November 1, 2022

By Scott Langdon

Canadian Baseball Network

Tom McInnis, David Lee and some friends from elementary and high school decided to play a little pick-up baseball one Sunday morning in 1972. Fifty consecutive years later, with no organized league, no uniforms nor umpires, their games have become a little-known baseball institution in the west Toronto suburb of Etobicoke.

McInnis, 70, and Lee, 68, are among a handful of the original or long-time Sunday players still showing up at Tom Riley Park. They have adapted to the inevitable loss of players from injury, age or death by adding younger players to keep what is now known as Sunday Morning Baseball (SMB) going into its second half century. Today, players range in age from 29 to 74 years. More than 300 players have participated over the years.

“Some people go to the cottage on weekends. We play baseball. It’s just what we do,” explained long-time player George Archer, 70.

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One Sunday in the early years, McInnis was driving westbound on the Gardiner Expressway from downtown Toronto, trying to get to SMB on time. A taxi whizzed by and the passenger waved him over to the shoulder. Both cars were parked precariously on the side of the highway when the cab’s door opened and one of McInnis’ baseball teammates emerged with a full martini glass in hand.  “No sense taking two cars to the ballpark,” the teammate said as he deftly slid onto the front seat beside McInnis without spilling a drop.

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They have convened after games at the same Etobicoke bar, under different ownership and names, for 50 years.

“The banter, trash talk during the games and at the bar keep it fun and fresh. A lot of the guys hang out together away from baseball and are friends year around,” explained John Graham, 66, who has played for 44 years. “The game, the competition, the clutch hits, the chance to make the key hit, throw or catch to say you beat your buddies makes it worth coming back every Sunday.”

Lee says they played that first summer in 1972 on the ball field adjacent to Humber Valley Village elementary school, where many of them attended. They moved to larger Central Park (now Tom Riley Park) for the second season and have been there ever since.

“Royal York Baseball League – the Kingsway Baseball Association when we were kids – treats us almost like a member of the organization because we have been there so long. They include our Sunday games in their field scheduling,” Lee said.

Sometimes, though, they have moved to other parks to accommodate youth baseball tournaments, or to jump at the chance for an infrequent “road game”.

“We have played a couple of Sundays on the main field adjacent to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Marys, Ont., and a few times in beautiful ballparks in Guelph and Hamilton. We even played at Falcon Park in Auburn, New York. At the time it was one of the two or three oldest professional ballparks in the U.S. The Houston Astros had a farm team there. CBS Television Sports in Syracuse came out to cover our game and do on-field interviews,” Lee said, laughing at the memory.

During the first 20 years, the players would show up, throw their gloves on the pitching mound and pick ad hoc teams. But Richard Kent, the first “commissioner” of SMB and one of the original players, decided they needed a better way to settle arguments in the bar about who won each game and which team was the best.

He proclaimed they would play their own “World Series” every October or November before, or even during periods of snow and winter weather, if necessary. He, of course, would pick the teams which, some would claim, seemed decidedly stacked in his favor. The group recently completed their 30th consecutive fall classic.

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Richard Kent passed away in 2009. SMB players signed a new baseball at the cemetery and gently flipped it in alongside the coffin in a poignant and respectful show of affection and loss of their childhood friend and SMB commissioner.

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The World Series

Every October, it is now McInnis and Lee who draft teams from among the regular players to compete in their World Series. The games are fun, as always, but an undercurrent of competitiveness seeps into their play, unlike most games during the summer months.

They keep records, if only in their memory, and they inscribe the name of every player on the winning team on their World Series trophy that now stands about three feet tall.

McInnis, some might say suspiciously Kent-like, has now played on the winning team for five consecutive years. It is believed to be a SMB record.

“This year we went into extra innings and the final game was split over two Sundays at two different fields,” said Graham, one of many unofficial SMB historians. “First time that has happened in 30 years.”

“We have also had just one walk-off home run in the history of the World Series. That was in 1992,” he added.

The trophy, awarded at their annual, post-season, Sunday Morning Baseball Banquet, stands on a solid wooden base, but it is the aluminum cup attached to the top that holds historical significance for Lee.

“I was helping a friend move his mother out of her house years ago when I saw the trophy. She won it as a sales award at her job. We took it for our first World Series trophy,” Lee said, laughing.

The Rules

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“We had one new guy who started stealing second base. I told him ‘You can’t do that. It’s three-pitch with your own pitcher. Geezus, man’,” Lee laughed. “We named the rule after him”

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The rules of the baseball have been modified as the SMB players have aged and changed.

• Games start at 9 a.m. and after two hours either Lee or McInnis asks: “What inning is it?” The losing team picks. It could be the fifth, the seventh or whatever the losing team decides. It is a key rule, says Lee. “We wanna’ be sure to get to the bar by noon.”

• The pitcher becomes part of the defence once the ball is in play. He also takes on the umpire role responsible for making calls at first base and home plate. It can lead to some interesting calls…and on-field debates. Calls at other bases are based on consensus or what is obvious to somebody, somewhere, on either team.

• Anyone over 65 years of age gets a free pass to first base if he hits a ball that lands untouched on the outfield grass. Pinch runners are liberally allowed.

• Players under the age of 50 must use a wood bat. Older than that and aluminum bats are allowed. It’s all about trying to protect the pitcher who stands a mere 60 feet away from free-swinging adults trying to break the five-in-one-game home run record achieved by a handful of players over the years

• Tagging a runner is not required on a close play at the plate. The runner runs beside the base to avoid injury, which happened once many years ago. Kent’s brother-in-law, Seve, was carted off with a broken leg. It is the only serious injury in 50 years. He never played again.

• They have also added double-size bases to avoid collisions and injuries.

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As Bobby Hunter slid into second base the ball struck him in the face, shattering his glasses. A player rushed over, held up one finger and passed it back and forth in front of Hunter’s eyes to determine if he was seeing double. “I’m fine. I’m fine. What do you think you are, anyway, a brain surgeon?” Hunter asked, sarcastically. “Actually, the player responded,” I am”. He was.

Hunter, whose father, Robert L. Hunter, was co-owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the triple-A International League until the demise of the franchise in 1967, was a long-time Etobicoke ballplayer and popular Etobicoke Rangers coach and instructor. He passed away recently. A SMB player for many years, he is sadly missed by his fellow SMB players, but will be fondly remembered thanks to a long list of “hilarious Hunter stories.”

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The Banquet

They have wrapped up each season with a banquet, much like when they were kids. The year-end get togethers are a little different, however. It is Sunday Morning Baseball after all.

McInnis says the banquets have been held “for as long as I can remember,” but adds they used to be more raucous than today. In the early years, they would set up a portable ping pong table in the bar to add more friendly competition as they balanced beer glasses and chomped chicken wings.

They also formally present their World Series trophy and name the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year. Then they get creative.

“We had one guy who couldn’t remember outs and rules during the games. We presented him with the Hugh Downs Award one year,” McInnis recalled, chuckling. Hugh Downs was the popular, long-time host of the television game show, Concentration.

They also reward the Comedic Moment of the Season. Last year they gave the award to two teammates who ended up in a dust-up over adherence to the SMB rules. They diffused the tension, as always, with characteristic SMB humor and a commemoration of the situation.

A new post-season wrinkle is the Sunday Morning Baseball Hall of Fame inductions. Archer, who recently retired for health reasons, was the first inductee last year.

“We’re still working on the parameters for the Hall,” McInnis explained. “We’ll have a beer and think about it.” It is likely this will be the first season of posthumous inductions, acknowledging many of the original and long-time players who have passed

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A young man with a mental disability, who lived in a nearby apartment building, was at one time a regular SMB spectator. “We asked him to play one Sunday to even up the teams,” McInnis recalled. “He was so happy.” For two or three years after, McInnis would wave to the young man while driving home from work. “He stood on the street corner near my house pretty much every day. I don’t know if it was planned or coincidence. They were nice moments.”

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A second half century

McInnis, Lee and other long-time SMB players would like its traditions continued into a second half century, beginning next season.

Sons of the original players have been added to the roster along with softball players and some coaches from the Royal York Baseball League (RYBL). David House, 33, has been playing for four years. He drives to Etobicoke from his home in the Niagara Region every Sunday during the season.

“Sunday baseball is the highlight of my week,” House said. “I am very keen to continue the SMB tradition when some of the vets retire. A great group of lads, a beautiful diamond, solid banter and a couple cold pints post game. What more could a guy ask for?”

The RYBL would also support the continuation of the SMB tradition.

“Our league treats them as a member organization. We really think that providing the permit time for this group of players is extremely important to not only the players, but the community as a whole,” said Alan Waffle, past-President, RYBL.

The SMB players donate money to the League after every season. McInnis estimates the total is at least $10,000 over the years. The 2022 contribution was $1,100.00

“The League covers permit and insurance costs for SMB, but the money they give every year goes way beyond our costs,” Waffle said.

The Toronto sports scene is dominated by the Blue Jays, Maple Leafs, Raptors, Argonauts and others. With most of their games televised it would be understandable for people to think the professional game is sport. But Sunday Morning Baseball, for a half century, is also sport, played not for money but for the love of baseball, friendship, exercise, fun and a little October competition.

Waffle, recently inducted into the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame honouring his 27 years of support for youth baseball in Etobicoke, was asked if SMB should in some way be acknowledged by the Hall.

“Never thought of that,” he responded. “But a good suggestion.”