The Intercounty Baseball League has been a part of summer in Southern Ontario for 107 years now and for its 108th season in 2024, the league will again operate with eight teams.
The league has had its ups and downs over the years, but it continues to provide baseball fans with exciting action every summer.
The league began in 1919 with just four teams, Galt, Guelph, Stratford, and Kitchener. Despite a rocky start the Intercounty managed to survive its first season.
The rest, as they say, is history.
It's a long and rich history too. In the early years, the IBL expanded with London, Brantford, Preston, and St. Thomas joining at various times.
By the mid-1930s, the Intercounty had established a reputation as one of Ontario's best amateur leagues. In fact, when Stratford won the Ontario Baseball Association title in 1934, it was the League's fifth OBA title in a row.
The league survived the Second World War in good shape, even though many players joined the armed forces. After the war, the league became professional in everything but name.
The Intercounty was considered by the professional ranks as an "outlaw" league at that time. The bidding war for players was fierce, and many ex‑major league players came to Ontario looking for a few last baseball bucks.
So many came, in fact, that the League was considered on a par with many minor pro leagues. Great crowds came out to see the games, which were played under floodlights for the first time in the 1950s, and the senior league appointed its first commissioner, John Gillies, a London lawyer, and former pitcher in the League.
The late 1950s and early 1960s were a tough time for the League. Teams came in and dropped out, and in 1962 and 1963 only five teams were entered; the lowest ever.
But things got better in the 1960s, starting in 1964. It was that year when Stratford rejoined the League as the city went on to become one of the league's premier franchises. In 1969 the Inter‑County welcomed Toronto to the league for the first time on the heels of the folding of the International League's Toronto Maple Leafs.
Despite the competition from major league baseball coming to Canada, the Intercounty continued on. There were never fewer than eight teams in the league over the next two decades, and with Waterloo's return in 1978, the League was comprised of the same teams as in 1950. The growth hit a high point of 11 teams in 1979 when the Windsor Chiefs joined.
It took a lot of dedicated people to run the League in this time period. Two of them, long-time commissioner Reuben Halpern, who was in office from 1970 until 1986, and secretary Lorne Hamel were honoured by having the league's two divisions named after them in 1982. Hamel was the secretary from 1962 to 1997.
The League was down to six teams in 1998 however St. Thomas rejoined for the 2000 season followed by two expansion teams, the Barrie Baycats in 2001 and the Oshawa Dodgers in 2002, which brought the number of teams back up to nine. St. Thomas moved to Stratford in 2004 and the team was then moved to Mississauga for the 2008 season and operated as the Twins for two years before moving to Burlington in 2011. They were renamed as the Burlington Bandits in 2013.
The League also ventured into Eastern Ontario in 2010 with the admission of the Ottawa Fatcats, replacing the Oshawa Dodgers who suspended operations following the 2009 season. Ottawa dropped out following the 2012 season as the city chose to pursue a minor pro team for 2014.
The Intercounty remains Ontario's premier senior baseball League. Many outstanding former pro players play in the League, along with some of the best graduating juniors from across Ontario. Some teams also carry a couple of American imports.
Over the years such familiar names as Ferguson Jenkins, Chris Speier, Jesse Orosco, Mike Kilkenny, and Mike Gardiner have played in the IBL. But it isn't just former major leaguers who have thrilled fans.
Names like Arden Eddie, Bill Byckowski, Wayne Fenlon, Wray Upper, Dave Byers, Tom McKenzie, Larry Ellins, Wilmer Fields, Roman Kniginyzky, Kevin Higgins, Bob McKillop, Dan Collison, Alf Payne, Ron Stead, Doug Landreth, Neal Ambrose, Kurt Felker and Russ Brahms may not mean much to many baseball fans. But to followers of the IBL, they all bring back memories from the League's great history.
In 2006, the league was honoured to have an all-time great, Ron Stead, inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame followed by another grad and former Toronto Blue Jay, outfielder Rob Ducey in 2013 and in 2017, former player and manager, the late Jim Ridley, was inducted into the CBHOF.
It's a history that will continue, thanks to the dedication of those who run the league's nine teams in 2024.
