Do you know the history of the Maple Leafs, the baseball team?

Did you know that Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run in Toronto, against the Maple Leafs, the baseball team?

On September 5, 1914, Rutha young 19-year-old pitcher for the Grays of Providence — the school club of Red Sox of Boston — walks to home plate at Boston Stadium Hanlan’s Point and hits a long ball into the right field stands.

The bullet is still missing more than 100 years later. THE Maple Leafs, as for them, have not completely disappeared: the team is today part of a semi-professional League.

Two teams with the same name

The hockey and baseball teams have shared the same name since 1927, when the hockey club’s co-owner, Conn Smythe, change the name of St. Patrick’s.

Mr. Smyth wanted to honor the Canadian soldiers who fought in the First World War. The maple leaf then appeared on their uniform.

The formation playing on the diamond is named Maple Leafs”,”text”:”Maple Leafs”}}”>Maple Leafs for the first time the year of its creation, in 1885. It subsequently became the Canucks from 1886 to 1890, went bankrupt, then returned five years later with the name Maple Leafs.

At the time, it was not uncommon to see two professional sports teams from the same City bear the name. HAS New York, the surname Giants”,”text”:”Giants”}}”>Giants designates the team of NFL and an MLB team. In Pittsburgh, two teams are called the Pirates

Championships in Toronto

From 1895 to 1967, the Maple Leafs of Toronto (in baseball) play in the International League. The professional league still exists to this day and represents a lower level of play than Major Baseball.

The Maple Leafs have won the International League championship 10 times, good for the third most titles in league history. Its last title dates back to 1966, a year before the hockey club’s last.

The team has always done relatively well on the pitchexplains the Toronto historian Jamie Bradburn.

The team’s peak occurred when Jack Kent Cooke became the owner in the 1950s, explains the historian. Media mogul Cooke redefines the game-day fan experience with promotions and celebrity guests.

For a few seasons, the Maple Leafs have bigger crowds than the two worst teams in MLB at the box office, the Browns of Saint-Louis and the Athletics from Philadelphia

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Cooke attempted to bring major league baseball to Toronto several times, but was unsuccessfulrecalls Jamie Bradburn.

As soon as he bought the club in 1951, Cook eliminated the organization’s segregation policies and acquired several black players. Some of them, like Elston Howardbecome MLB star players after their time in Toronto.

The club was crowned champion of the International League in 1960.

From a lacrosse field to the Toronto Islands

Throughout their history, the Maple Leafs played on a lacrosse field, in a stadium along the river Don and in another located in the current district Liberty Village, in front of a women’s prison.

Two playing fields, however, mark the Toronto imagination: the stadium of Hanlan’s Point, who belonged to the Toronto Ferry Companyand the stadium Maple Leaf, on the street Bathurst.

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The stadium of Hanlan’s Point, on the Toronto Islands, could accommodate more than 9,000 participants. One year after the debut of Maple Leafs on the field, however, the stadium goes up in flames. The team returned to a renovated arena in 1910 and in 1937 the island field was demolished to make way for the airport Billy Bishop.

THE Maple Leafs abandoned the Toronto Islands in 1926 for the new stadium on the corner of the street Bathurst and the boulevard Lake Shore West.

The new stadium near Lake Ontario can accommodate just over 23,000 fans. The field was the team’s home until their move in 1967. The stadium, which had become obsolete, was destroyed in 1968.

The City planned to build an indoor stadium to host the Olympic Games in 1976, but the plans fell through and instead the Montreal project received support from the Canadian Olympic Committee. A park and apartments now occupy the site of the old stadium Maple Leaf.

The departure of Jack Kent Cooke

At the beginning of the 60s, Jack Kent Cooke thanks to whom Maple Leafs were very successful, sells the team and becomes owner of the football team of Washington of the NFL. Washington wins three Super Bowl under his leadership.

Mr. Cook will also purchase during its life an expansion franchise of the NHL which will become the Kings from Los Angeles. Cooke also acquired the Lakers, in the same metropolis, in 1965; they will win the title of the NBA seven years later.

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THE Maple Leafsin baseball, move from one MLB club affiliation to another after the departure of Jack Kent Cooke. Over time, the team becomes less and less competitive on the diamond. The team was sold to an American businessman in 1967 and moved to Kentucky.

In 1969, the team name, logo and uniforms were adopted by a new team in the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL), a league with nine teams in Ontario.

THE Maple Leafs from Toronto IBL still exist and play their matches at the Dominico pitch at Christie Pits.