It’s hard to imagine a time before the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) or Exhibition Stadium. It would be strange to picture going to Toronto and not seeing any Blue Jays hats on passers by, or lines out the doors of the Rogers Centre hours before the game starts. Toronto sport culture would seem incredibly dull without the Blue Jays, but in actuality, Toronto had a lively baseball scene long before anyone considered an MLB team existing in the heart of the city.
The Toronto Maple Leafs
The birth of professional baseball in Toronto started with The Toronto Maple Leafs (no, not the ones on ice!), which was a minor league baseball club that played in the International League. The Maple Leafs were established in 1895, playing out of Hanlan’s Point Stadium on Toronto Island, and later moving into their very own, Maple Leaf Stadium. In 1951, the club was purchased by Jack Kent Cooke who also owned the Washington Redskins and the LA Lakers. Cooke stirred popularity for baseball in Toronto, drawing over 3.3 million fans to Toronto Maple Leafs games over his 12-year ownership period. In 1952, the Leafs drew over 446,000 fans, beating many major league clubs’ attendance records for that year. 446,000 fans was almost half of Toronto’s population at the time! This popular Triple-A club would move to Louisville, Kentucky in 1967, but a new Toronto Maple Leafs team was founded that continues to play out of Christie Pitts in Toronto today as part of the Canadian Baseball League.
With the success of the Toronto Maple Leafs and many other amateur leagues, the love of baseball has long been ingrained in Toronto. The popularity of Canadian Major League Baseball was proven in Montreal with the Expos (founded in 1969), and the groundwork for professional baseball in Toronto had been laid. All that was needed was a team ready to play.
