TheMontreal Royals (French:Royaux de Montréal) were aminor league professionalbaseball team inMontreal, Quebec, during 1897–1917 and 1928–1960. A member of theInternational League, the Royals were the topfarm club (Class AAA) of theBrooklyn Dodgers from 1939; pioneeringAfrican-American playerJackie Robinson was a member for the 1946 season. The 1946 Royals were recognized as one of the100 greatest minor league teams of all time.^[3]

In 1928,George Stallings, a formerMajor League Baseball executive andSouthern United Statesplanter, formed a partnership with Montreal lawyer and politicianAthanase David and businessmanErnest Savard to resurrect the Montreal Royals. Among the team's other local affluent notables were close friends Lucien Beauregard, Romeo Gauvreau, Hector H. Racine, andCharles E. Trudeau. Trudeau, businessman and father of the future 15thPrime Minister of Canada,Pierre Trudeau (and grandfather to the 23rd Prime Minister,Justin Trudeau), would remain on the Montreal Baseball Club Inc.Board of Directors until his death in 1935.^[4] Together these men financed and builtDelorimier Stadium(also known as Montreal Stadium, Hector Racine Stadium and Delorimier Downs) at Delorimier Avenue and Ontario Street in east-end Montreal to serve as the team's home field.^{[citation needed]}

This version of the Montreal Royals enjoyed great success, particularly after it became the top farm team of the Dodgers in 1939. The Royals launched the baseball careers ofSparky Anderson,Gene Mauch,Roberto Clemente and the man who brokeMajor League Baseball'scolor barrier with Montreal in 1946,Jackie Robinson. Other Royals' players of note includeDuke Snider,Don Drysdale,Chuck Connors,Walter Alston,Roy Campanella,Johnny Podres and the winningest pitcher in the history of the team,Tommy Lasorda.^[5]

The team holds a unique place in baseball history for being the first major-league affiliate to break the so-called"baseball colour barrier". On October 23, 1945, two members of the Brooklyn National League Baseball Club Inc. Board of Directors, Montreal Royals owner and team president, Hector Racine, and Brooklyn Dodgersgeneral manager,Branch Rickey, signedJackie Robinson, anAfrican-American.^[6][7] Robinson played with the Royals during the 1946 season. John Wright and Roy Partlow, black pitchers, also played with the Royals that year.^[8]

During that season, Robinson faced the race-related resistance from his manager (aMississippian,Clay Hopper) and teammates but soon won them over with his masterful play (beginning with his spectacular debut in the opening game against theJersey City Giants) and courage facing hostile crowds and opponents. As for his home city, he was welcomed immediately by the public, who followed his performance that season with intense adoration. For the rest of his life, Robinson remained grateful to the people ofMontreal for making the city a welcoming oasis for him and his wife during that difficult 1946 season. They lived in an apartment in a white, Francophone neighbourhood of Montreal that summer at 832 avenue de Gaspé.^[9][10]

Robinson then left to play for the Dodgers the following year, but not before winning theLittle World Series and being chased by exultant Montreal fans right to the train as he left. InKen Burns' documentary filmBaseball, the narrator quotes Sam Maltin, a sports journalist with the Montreal Herald: "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."^{[citation needed]}

The Royals continued through the 1960 season, two years after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. On September 13, 1960, Dodgers PresidentWalter O'Malley announced that due to weak attendance, the Dodgers were ending their 21-year affiliation with the team. While a new affiliation with theMinnesota Twins was arranged, efforts to keep the team in Montreal failed, and the franchise was relocated toSyracuse, New York, for 1961, and became theSyracuse Chiefs. Montreal would gain anMLB team, theExpos, in 1969; "Royals" was suggested as a nickname for that team but was taken instead by the newAmerican League club in Kansas City.^{[citation needed]}

The Royals won theGovernors' Cup, the championship of the IL, 7 times, and played in the championship series 11 times.

First Awarded in 1953

First Awarded in 1950.

Given to the player who leads the league in Home Runs, Runs Batted In, and Batting Average

• Charles Mayer – French language radio broadcaster^[12][13]

• William Brown (foreword byKen Singleton):Baseball's Fabulous Montreal Royals (1996) Robert Davies Publishing, 1996 –ISBN 1-895854-64-4

• Montreal Royals
• Baseball teams established in 1897
• Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1960
• Defunct International League teams
• Brooklyn Dodgers minor league affiliates
• Los Angeles Dodgers minor league affiliates
• Philadelphia Athletics minor league affiliates
• Pittsburgh Pirates minor league affiliates
• Defunct baseball teams in Canada
• Baseball teams in Montreal
• Syracuse Mets
• 1897 establishments in Quebec
• 1917 disestablishments in Quebec
• 1928 establishments in Quebec
• 1960 disestablishments in Quebec
• Baseball teams disestablished in 1960
• Ontario–Quebec–Vermont League teams

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing French-language text
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022
• Articles with unsourced statements from March 2019