[Craic] Reflections on spectator sports and the proposed to build a new baseball stadium in Toronto

[Rob Anderson]

Some thoughts with respect to building a brand new baseball stadium in Toronto or anywhere else for that matter.

1.  Professional Sports Venues

Cathal Kelly, sports columnist for The Globe & Mail, predicted a few years ago that professional sports in the future might not even need a live fan base in the stadia.  High resolution in the comfort of a favourite armchair would be the ticket.  Covid may have hustled along that forecast.  As well, it is not certain where spectator sports will land after this pandemic tsunami.

Before Covid when my wife and I still lived in Toronto, I passed our local sports bar and noticed at least 30 guys all huddled together.  Pitchers of beer on the table along with mountains of fries.  Were they watching hockey or baseball? No...they were divided into 2 large teams playing some kind of a competitive digital game.

Not that long ago, my grandfather was on a committee in 1950 that approved the building of an 8,000 seating capacity stadium for Aquinas, home to the Little Irish football team that represented our Basilian high school.  Through the 1950’s and even into the early 60’s, Aquinas played high school teams from Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo.  TV, of course took its toll on attendance by 1955, and by 1965 the stadium was demolished.  Horse tracks, bowling alleys, rodeos, and prize fights were also popular in my youth.  All gone with changing times and other interests.

Pro sports reliance on corporate season tickets and outrageously expensive box seats may not be so popular with the public in the future.  Citizens too may balk at financing these venues with what will inevitably be diminished municipal funds.  And will media advances create more thrilling experiences than can be had with in person attendance?

2.  The Future Fan Base for Spectator Sports

As for spectator sports fans, lukewarm interest from our son’s generation followed by zero interest from my 4 grandsons of the next generation.  It’s all computer gaming.  One guy has a modest interest in weight lifting.  Two other grandsons played water polo and also took up competitive biking for a while. Neither of their fathers watch any sports at all preferring to go kayaking or golfing in one case. The other son-in-law lifts weights but mostly heads up to build his cottage whenever he has time.  

The father-son bond with Hockey Night in Canada not to mention the long tradition that I enjoyed of generational male bonding over baseball has weakened.  In my case, I was fascinated by my grandfather’s stories about his going off to the Polo Grounds in NYC to see Christy Mathewson pitch.  He took me several times to Cooperstown to pay homage to the legends of baseball. When I took our son there, he was creeped out by all the American Boy Scouts who swarmed the place.  I tried him on baseball cards too, but that never took either.  Come to think of it, I still have his cards.  Maybe a Don Mattingly rookie card in mint condition is hiding somewhere in the basement.

My grandfather and I also went to countless Rochester Red Wing ball games. We walked several miles to and from the stadium.  One time we even saw Satchel Paige.  He must have been in his 50’s.  Gramp and I played “pitch” in front of the house on many summer evenings.  My pals and I were always rounding up guys for a ball game at the local diamond or on an almost daily basis in the cooler weather playing street football or street hockey or shooting hoops. 

Basketball was my favourite.  In those days, the Catholic grade schools even had teams.  In high school, I would go to the Aquinas football games in that aforementioned high school stadium built for 8,000 fans.  Rochester had an NBA franchise with the Rochester Royals and an AHL team with the Rochester Americans...NHL calibre hockey.  I went to many of those Amerk games and followed their fortunes with avid interest. Add to that my devotion to the Cleveland Browns, the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Chicago White Sox and, of course, Notre Dame football.  The Irish ended Oklahoma’s 49 game winning streak.  Wow! Over the moon when the Dodgers with Johnny Padres beat the Yanks in 1956 for the World Series title.  

When it came time to go to university, I wanted to go to Villanova or St. Bonaventure because I was a college BB fan, and these were my favourite teams.  At Bonaventure, I attended many college BB games, but I left the school before the arrival of Bob Lanier who took the team deep into the Madness.  No memories of sporting events in 1964-65 when I was in the Basilian novitiate. Wouldn’t you know, that was the year when Jimmy Brown led Cleveland to the championship.

How about collecting baseball and football cards in my pre-teens and graduating to betting on games starting with the NFL and baseball parley bets when quite young.  My buddies and I would make private bets as well.  My wager that Willie Mays would hit more homers than Mickey Mantle netted me $45 which Mr. Effinger, who drove us to many a ballgame, invested in a stock called Canadian Marconi.  Years later I found the certificate for 10 shares and sold it for $450.  That bet took my wife and I and the kids to Cape Cod for a week’s vacation!  Ah, the thrill of a sports bet!

So, playing sports and watching sports were warp and woof of childhood and even  through teenage years.  As an adult on to the Habs and the much beloved Expos not to mention the Jays, NFL, Match Madness and the NBA.

3. The Waning of Spectator Sports Magic

But the magic started to wane with too many games, too many expansion teams, loss of loyalty, too late and too long playoff seasons, catastrophic injuries, commercial saturation, Luke’s Troops for hockey, Don Cherry’s nasty commentary, military fly-byes and uber-patriotism.

Covid has taken even more stuffing out of the bird.  Options such as Netflix and YouTube serve up a daily distraction and are now an evening staple in many households. As for the gambling fix, I confess that I prefer following the market fortunes of Blackberry rather than considering a Giants-Packers wager

On to new immigrants.  I go over to the fields at our local universities, Wilfred Laurier and U of W, and I see them playing cricket or soccer.  Others are playing unique handball games. As I watched my grandsons’ water polo matches at WLU, the spectators’ gallery is loud with the sounds of people speaking Russian as so many of the parents are from Eastern Europe.  Who knew water polo was their game?

Hockey has now become a sport for well off kids from Toronto rather than from Northern Ontario.  Costs a fortune and cripples parents’ weekends.  Ask our friend with 3 avid young hockey players about that one.  A few years back, Nora and I went to a McDonald’s and overheard a personal coach “interviewing” a parent to determine whether or not he would work with his kid.  I bet that deal cost many, many thousands.  Forget hockey if you don’t have the bucks.

All said and done, spectator sports has been such a great part of my life.  How sad I was recently to see that Whitey Ford, Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson died.  I saw all three of them pitch brilliant games.  But what is it with our world?  Too much of everything, too bloated, too hyped!  And that “too much” syndrome has certainly infected pro sports.

Still, I sense a big loss with the 2 generations that are following the footsteps of those of us who grew up in the 40’s and 50’s.  Exciting sports moments crystallized in venerated memory.  Relationships forged over shared thrilling moments, esp at a live event with the winning runs on base, the launch of the Hail Mary pass or the overtime goal.

Thousand and thousands of villainous foes killed in video games played in solitary isolation of parents’ basements pales in comparison!

Even so, yet another corporate sports venue suggests some careful thinking about where our culture is headed in the 2020’s.  If big money and civic calculus deem it must be so despite the risks, a “baseball park” might well suit the temper of the times.

Bob