Chapter One: Strange Place for a Diamond It was one of the most unique professional baseball venues ever. Anywhere. And it was in Toronto. Called the Motordrome, it was a motorcycle and bicycle racing track on Greenwood Avenue, north of Queen Street East. For a brief time, it was pencilled in as the regular home of the Toronto Beavers of the Class B Canadian League. Construction on the Motordrome began in mid-March of 1914. In early May, it was regarded as "more than probable" that the Beavers would play their home games at the new stadium. In the meantime, the Motordrome was nearing completion.
The Globe praised the facility for its "superb accommodation for spectators." Only the diamond itself "requires considerable rolling and scraping, but it can easily be made into the best ballpark in this country." According to plan, the bicycle track of the stadium was pitched at a fifteen-degree angle. Surrounding and adjacent to it was a quarter-mile motorcycle track, which was to have a sixty-degree pitch. That''s steep, more vertical than horizontal. To put that into perspective, the steepest portion of Talladega Superspeedway is pitched at thirty-three degrees. The stands were positioned just above the motorcycle track. Seats in the lowest row of the stands were close to the top of the actual track.
Very close. Similar facilities existed elsewhere, in Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Cleveland, among other cities. Toronto''s Motordrome was to have a capacity of 5,000. The motorcycle races were dangerous for riders and spectators alike. In 1912, at the Newark Motordrome, a rider lost control of his bike and flew over the rail and into the stands. Eight people were killed. The track was soon closed and demolished.
Toronto''s Motordrome was in the city''s east end. Local baseball fans were weary of having to take a ferry to and from Island Stadium to see the International League Maple Leafs (yes, the city was home to two pro baseball teams in 1914). Getting to the Motordrome would be much faster than getting to Island Stadium. If only there could be baseball at the Motordrome. Space was certainly not a problem, since the infield of the Motordrome was big enough to hold a baseball field. During the winter of 191314, there was speculation that Toronto would be granted a franchise in the new Federal League (FL). A "rebel" third major league, the FL eyed Toronto with interest. The league''s president came to Toronto to gauge the viability of a Toronto club.
No fewer than five Leafs jumped to the FL that winter: third baseman Bill Bradley, catcher Drummond Brown, shortstop Ed Holly, pitcher Bert Maxwell, and outfielder Benny Meyer. Bradley, Holly, and Maxwell had all been regulars on the 1913 team. Ultimately, the FL decided against coming to Toronto. One of the reasons was the lack of a suitable ballpark. Island Stadium was unpopular because of its remote location. The Motordrome was an alternative, but was it viable as a regular baseball venue? The FL would be competing with the Beavers and racing promoters for popular dates, like weekends and holidays. This problem would be mitigated somewhat by lights, which were part of the plan and would facilitate night racing. For some reason, the idea of playing baseball under those same lights was not seriously considered.
The Canadian League was in its fourth year of operation in 1914 and had been upgraded from Class C to Class B during the off-season. The Toronto Beavers and Erie Yankees were newcomers to the eight-team league, re-placing the Berlin (now Kitchener) Busy Bees and Guelph Maple Leafs, respectively. A Toronto syndicate had bought the Berlin club for $3,000. In mid-May, it was announced that the Beavers would begin their home schedule on the island and later move to the Motordrome. A few days later, the Cleveland Motordrome was closed permanently because of an accident that had occurred that very day. Five people were injured when a collision caused a rider and his bike to be thrown over the guardrail and into the crowd. There had been multiple fatal accidents at the track the previous year. A panoramic photo of the new stadium was published in the Toronto Sunday World less than a week before the first day of racing.
The structure completely dominates the image. There is a massive latticework of exposed wood beams. The stands encircle the track completely. Looking at the photo, it is easy to imagine the Motordrome as a baseball stadium. From afar, the stadium looked like a giant saucer. Ontario premier James Whitney and some 2,500 fans watched the Beavers win their home opener 65 against Ottawa in late May. The game was played at Island Stadium, since the Motordrome was not ready yet. Three presidents attended: James Norris of the Beavers, J.
P. Fitzgerald of the Canadian League, and J.J. McCaffery of the International League (IL). Alex Graham, a product of Toronto sandlot ball who had been recently cut by the Leafs, pitched a complete game for the Beavers. It was great to finally be home. The Beavers had started their regular season with sixteen road games, of which they won seven. The Beavers finally made their Motordrome debut on June 13 against St.
Thomas. It was the first time in several years that a Toronto pro baseball game had been played on the mainland. The attendance was 1,542. Alex Graham started on the mound again. He allowed a pair of runs in the top of the first but threw shutout ball the rest of the way. Unfortunately for Graham and the Beavers, St. Thomas hurler Roy Wilkinson was even better and kept the Beavers off the score sheet entirely. St.
Thomas won 20. Wilkinson went on to spend two full seasons and parts of three others in the big leagues. His pro career spanned twenty years. Graham, on the other hand, pitched in the minors for just three seasons. A week later, the Beavers returned to the racing track. They scored in six straight innings and defeated first-place London by a score of 105. Charlie Isaacs, a local lad, hit a triple and had four hits overall. Bobby Auld, another Torontonian, was the winning pitcher.
Auld went the distance for the Beavers. The Beavers defeated Erie 97 at the Motordrome on June 27. Second baseman George Ort led Toronto with three hits. Ort, thirty-two, was near the end of an eleven-year pro career. In 1909, he played in 202 games for Portland of the Pacific Coast League. That league was well known at the time for having long schedules. The condition of the Motordrome playing surface forced the Beavers to relocate some of their home games to Island Stadium. Their next home game at the racing track was not until August 8, when they were defeated 63 by Erie.
Teenage pitcher Emilio Palmero entered the game in relief for the Beavers. The nineteen-year-old Cuban southpaw pitched for both of Toronto''s pro teams in 1914: the Beavers and the Maple Leafs. Palmero had a long, successful pro career. He won twenty-eight games for Omaha in the Class A Western League in 1920. By the time he retired, in 1931, he had notched over 200 wins. Palmero and five position players share the honour of playing for the Beavers at the Motordrome and the Leafs at Island Stadium. The quintet were outfielders Irvin Trout, John Sullivan, and Charles Kroy, and infielders Charlie Isaacs and Charlie Snell. The Beavers were, effectively, a farm team for the Leafs.
Three Beavers players made an unscheduled appearance at police court on the first Sunday of September. Pitcher Bobby Auld, second baseman George Ort, and catcher Pat Harkins were found guilty of using profane language during a game the previous day. They were fined a combined twenty-one dollars. Ort was reportedly suspended for the remainder of the season. This was presumably a symbolic gesture more than anything else. The Beavers had just one game left to play. This was not George Ort''s first brush with the authorities. In early August of 1911, while playing for Seattle in the Northwestern League, he went berserk during a game against Spokane.
Ort hit the umpire, Jake Baumgarten, with a baseball. He then felled Baumgarten with a single punch. The ump was knocked unconscious. Three policemen escorted Ort from the diamond. Ort was initially suspended indefinitely while the league figured out what to do with him. Some wanted him banned for the rest of the season. Ultimately, Ort was suspended for just over a week without pay and fined $50. In all, his behaviour cost him about $100, equivalent to roughly $3,000 today.
For a minor leaguer, that''s not chump change. As a condition of Ort''s reinstatement, he remained on probation. If he behaved himself, he would be eligible to play. The next year, 1912, saw Ort playing for a team in the upstart United States Baseball League (USBL). This organization should not be confused with the United States League, an African American loop that existed briefly in the mid-1940s. The USBL was in operation for less than two months before it collapsed. Ort, playing for the USBL club in Cleveland, had a memorable afternoon early in the season. Ort hit a home run and three doubles in a 138 victory at home against a team called the Chicago Green Sox.
That is as many home runs as he hit in his full season with the.