Trip down memory lane
Cape Breton Colliery League featured high-end talent, large crowds in 1930s
SYDNEY — The Cape Breton Colliery League may have only existed for three years at the semi-professional level, but the legacy paved a path for baseball on the island.
The league featured five teams from what was then known as industrial Cape Breton — Dominion Hawks, Glace Bay Miners, New Waterford Dodgers, Sydney Steel Citians and Sydney Mines Ramblers — and ran from 1937-39.
It provided many exciting moments for fans with players, both local and imported, participating in high-level action that kept spectators glued to their seats at Cape Breton ball parks.
LEAGUE BACKGROUND
The league began play in the class D category for the 1937 and 1938 seasons before becoming a class C league in 1939.
It served as an amateur league prior to 1937 when many of the players were local coal miners, who used the sport as a way to forget about their time underground.
In 1936, the teams voted unanimously to join the National Association for the 1937 season.
The new and improved league opened on June 7, 1937, with a game between Sydney Mines and Sydney, which drew an estimated crowd of 5,000. The games were well received by the community with 10,000 fans attending the first five games.
Teams began to recruit salaried players with some coming from the United States, in an attempt to make the league stronger and even more entertaining.
1937
In the inaugural season, Glace Bay, Sydney Mines and Sydney were the top three teams with the Miners finishing first overall with a 29-19 record, while Sydney Mines and Sydney had matching 27-21 records. Dominion (23-25) and New Waterford (14-34) rounded out the circuit.
Sydney and Sydney Mines met in in the first playoff round with Sydney sweeping the best-of-three series 2-0.
In the championship series, the Miners were the favourites having won the league pennant, but it was the Citians who would get the last laugh, knocking off Glace Bay 4-3 in the best-of-seven series to win the title.
Guido Panciera was the star for Sydney, setting league records with a .394 batting average, 80 hits and 48 RBIs during the campaign. Rex Wright also etched his name in the record books with 11 doubles.
1938
The level of play continued to improve in the league’s second season with Glace Bay, New Waterford, Sydney and Sydney Mines all in contention for the league’s pennant, while Dominion struggled to find the win column and disbanded midway through the campaign.
Glace Bay eventually captured its second regular season title, finishing with a 30-21 record, followed by Sydney (27-25), New Waterford (28-26), and Sydney Mines (25-27).
While the teams were competitive, the more impressive stat was the attendance numbers. Combined, the teams drew a whopping 77,874 fans during the three-and-a-halfmonth season.
Sydney’s attendance led the league with 21,628, followed closely by Glace Bay (19,986), New Waterford (17,759) and Sydney Mines (14,408).
Sydney’s title defence would have to go through New Waterford, and the Citians fell to the Dodgers 2-0 in the bestof-three series.
Glace Bay won the bestof-seven series in five games, shutting down New Waterford’s Gerard Kiley who had led the league in runs (41) and hits (63) during the season.
Ralph Bellrose and Lester Crabb were the Miners top players. Bellrose had a leagueleading .328 batting average, while Crabb drove in 41 runs with six home runs.
Glace Bay’s Roy Moore dominated on the mound, finishing the regular season with a league-leading 107 strikeouts and only a couple wins short of Sydney’s Merle Settlemire (13).
1939
The final season brought plenty of entertainment with Sydney, New Waterford and Glace Bay once again being competitive, while Sydney Mines (14-37) went through four managers — Fred Loftus, Al Blanche, Dave Barry and Bill Marshall.
Sydney would win its first and only pennant with a 36-20 record, while New Waterford ended the regular season with a 31-25 record. Glace Bay finished third with a 26-25 record.
New Waterford and Glace Bay battled in a best-of-three playoff series to determine who’d play Sydney in the championship series. The Dodgers took the series 2-1.
The Citians wouldn’t disappoint their fans, winning the best-of-seven series in four games to capture their second Colliery League championship.
Sydney was dominate in all aspects of the game. Abe Abramowitz won the league batting title with a .325 average and 42 RBIs, while Kiley — the former Dodger — tied with Walter Bracken of New Waterford with 40 runs.
On the mound, both Bernie Pearlman and Jim Mooney finished with 11 wins apiece for Sydney. Pearlman had a league-best 105 strikeouts and a 1.62 earned-run average.
Despite the play on the field, the league ran into financial troubles which ultimately caused it to cease operations. The Second World War and travel restrictions stopped the flow of American players, another factor in the shutdown.
MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYERS
The Colliery League featured many former Major League Baseball players, most of whom were in the last half of their careers.
Del Bissonette was a first baseman with Glace Bay in 1938 and he played with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1928-31 and 1933, while pitcher/outfielder Al Blanche suited up for Sydney Mines in 1939 and had dressed for the Boston Red Sox during the 1935-36 season.
Bill Chamberlain pitched for Glace Bay in 1938 and was a member of the 1932 Chicago White Sox, and Bill Marshall, an all-around infielder, joined Sydney Mines after playing with the Red Sox (1931) and Cincinnati Reds (1934).
Second baseman Freddie McGuire was part of the Glace Bay (1937), Dominion (1938) and New Waterford (1938) organizations. His major league career featured stints with the New York Giants (1922-23), Chicago Cubs (1928), and Red Sox (192931).
Sydney outfielder Charlie Small (1937) and pitcher Merle Settlemire (1938) both played for the Red Sox for one season. Small was with the historic franchise in 1930, while Settlemire was with the club in 1928.
Dominion outfielder Billy Zitzmann spent his MLB career with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1919) and Reds (1919 and 1925-29).
Meanwhile, three players went on to play in the big leagues following their time in Cape Breton including Sydney Mines’ Connie Creeden (Boston, 1943), New Waterford’s Len Merullo (Chicago Cubs, 1941-47), and Dominion’s Eddie Turchin (Cleveland, 1943).
SALARIES
Many of the import players were well-paid during their time in the Cape Breton Colliery League.
Del Bissonette was making $100 a week — a lot of money at that time — while Roy Moore and Bill Hunnefield were each making $75 a week.
Although some players were given bonuses for a high level of play, some didn’t try their hardest and refused to play more than four games in seven days.
At the time, the five baseball communities had a combined population of 110,000 which generated $50,000 in revenue through ticket sales — which at times was upwards of 30 cents a game.
During the 1938 season, one of the league’s club — which one was never made public — paid out $2,400 a week in salaries for the final three weeks of the campaign, despite the league having a $1,000 salary limit for 13 players.
It was estimated that the American players, in some cases, took home close to $40,000. Managers with major league experience earned around $300 a month.
TODAY
Although semi-professional baseball is no longer played in Cape Breton, the sport has been popular over the years.
There was a decrease in interest in the mid-2000s when soccer began to gain in popularity, but over the past 10 years programs have slowly grown in communities across the island.
Today, there are more than 10 minor baseball programs, not including Little League, stretching from New Waterford to Inverness, and Sydney to Port Hawkesbury.
Many teams play in the Baseball Nova Scotia Bluenose League, while the majority of house teams participate in Cape Breton league play.
The growth of the female game has spiked in recent years and Baseball Nova Scotia anticipates that interest to continue for years to come.