Reprinted with the permission of the Toronto Star.
This article appeared in the Jan. 22, 2008 edition of the Toronto Star.
East Enders returning to recall glory days
TheStar.com - Sports - East Enders returning to recall glory days
Players in Beaches league were once as famous as Leafs and Argos but the game died out 20 years ago
January 22, 2008
RICK MATSUMOTO
SPORTS REPORTER
On sweltering summer evenings, before air conditioners found their way into homes, there was no better way for East Enders, and especially softball fans, to cool off than to wander down to Kew Gardens and catch a Beaches Major Fastball League game.
That's how Ron Anderson was introduced to the league, which offered some of the finest softball action in North America for almost half a century before its last windmill pitch was thrown two decades ago.
"There was no air conditioning back then and there was nothing to keep you at home on a hot summer night," said Anderson, who played in the league for 20 years. "Dad always felt it was cooler down by the beach, so we'd go and throw a rug out on the field and watch the game.
"The outfielders would be 10 or 15 feet in front of us. Sometimes the ball would be hit past us and the outfielder would have to run by all the people to retrieve the ball."
Now, almost 70 years after he saw his first game and 50 years since playing in his first game, Anderson is organizing a reunion of former players, whose names were as well-known in the community as the pros who played for the Maple Leafs or the Argonauts.
The legendary Ted Reeve, a sports columnist and life-long Beaches resident when he wasn't toiling as a halfback with the Argonauts, would often chronicle the exploits of the Beaches Major Fastball League for The Telegram.
The reunion will take place at the Balmy Beach Canoe Club beginning at noon on Jan. 31.
Anderson, now 74, recalled that in the late 1940s, organizers of the league attempted to capitalize on its popularity by enclosing the field with a fence and charging admission. The idea struck out.
"They had to tear it down because people stopped going to the games," said Anderson. Once people got the idea, `Oh, you're going to charge me, I'm not going,' the crowds died."
After the league realized its error and removed the fence the crowds began to swell again.
Anderson, a gifted athlete who overcame a bout with polio as a child to also play pro hockey for Southampton in the British Ice Hockey Association, began playing in the Beaches league in 1954.
"I signed for $25 a game," he said. "I think it was a week's wages back then."
A swift centre fielder, he found himself playing alongside the likes of NHL stars such as Chicago Black Hawks' Al Dewsbury and Pete Conacher, who played with the New York Rangers and the Leafs.
Anderson was traded to a team sponsored by Swiss Chalet, which included Leafs' Sid Smith and Danny Lewicki. He recalled that Leaf star Frank Mahovlich was brought in, but such was the talent level that the Big M didn't make the team.
The forerunner of the Beaches Major Fastball League was the Kew Beach Softball League that was formed in 1919.
Originally, only players who lived east of Woodbine Ave. were eligible to play in the league, but eventually that stipulation was lifted and the league became one of the top fastball loops in North America.
Top pitchers were paid $100 to start and $50 just to be on the bench in case a reliever was needed.
Pitchers were even imported from the U.S. with renowned hurlers such as Charlie Justice and Percy McCracken coming north with inducements that were said to be as high as $1,000 a game.
Teams from the league entered tournaments around the country and internationally. In 1949 People Credit Jewellers won the world championship. Richmond Hill Dynes, led by pitcher Bob Domik, captured the same title in Manila in 1972.
By the mid-'70s, however, with the advent of air conditioners, major league sports on television and the arrival of the Blue Jays, softball faded into a recreational sport. A decade later it quietly died.
rmatsum@thestar.ca
