88 Years Ago Tomorrow……

This was a thread I started on Twitter…I thought I’d spare the intricacies of a series of tweets to write about what must have been the damnedest game that watched in had ever seen.

The year was 1934. The Ontario Baseball Amateur Association, lobbied hard by Archie Stirling, as good a candidate for induction to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame - Builder Category - as I have ever seen, campaigned for the inclusion in the provincial tournament of a team from his hometown, the Chatham Coloured All Stars.

Comprised entirely of African Canadian and American players, the Stars had developed a sizeable following in Southwestern Ontario in the early 1930s. Thanks largely to Stirling’s efforts, the Stars were permitted to take part in the playdowns in the Intermediate B category, provided they won the championship of their qualifying league, the Chatham City loop. The Stars won easily, and edged out teams from Sarnia, Welland, and Milton to reach the finals.

Their opponent in the Best of Three final was to be a team from the tiny (population 3000) Georgian Bay town of Penetanguishene. Penetang, as it was known to most, was led by their star pitcher, Phil Marchildon, a future big leaguer. The Penetang Rangers had advanced to the finals after victories over North Bay and Meaford.

Thanks to some bureaucratic foul ups, some poor September weather, and the five games it took for Penetang to beat out Meaford (the fourth game, a Penetang victory to tie the series at 1 win apiece, was protested by Meaford, adding to the time it took to complete the series), meant that the final series wouldn’t get started until after Thanksgiving - a time when baseball season in Ontario is long over.

Knowing that snow squalls could roll in off of Georgian Bay at any time, and turn the already soaked playing fields of the province into a quagmire, Penetanguishene offered Chatham $200 to play the whole series from October 15-17 in the North Simcoe town. Chatham, understandably wanting to play at least one game in front of their home fans, said no. Complicating matters was a potential conflict with the schedule of the local football side. The OBAA executive had to to get involved to solve matters, and it was decided game one would be played on Monday, October 15th in Penetang, and game two in Chatham on Thursday. A third game, if needed, would likely be played at a neutral site, as was the custom of the era.

Adding to the tensions between the two sides after that initial difficult set of negotiations over playing sites and dates, the Chatham club arrived in Penetang the day before the first game, hoping to book rooms in the Canada House, the only hotel in town. But the Canada House was not on par with the Pitt Hotel, where several of the Chatham players worked back home, and the team was forced to make the short (ten minutes) drive to neighbouring Midland, in order to book rooms at the Georgian Hotel. To some, perhaps this was a minor inconvenience, but it was anything but to the Chatham players after the long drive North.

On top of all of this, both teams must have been extremely tired at the end of a long season. The Stars were booked in many tournaments on top of their league play, as well as a slew of exhibition games. Penetang’s lineup was no doubt fatigued as well - many of their players played for the local rugby football side, and Marchildon himself had started at St Michael’s, a private high school in Toronto, on a football scholarship on Labour Day weekend. The businessmen of Penetang pooled their funds to send a car, usually driven by Phil’s dad Oliver, to pick him up from the city and transport him to their playoff games.

At any rate, game one promised to have a huge gate - Penetang had consistently drawn over 1000 fans to each of their playoff games at Beck’s Field, a former cow pasture on the edge of town. The mayors of both Midland and Penetang declared the afternoon of the first game a holiday (mayors had such powers back then), and by the time the game started, over 3000 fans had packed the tiny bleachers and benches, with many sitting on hay bales that had been placed down the right and left field lines for the North Bay series. This was easily the biggest crowd either team had played in front of.

Perhaps buoyed by that home crowd, Penetang scored a pair of runs in the home half of the 1st, aided by a couple of Chatham errors. But the visitors regained their composure, and committed to run early and often, a strategy that paid off in the top of the 4th, when Chatham star Flat Chase singled and stole 2nd. Marchildon, still relatively new to pitching at that point, was learning the art of holding runners on. Chase drove him to distraction, and when Marchildon wheeled around to try to pick him off, the throw arrived far ahead of the 2nd Baseman covering, and while the ball bounced into Centerfield, Chase raced around 3rd to score the Stars’ first run. They were to tie the game up the next inning.

The game remained tied at 2 after 9, so off to extras the two sides went. Chatham scored a pair in the top of the 10th to take a 4-2 lead, and the score stood up when Penetang was unable to mount any offence in the bottom half of the inning. Marchildon struck out 18 Chatham hitters on the day, but the Stars’ running game had paid off.

It is unknown how the Chatham team made the long drive to Penetang in those pre-400 series highway days. Local businessman Pete Gilbert had rounded up cars and provided the team with gas and meal money for their previous playoff rounds; there’s no record if he did so for the final, but one would assume he had contributed. The team also was ferried to some out of games in the back of an old flour mill truck, and perhaps that method was used to transport some of the club. For their part, Penetang travelled in style to Chatham; according to Bob Bald, son of the Rangers’ 1st Baseman, the Rangers drove to southwestern Ontario in “a Willys Overland, a Studebaker, and several Fords.”

To be continued………

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