UTM’s (unexpected) place in Canadian baseball history
Looking back at the 1981 SABR conference at Erindale campus.
When I heard the story that one of baseball’s most important organizations had picked the former Erindale College to host its biggest event of the year in 1981, I was immediately intrigued. After all, at that time, the campus was more of a glorified farm than a university, and it certainly didn’t seem fit to host anything as big as the Society for American Baseball Research’s (SABR) yearly conference.
“I mean, you’re asking me to recall something from 44 years ago,” chuckled Bill Humber, former Seneca professor, author of seven books on baseball history, and the only Canadian to serve on SABR’s board of directors, who had also attended the 1981 event. “Let’s just put it this way, it was a gradually urbanizing part of the GTA.”
While the setting of Erindale might not make sense for the current 7,194 members of the SABR, the quaint campus was ideal for the 147 attendees of 1981.
“I guess [SABR] had thought, ‘We need to expand our profile and research outside the United States.’ And we were pretty active in terms of baseball research, of course at Seneca, and so they approached us about holding their annual conference in 1981,” Humber explained. “That was the first time they ever left the United States to hold an event.”
And so, it was decided that the upcoming conference would be held in Toronto. But how did Humber and his team settle on Erindale campus?
“For our part we looked around to see where was the best place to hold the event and there were reasons to go to the University of Toronto,” said Humber. “It was the summer months and there were fewer people around and residences were available.”
Erindale campus had only opened its doors in 1967, just four years before SABR had hosted their first convention in Cooperstown, NY. While the campus began with a small group of 155 students, SABR’s 1971 conference had a mere 16 attendees. It almost seemed fitting that the two groups would find each other during their early teenage years.
Ironically, the man responsible for bringing them together had his own relationship with Erindale campus years before joining SABR.
“My wife went to Erindale actually and graduated in 1972. The trek out to Erindale, it was long, let’s just put it that way,” laughed Humber. “You had to get on a bus that took you into the wilds of Mississauga. I would go out occasionally to Erindale with her and enjoy the pleasures of, I won’t call it rural Ontario, but it was a mixture of farmland and gradually urbanizing space.”
The event itself was hailed as a great success. The 125 attendees was a record-high for the time. John Thorn, current Official Historian for MLB who attended an SABR conference for the first time at Erindale, wrote a feature piece for The Sporting News, claiming that despite three days of non-stop baseball, “no one went home feeling he had enough.”
Though the event is fondly remembered, it did not go without a slight controversy. According to the SABR website, Blue Jays broadcaster, Early Wynn, who was set to be the keynote speaker for the event, suddenly withdrew without explanation. Additionally, there was an ongoing MLB labour dispute, and so the 1981 event became the first – and only – event to not feature a baseball game as part of the program.
“The normal process of a SABR convention would be to go to a baseball game, and that would’ve been the intention, to go to where the Blue Jays play. But obviously we weren’t able to do that, so we played our own game on the grounds of the then-Erindale college!”
All these years later, Humber still looks back at his home stadium for the convention with fondness.
“It turned out to be a wonderful site for the event itself.”
Sports & Health Editor (Volume 51) — Joseph is a recent graduate from UTM, having double-majored in Professional Writing & Communication and Political Science. During his time at UTM, he played on the men’s hockey and soccer teams and was actively involved in the campus’ sports community. Joseph is a strong advocate for a healthy lifestyle, and hopes that as Sports & Health Editor he can encourage students to get involved in campus sports and activities.