Toronto Maple Leafs (former baseball team)
From Freepedia
The Toronto Maple Leafs were a high-level minor league baseball club located in Toronto, Ontario that played from 1896 to 1967. The first Toronto club - called the Canucks - played in the original International League (also called the International Association) from 1886-1890 and the original Eastern League in 1895. The team changed its name to the Maple Leafs in 1896, and continued in the Eastern circuit (which in 1902 was designated Class A, one level below Major League Baseball) through 1911.
In 1912, minor league baseball was reorganized and a new top level classification, AA, was created. The Eastern League moved up to AA and changed its name to become the modern International League. The Maple Leafs continued as members of the International League (reclassified as AAA in 1946) for the next 55 years. After the introduction of farm systems in the 1930s, the Maple Leafs were affiliated with major league teams such as the Philadelphia Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Braves and Boston Red Sox. The 1960 Leafs, a Cleveland affiliate, won 100 games and are considered one of the top 100 minor league clubs of all time by minorleaguebaseball.com The Leafs also spent many years as a successful independent franchise.
In the 1950s, under the ownership of Jack Kent Cooke, the baseball Leafs were one of the flagship franchises of the IL. They led the league in attendance every year from 1952-56 and Toronto was one of the eight member cities of a planned third major league, the Continental League, which hoped to begin play in 1961. But the CL never played an inning; meanwhile, the slow deterioration of the Toronto ballpark, Maple Leaf Stadium, built in 1926, the prevalence of television, and other factors drove down attendance to only 67,000 in 1967. Even playoff championship clubs in 1965-66, when the Red Sox operated the team, did not arrest the decline.
The Maple Leaf baseball franchise was transferred to Louisville, Kentucky in 1968, and then to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1973, where it continues to operate as a Red Sox affiliate.
In 1969, the year after the demise of the AAA Leafs, a new Toronto Maple Leafs began play as an amateur team belonging to the Ontario-only Intercounty Baseball League. The team continues to play at Christie Pits to this day. There is also a Toronto Maple Leafs National Hockey League franchise who may have been named after the original baseball team.
