Early years
The first Toronto club played in the Canadian League in 1885, and left the next season to join the original International League (also called the International Association), where it played from 1886-1890. Sunlight Park was built for the team and opened on May 22, 1886, with Toronto defeating Rochester 10-3 in front of 3,000 fans. Toronto won the pennant in 1887, behind 33-game-winner Cannonball Crane, who also led the team in hitting with a .438 batting average. The league folded in July 1890.
In 1895, Toronto resurfaced in the original Eastern League. The team changed its name to the Maple Leafs in 1896, and continued in the Eastern League (which in 1902 was designated Class A, one level below Major League Baseball) through 1911. The club relocated to Albany, New York for part of the 1896 season, but started and finished the year in Toronto. In 1897, the team began playing its home games at Hanlan's Point Stadium. Led by Ed Barrow—who was also co-owner— the Leafs won the International League pennant in 1902 with a record of 85-42. Joe Kelley guided the team to the championship in 1912.
In 1912, minor league baseball was reorganized and a new top level classification, AA, was created. The Eastern League moved up to AA and changed its name to become the International League. The Maple Leafs continued as members of the International League for the next 55 years, with the league being reclassified as AAA in 1946.
Nap Lajoie and his .380 batting average helped lead the Maple Leafs to another championship in 1917. Manager Dapper Dan Howley first joined the team in 1918, leading the Leafs to the pennant that year. In 1926, the team moved to the new Maple Leaf Stadium, which would be their home for the next 42 seasons, and capped off the season with another championship. (The following year, the National Hockey League franchise, the Toronto St. Patricks, changed their own nickname to Maple Leafs.) Ownership of the stadium passed to the Toronto Harbour Commission after the Maple Leafs fell into bankruptcy in the early 1930s.
The driving forces in the front office behind the team in its early years included James J. McCaffery, Lawrence "Lol" Solman, James A. Dunn, and George Oakley. Arthur Leman joined the club in an executive capacity in 1922. Oakley became president in May 1931 after Solman's death, with J.P. Bickell joining the board of directors at the same time. Dunn, vice-president and minority shareholder, died in August 1933, and Oakley, the majority owner, passed away in December 1934, following a championship season for the Leafs, led by manager Ike Boone.
Gardiner and Ross keep the Leafs in Toronto
After George Oakley's death, his son Cliff Oakley succeeded him as team president. Following the 1936 season, Oakley publicly commented that baseball was in trouble in Toronto and that something would have to change. A few months later, he and general manager Leman were approached by Joe Cambria, former owner of the Albany Senators, who wanted to buy the team and move it to Albany, New York.
A group of local investors, headed by stockbroker Percy Gardiner and former lieutenant-governor of Ontario William Donald Ross, bought the Leafs in January 1937 to keep them in Toronto. Oakley immediately stepped down as president and was succeeded by Donald G. Ross, lawyer and son of William Donald Ross. Howley was brought back as manager, returning to the position he had held three times previously: in 1918, 1923-1926, and 1933.
The team lost a lot of money, and wasn't very successful on the field, drawing about 50,000 fans a year during a three-year stretch from 1939-1941 when the Leafs finished in eighth place each saeson. After several years controlling ownership passed to Peter Campbell, who died in 1949. Joe Ziegler then became general manager and is credited with turning the team's fortunes around.
Jack Kent Cooke era
In July 1951, Jack Kent Cooke became the new owner of the Maple Leafs. Under his ownership, the Leafs were one of the flagship franchises of the IL, leading the league in attendance every year from 1952-1956. Over a 10-year span, the Maple Leafs drew 3.25 million spectators, peaking in 1952 with 446,040 fans in attendance. But the numbers were in decline after 1952, despite pennant-winning seasons under managers Luke Sewell in 1954, Bruno Betzel in 1956, and Dixie Walker in 1957.
The pennant-winning 1960 Leafs, a Cleveland affiliate, won 100 games and are listed as one of the top 100 minor league clubs of all time by Minorleaguebaseball.com. Despite the performance on the field, attendance figures barely improved over the previous season, when the Leafs had finished in eighth place. It was also in 1960 that Sparky Anderson first joined the team as a middle infielder. He went on to play with the Leafs until 1964 when he became the team manager.
Final years
Cooke sold the team in January 1964 to a syndicate led by Robert L. Hunter and Sam Starr. Former co-owner Gardiner returned to the Leafs as a director. Hunter and Starr launched a drive for community ownership, but attracted few investors.
In 1965 the Red Sox became the parent club and another future managing star, Dick Williams, took the Leafs' helm and led them to consecutive Governors' Cup titles in 1965 and 1966. Despite the championship season, the Leafs lost $168,000 in 1965. Gardiner wrote a personal cheque for $100,000 to cover the shortfall, with the balance being paid by other members of the board. Meanwhile, the deterioration of Maple Leaf Stadium, regular broadcasts of major league games on television, and other factors drove attendance down to only 67,000 in 1967.
On October 17, 1967 the directors of the International League approved the transfer of the Maple Leafs franchise to Louisville, Kentucky, where the team competed as the Louisville Colonels starting in 1968. After just five seasons, the team moved again, to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1973, where it continues to operate as the Pawtucket Red Sox.
In 1969, the year after the demise of the AAA Leafs, a new Toronto Maple Leafs began play as an amateur team belonging to the Ontario-only Intercounty Baseball League.
Championships
Toronto won the International League championship nine times: 1902, 1912, 1917, 1918, 1926, 1934, 1960, 1965, and 1966. The last four came after the introduction of the Governors' Cup, for which the Maple Leafs played in the championship series eight times:
* 1934 - Defeated Rochester
* 1943 - Lost to Syracuse
* 1955 - Lost to Rochester
* 1956 - Lost to Rochester
* 1958 - Lost to Montreal
* 1960 - Defeated Rochester
* 1965 - Defeated Columbus
* 1966 - Defeated Richmond
See also
* Toronto Maple Leafs (baseball)
* Toronto Blue Jays
References
* Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, editors. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 1997 edition. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America.
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