11 Play Ball 1877

All across Canada, on summer evenings, people come out to watch one of Canada's favourite sports-baseball. Every town, from the smallest to the largest, has a baseball field. Children as young as seven years of age join junior baseball teams. Some of them hope to be as good as Joe Carter one day.

When the British arrived in Canada, they brought the game of cricket with them. After some time, the Americans changed the game and called it baseball. Both cricket and baseball can take a long time to play, though. The longest game of baseball lasted 8 hours and 6 minutes. The game was started on May 8, 1984, but was stopped at midnight. The players and the fans who were watching the game had to come back the next day to see the end.

The first baseball diamond was built in London, Ontario, in 1877. Canadians had been playing baseball for about 40 years by then in fields and fairgrounds. When Tecumseh Park was built in London, they built a baseball diamond with 600 seats. The cost to come watch the baseball game was 25 cents. Today, that baseball diamond is the oldest baseball ground in the world.

People who go to baseball games like to eat food. They often eat hot dogs or popcorn and drink coke. Sellers move through the seats carrying food. They try to sell food to the fans like peanuts and chocolate. One owner of a baseball diamond would only hire short people to sell food. That way, all the fans could still see the game over the tops of the seller's heads.

In the beginning, baseball was played with a wooden bat and a ball that was quite soft. The ones who throw the ball are called pitchers. The ones who try to hit it are called batters. Today, pitchers throw the ball overhand. However, when baseball was first played in Canada, pitchers threw the ball underhand. When the batter hit the ball, it did not travel so fast. The ball was light, so it was not very difficult to catch it with just bare hands.

JOE CARTER'S HOME RUN WON THE BASEBALL WORLD SERIES FOR THE CANADIANS

Later, as baseballs got harder, and pitchers started throwing overhand, it became difficult to catch such a fast, hard ball. In 1957, a Canadian pitcher, called Glen Gorbous, threw a baseball 136 metres. He threw it so hard that it travelled at 120 MPH. Sometimes when players tried to catch these fast baseballs, they broke their fingers. One time, a player named Charles Waite wore a work glove to play a game of baseball to keep his fingers safe. All the people watching the baseball game laughed at him when they saw his glove. Some players thought it was a good idea though because many had hurt their hands. Some players started wearing gloves. Then they started putting pads inside the glove to better protect their fingers. Not long afterwards, the first baseball glove made of leather was used.

In 1903, the World Series championship was started. All the teams in North America could try to win the best team award. Canadian and American teams competed, but the Americans won year after year. It took Canada 89 years before The Blue Jays team finally won the World Series and took the award away from the Americans. The next year the Blue Jays did it again! This second win is probably the most famous in all of Canadian baseball history.

The Blue Jays wanted to show the American teams that they were good - very good. They wanted everyone to know that their win in 1992 wasn't just luck. In 1993, the Toronto Blue Jays from Canada and the Philadelphia Phillies from the USA were the top teams. They both had won the most baseball games that year. They both had one more game to play. The winner would take home the World Series award.

By the time the Blue Jays took their turn for the last time, the Philadelphia Phillies had 6 points, called runs. Six of the players on the Philadelphia team had run all the way around the baseball diamond. The Blue Jays had 5 runs. This was their last chance to try to get more runs and win the game. The Blue Jays needed two more runs to win the game.

Two Blue Jays players hit the ball when it was their turn, but they had not run all the way around the baseball diamond. They were waiting in the field. Then, Joe Carter came up to take his turn hitting the ball.

The pitcher threw his first ball, but it was low and Joe did not try to hit it. The second ball was high and Joe did not try to hit that one either. The third time the pitcher threw the ball it was right down the middle, but Joe did not try to swing his baseball bat. Because it was a good throw, Joe was given one strike. Trying to hit the ball and missing is called a strike. Not trying to hit a good throw is also called a strike. Two more strikes and Joe would be out of the game.

The next ball came in low, but Joe tried to hit it anyway. He missed and now he had two strikes. One more strike and he would be out. He would not be able to hit any more balls. His team could lose.

The pitcher threw the next ball at Joe. Joe hit the ball this time very hard, and it went a long way. No one from the other team could catch it because it had gone all the way out of the ballpark. Joe and the other players waiting in the field ran around the diamond. The Blue Jays had eight runs. The Blue Jays had won the World Series! This was only the second time in history that the World Series had been won because a player hit the ball and sent it all the way out of the ballpark. The Blue Jays fans and Joe all went crazy with happiness.

Joe Carter was added to the Canadian baseball hall of fame. It is like an honours list where very good baseball players are remembered. Joe Carter became a Canadian baseball hero that day.