andPhiladelphia Phillies outfielderGlen Gorbous, a native ofDrumheller,Alberta set the current world record for longest throw of a baseball at 445 feet 10 inches (135.89 m) inOmaha, Nebraska.

The first Canadian in theNational Baseball Hall of Fame wasFerguson Jenkins, a right-handed pitcher who compiled a 284–226 record, 3.34 ERA and 3,192 strikeouts in 19 seasons from 1965 to 1983 with thePhiladelphia Phillies,Chicago Cubs,Texas Rangers, andBoston Red Sox. Jenkins is one of theBlack Aces, a group ofAfrican American pitchers with at least 20 wins in a single major-league season^[15] (although Jenkins is actually aBlack Canadian, not African American). In 2020,Larry Walker became the second Canadian inducted into the Hall of Fame. Walker played right field for theMontreal Expos,Colorado Rockies, andSt. Louis Cardinals from 1989 to 2005, winning the National League MVP in 1997 with the Rockies.

The London Tecumsehs were refused admission to the National League in 1877 because they refused to stop playing exhibition games against local teams. While baseball is widely played in Canada, the American major leagues did not include a Canadian team until 1969, when theMontreal Expos joined theNational League. The team enjoyed a widespread following until about1994, when the Expos were in first place in theNL East; after the strike shortened year, a series of poor management decisions, disputes with the city, and neglect by the ownership caused the Expos to be routinely last in MLB attendance.

In 1977, theToronto Blue Jays joined theAmerican League. They later became the first Canadian-based team to win theWorld Series, winning back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993.^[2]

In 1993, besides the two Canadian major league clubs, Canada hosted four Triple-A teams (theCalgary Cannons,Edmonton Trappers,Ottawa Lynx andVancouver Canadians), one Double-A team (theLondon Tigers), two Class A Short Season teams (theSt. Catharines Blue Jays andWelland Pirates) and two rookie-level teams (theLethbridge Mounties andMedicine Hat Blue Jays).

In 2003 an attempt to create theCanadian Baseball League was launched, but the league folded halfway through its first season.

In 2004, the Expos, then owned by MLB itself, moved to Washington, D.C., and became theWashington Nationals, leaving theToronto Blue Jays as the only remaining Canadian MLB team.

In the 2010s, the sport experienced a surge of popularity.^{[16][17][18][19]}

The governing body of baseball in Canada isBaseball Canada, which is based inOttawa and was founded in 1964. Baseball Canada is a member of theCanadian Olympic Committee and theInternational Baseball Federation.

The Canadian national baseball team represents Canada in international competitions. Since 1970, the team has participated in 17Baseball World Cups. Canada earned thebronze medal in the2009 Baseball World Cup, their highest finish in the history of the competition. In the2004 Summer Olympics they placed fourth, losing the game for 3rd place toJapan and, in 2008, they finished fifth. In four appearances so far at theWorld Baseball Classic, the team has not finished higher than 9th place. The national team also won gold medals at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games.

After theMontreal Expos were relocated toWashington, D.C., only one Canadian team plays inMajor League Baseball, theToronto Blue Jays. Among theMinor League Baseball system, a collection ofminor leagues that hold a formal relationship with Major League Baseball, only one is based in Canada, theVancouver Canadians. The Vancouver Canadians are presently affiliate of the Blue Jays, and play in theNorthwest League at the High-A level.

Several other Canada-based teams play in low-tier Americanindependent circuits, including theAmerican Association of Independent Professional Baseball, and theFrontier League.^[20]

Canada has produced some successful players in Major League Baseball.Ferguson Jenkins andLarry Walker are currently the only Canadians in theNational Baseball Hall of Fame. The following table lists other achievements earned by Canadian baseball players.

• Baseball awards#Canada
• Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
• List of baseball teams in Canada
• List of Major League Baseball players from Canada
• Pearson Cup

• Historica-Dominion Institute – Sports in Canada: Baseball

• Baseball in Canada

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