The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum () is a museum located in

St. Marys, Ontario St. Marys is a town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the north branch of the Thames River and Trout Creek southwest of Stratford, and is surrounded by the Township of Perth South in Perth County, Ontario. St. ...

, Canada. The museum commemorates the great players, teams, and events from Canadian baseball history.

History

The museum was founded in November 1982 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Exhibition Place Exhibition Place is a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The site includes exhibit, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments, ...

and later moved to

Ontario Place Ontario Place was an entertainment venue, event venue, and park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The venue is located on three artificial landscaped islands just off-shore in Lake Ontario, south of Exhibition Place, and southwest of Downtown Toron ...

theme park. In August 1994, it was awarded to

, and in June 1998 the doors officially opened in St. Marys. On November 23, 2017, construction began on a expansion to the museum, including a secure archive facility, library, new entrance, and auditorium/exhibition space. The re-designed museum opened to the public on April 27, 2019. The Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated to preserving Canada's

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

heritage which dates back to June 4, 1838, when a game which very closely resembled today's game of baseball was played in

Beachville, Ontario South-West Oxford is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within Oxford County. The township had a population of 7,664 in the 2016 Canadian census. A predominantly rural municipality, South-West Oxford was formed in 1975 throu ...

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

professor

Bob Barney Robert Knight Barney (born January 5, 1932) is an American academic and sports historian. A veteran of the United States Air Force during the United States in the Korean War, Korean conflict, he attended the University of New Mexico where he wa ...

wrote the historical study which advocated for relocating the hall of fame from Toronto to St. Marys, Ontario, and extensively researched and validated the Beachville game in 1838. In 2021,

Helen Callaghan Helen Callaghan Candaele St. Aubin (March 13, 1923 – December 8, 1992) was a left-handed center fielder who appeared in five seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), playing under the name Helen Callaghan.

, who had played in the

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...

(AAGPBL), became the first woman individually inducted to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame; the Hall had previously inducted, as a group in 1998, all Canadian women who played in the AAGPBL. In early 2022, the Hall of Fame was criticized for not inducting the Chatham Coloured All-Stars, the first team of

Black Canadians Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent. Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...

to win an Ontario Baseball Association title.

Awards

Since opening, over 160 individual members have been inducted into the hall. This includes professional and amateur players, builders, administrators, umpires, broadcasters, writers, and honorary members who have helped popularize the sport in Canada. Several teams or groups have also been inducted. Multiple members of the hall have also been inducted into the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United St ...

Cooperstown, New York Cooperstown is a village in and the county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in ...

, as players, managers, or executives. Several other inductees have been recipients of the

Ford C. Frick Award The Ford C. Frick Award is presented annually by the Baseball Hall of Fame in the United States to a broadcaster for "major contributions to baseball". It is named for Ford C. Frick, former commissioner of baseball. Prior to his career as an exe ...

BBWAA Career Excellence Award The BBWAA Career Excellence Award, formerly the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, is the highest award given by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). It is given "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing" and voted on annually by ...

. In addition, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame awards the

Tip O'Neill Award The Tip O'Neill Award is given annually to a Canadian baseball player who is "judged to have excelled in individual achievement and team contribution while adhering to the highest ideals of the game of baseball." The award was created by the Ca ...

annually to the Canadian baseball player "judged to have excelled in individual achievement and team contribution while adhering to the highest ideals of the game of baseball" and the

Jack Graney Award The Jack Graney Award is presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum to a member of the Canadian media for their contributions to the game of baseball in Canada. The award is not presented every year, but rather when the committee b ...

for Lifetime Media Achievement.

Facilities

The facility in St. Marys also includes four baseball fields designed by landscape architect Art Lierman of

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

Rules for nominations

# A player must be retired for at least three years. # Must receive 75 percent of the vote to be inducted. # If the person is not Canadian he must have done something significant with respect to baseball in Canada. # The person nominated will stay on the ballot for nine years as long as he receives a minimum of one vote every two years. # All information must be in by December 1 of the year to be eligible for the following year.Rules for Nominations
at baseballhalloffame.ca; URL accessed July 2, 2009

Inductees

Individuals

Groups

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canadian Baseball Hall Of Fame 1983 establishments in Ontario Awards established in 1983 Baseball museums and halls of fame * Canadian sports trophies and awards

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

Museums established in 1983 Museums in Perth County, Ontario Sports museums in Canada St. Marys, Ontario