Father Martins' League

   On March 1, 1936 the Canadian-American League was founded as an eight club baseball league. The league could have easily been called the New York-Ontario League. The State of New York got 3 clubs (Ogdensburg, Oswego and Watertown) and the Province of Ontario got 3 clubs (Brockville, Ottawa and Perth). The league qualified as a Class "C" League. The league only ever had 2 teams that did not come from that territory (Quebec City and Pittsfield, Massachusetts).

   The league opened play on May 20 and very quickly things got interesting in this league. One of the more interesting things involved the Watertown Club. Starting on June 24, the club played a series of neutral site games in the City of Massena. On June 30 club business manager William Buckley announced that the team was transferring to Massena permenantly. On July 12, the club returned to Watertown for a series of neutral site games and announced on July 16 the club was returning to Watertown for the rest of the season. Buckley saved himself a lot of paperwork but never submitting to the National Association the paper work for their approval of the first move. The team did move in the offseason to another city as the league added 2 more clubs for the 1937 season. On August 22, 1937 the league saw its first no-hitter when Leo Pukas of Ogdensburg pitched a 9-0 gem against Ottawa. Pukas was in the second year of a 5 year run with the league. The league would see a total of 13 no-hitters.

  On July 7, 1941 the league had its first All-Star Game, when the North beat the South by a score of 11-5 at Utica, New York. Even though half of the leagues clubs played in Canada, the fact that Canada was an active ally in World War II the league was able to play on. After the league struggled through the 1942 season, league officials were forced to suspend operations for the remainer of the war. After coming back after the war the league played on for six more seasons until it was pressured into folding after the 1951 season. The league had as its president through most of its history a Catholic priest Father Martin.

    The answer to yesterday trivia question is the country of Finland won the bronze metal for mens hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, when the defeated Slovakia by a score of 5-3. Todays trivia question is on June 15, 1938 Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds pitched a no-hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers just 4 days after pitching one against the Boston Braves. Vander Meer is the only pitcher to date to pitch consective no-hitters in the Major Leagues. How many no-hitters were pitched between Vander Meers no-hitters in all of professional baseball? The answer in tomorrows daily blog about two historical NBA games.