Powers: Spero Leakos, the Commodore who kept ball alive, in Saskatoon

Hall of Famer Pat Gillick was there when Spero Leakos (Saskatoon, Sask.) was honoured and Gillick invited Leakos to Cooperstown for the 2011 induction ceremonies.

Spero Leakos And His Impact On Prairie Baseball

By Ned Powers

Canadian Baseball Network

Emile Francis once shared the thought that during the years from 1948 into the 1960s, “it was the best baseball they ever had on the Canadian Prairies ... major league scouts often told us we were playing the equivalent of double-A ball in the United States.”

Francis knew. He played and managed the North Battleford Beavers in Western Canadian semi-pro leagues from 1948 until 1960, often winning championships. Like many athletes in his day, he played baseball in the summer and pro hockey in the winter. His ability to lead men took him to the top in the National Hockey League where he won 393 games as a coach and served as general manager of New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues and Hartford Whalers.

Doug and Max Bentley were both National Hockey League scoring champions. They came from Delisle, just west of Saskatoon, and often, they would play 80 to 90 games in summer ball, often more games that they played in an NHL season. They knew. They were as good as most of the imports. One summer, they won 79 out of 80 games and 25 out of 26 tournaments.

Gordon Howe, one of the NHL’s greatest scorers, also knew baseball belonged on the Prairies. He could hit the ball a mile. But his career was limited. Jack Adams, GM of the Detroit Red Wings, knew in the 1950s that Howe was a franchise NHLer. In an opinion which many Prairie people considered very short-sighted, Adams banned Howe from playing competitive baseball or softball in the off-season. Howe loved both games but listened to his hockey boss.

Spero Leakos was good friends with Francis, the Bentleys and Howe, and he knew how good our game was. He grew up in a Saskatoon family, which supported sports. They owned the Commodore restaurant on Second Avenue and it became the favourite stopping place for all the travelling athletes, including the Pacific Coast teams which used to play in the Western Hockey League. Spero became the happy host to them all.

Because another Saskatoon restaurant owned the Gems semi-pro baseball team during the 1950s, Spero had to bide his time before introducing the Saskatoon Commodores. The 1961 team may have been Saskatoon’s best ever, with five of his American college players eventually making it into the major leagues.

Some of the riches which turned up on the Canadian Prairies, 1948 onwards, were the results of issues and influences across the border in the United States.

Jackie Robinson became the first black player to enter the majors in 1947 but, by and large, organized ball wasn’t accepting. Black players became barnstormers into Canada.

One of the leaders was George Ligon, from California, who brought the Coloured All-Stars to Saskatchewan in 1947. A landing spot was Indian Head. about an hour east of Regina. They changed the name of the team to the Indian Head Rockets, introduced a big money tournament with a $2,000 first prize which the Rockets often won. The team existed for seven years. Two of the players shared in history-making. Tom Alston became the first black to sign with St. Louis Cardinals, playing first base for them from 1954 until 1957.

Pumpsie Green became the first black to sign with Boston Red Sox in 1959 and later played for the New York Mets. One of the best athletes on the Rockets was Rollie Miles. He stayed in Canada, joined the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League starring from 1951 until 1961, winning all-star honours at three different positions and winning three Grey Cups.

Other American college players were also coming across the border to keep their games in shape. Ron Fairly turned up in Edmonton in 1953, Ron Perranoski in Lloydminster not long afterwards, and both made it into the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Roy Taylor brought a college team, California Mohawks, and soon their talent was in demand by the Prairie teams.

Perhaps the American black player, with the best major league credentials, was Don Buford, who played briefly with the North Battleford Beavers. He played nine years in the American League with Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles In Baltimore, he reached three straight American League finals and he won the World Series in 1970.

The Americans, in essence, made the Saskatchewan homegrowns better. Mike Dayne, from a small town called Hodgeville, didn’t quite make into the majors but the onetime North Battleford Beaver pitched 135 games in triple-A.

Dave Pagan, from an even smaller town named Snowden, reached the majors, including a pitching stint with the New York Yankees.

The best of all was Terry Puhl, from Melville, who played with the Houston Astros from 1977 until 1990 and had a lifetime batting average of .280.

So Spero Leakos watched and learned and when the chance to have his own semi-pro team, the Commodores, no one in Saskatchewan ever did it better. Using mostly American college talent, Spero built teams in 1961 and 1963 “that ran away and hid from the rest of the Western League.

Saskatoon still loved baseball and the great old Cairns Field facility, with 1,200 covered seats, in an Avenue A location. The college players came up, played 75-game schedules, with hardly a day off in the summer, and the major league teams saw as a feeder system.

Five players n the 1961 team were up in the majors within five summers. Catcher John Boccabella signed with the Chicago Cubs, then went on to the Montreal Expos and later San Francisco Giants, stretching it into a 10-year career.

Shortstop Ernie Fazio signed with Houston Astros and later played with Kansas City Royals.

Pitcher Dan Schneider took tuns with Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros over a five-year period.

Infielder Darrell Sutherland played with the New York Mets and Cleveland Indians.

It took infielder Tim Cullen a little longer to get there but from 1966 to 1971, he played mostly for the Washington Senators and got to bat 1,800 times in the bigs.

When the old Cairns Field closed, the new facility on a far-from-downtown location didn’t have the same drawing appeal. Spero stuck with the league for another season. After that, until the early 1970s, his team played in the North Saskatchewan League. Three times he took Saskatchewan teams into the national championships. Then he became a charter member of the Saskatoon Senior Baseball League. The city’s respect for Spero was that it named the primary field in his honour.

In Spero’s days, a rival on the field but a good friend off the field, was Pat Gillick, who pitched at three Alberta stops in the Western Canada League: Vulcan in 1956, Granum in 1957 and Edmonton the next year.

How did a pitcher for a visiting team become close friends with an executive from the other team?

“Easy, Spero kept his restaurant open after games, for visiting teams,” Gillick said from Birmingham. Mich. “He was a great baseball man and a wonderful friend who loved the game.”

Gillick later was general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, when they won back-to-back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993. He and Spero stayed in touch. When Spero decided to move away from Saskatoon in 2004, he was honoured him with a banquet. Gillick came to be the guest speaker, the year before he joined the Phillies.

When Gillick was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011 at Cooperstown, N.Y., he invited Spero and his wife, Georgia, to be his special guests at the ceremonies in Cooperstown. Spero had his picture taken with Robbie Alomar, Ferguson Jenkins, Tom Seaver and Yogi Berra, like he was visiting a Field of Dreams.

While growing up in Saskatoon, there were certain things that steered Spero towards being a sports jock, other things that led him into community involvement. He was only nine years old when his father, Steve, pulled off quite a coup on Oct. 30, 1937, when two National Hockey League teams, New York Rangers and New York Americans, played a doubleheader to open the new Saskatoon Arena.

Both teams ate their suppers in between games at the Commodore Café. Spero said his dad sponsored and travelled with teams and Spero would ride along in the car. When he reached Nutana Collegiate, he played basketball, baseball, soccer and participated in track and field. He was the senior watch in high school (similar to head boy in high school). He was beginning to fulfill the dreams his parents, Steve and Agatha had for him.

Life at the restaurant was a natural for him. Mostly in a front-end and manager’s role, he was there from 11:30 a.m. until after the supper hours, often indulged in sports after supper, and then closed the restaurant down at midnight.

Basketball may have been the game he played the best. He played in senior mens league, coached, sponsored and officiated. He coached senior mens softball before the baseball opportunities grew.

His brother, Jim, played a handful of sports and ultimately, found a love as a race horse owner, His sister, Evangeline, played senor women’s basketball with the Adilman Aces.

What stood out for Spero’s friends was the way he’d jump into something like it was a rescue mission – basketball, softball, baseball and hockey. For two years, he hooked up the Bentley brothers, Doug and Max, to save the Saskatoon Quaker junior hockey franchise. He helped save the Saskatoon Gems as a community-based semi-pro team until it finally became clear that the Commodores had to be his own special project.

When the family raised by Georgia and him, was growing up, they loved sports. His sons, Tom and Michael, played for the ball Cubs which Spero operated. One summer when his boys were playing, he ran a senor team and two teams on which the boys played. Another son, Steve, preferred track and field.

But the ultimate Spero story still had to do with baseball. Georgia grew up in Los Angeles, Spero would visit, and as Spero told it, “Georgia even got her engagement ring while we were on our way to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.” They were married for 57 years.

Spero died in Calgary at the age of 92 on March 6, 2020.

(Ned Powers joined the Saskatoon StarPhoenix in April 1953. One of the first people to welcome Ned was Spero. Ned spent 51 years with the StarPhoenix, first in sports, later as features and entertainment editor, and still later as a freelancer. He now lives in Kelowna, B.C.)