“MILTON FANS LOVED BASEBALL”
From ‘Memories of Milton’, by Mel Robinson
https://www.miltonhistoricalsociety.ca/product/memories-of-milton/
For those interested in baseball, 1911 was a very poor year in this town. There was no special reason for this. There were good players who had a good experience in league play. Some of them were of outstanding ability. In 1909 the town had a team in the Halton-Wellington League. One of the players, Andy Kyle, had graduated to professional ball, at first with Toronto’s International League team – one step away from the major leagues. He was sold to Columbus, Ohio, another club playing Class AA ball. He went to spring training with that club in 1912, but by the end of the season was playing major league ball with the Cincinnati Reds.
Tray and Bert Lott were in town in 1911. Matt Telfer was working for the bank of Hamilton and was available as a pitcher. In Ryder the town had a good, reliable catcher. Nevertheless, no league team was organized, and no local league was formed. By the middle of June all that had been arranged was a couple of exhibition games with the Capitals of Toronto to be played on Coronation Day.
With no ball games scheduled for Civic Holiday, many local fans too the train to Toronto for the day to watch a doubleheader between Toronto and Newark at the old stadium at Hanlan’s Point, Toronto Island. Obviously, Milton fans were willing and able to support a good team.
Late in August, Milton defeated the Getty-Scott team from Galt by a score of 15 to 7. Tray Lott started the game on the mound but was pounded for seven runs in the fourth inning. Bert Lott took over at that time and shut the opposition off with no further runs. He apparently had everything going for him – speed, curves, over-hand, and underhand delivery, a spitter (legal) and a floater. Galt batters could not get to him at all.
In 1912 things started slowly again. At the end of May, the editor of The Champion complained that Georgetown and Acton had each organized a church league. For the season, but there was no promise of any baseball in this town. He also reported that Tray Lott would not be available. He was leaving for Cobalt where it was understood that he would obtain a position as a machinist on the condition that he would pitch for the town’s ball team. He pitched for Haileybury and had a good season before returning to Milton at the end of the season.
Interest in the baseball was revived in town about the middle of the June that year. Several young men were working for the Edwards Electric Co., a new industry in town. They manufactured electric motors and their young workers were interested in sports. That company organized a ball team, so did the P.L. Robertson Co. and another team was formed to represent the rest of the town. The three-team league had a good season.
On June 22, the motor factory team with a battery of Galloway and Sinclair beat the screw factory’s team whose battery was Edwards and Ryder. The score was 20-6. Robert Fleming was the umpire.
On July 6, the screw factory team lost another game. This time they were outscored by the town team, 25-9. A week later they bounced back to beat the motor company by a score of 17-15. Calder pitched and Durno caught for them in that game. Galloway pitched and Sinclair and Baker were the catchers for the motor factory’s team. The schedule was well tied up by the end of July when the screw factory team defeated the town team, 15-12. The battery for the town team was Kennedy and Roper. Calder and Durno went the distance again for the screw factory.
The teams were still in a close race in early September when Tray Lott returned to town form the north country. He resumed his work in the machine shop at P.L. Robertson’s and played with that company’s team in a doubleheader against the town team. With Lott pitching and Ryder catching they outclassed the town team 12-6 and 8-0. The motor company team forfeited its’ final game to the screw factory. The final standing was:
P. L. Robertson 5W 3L
Edwards Motor 4W 3L
Town 2W 3L
It had been an interesting series and proved to be a profitable one in the development of talent. The town was able to field a strong team in 1913 by using the players who had proven themselves to be capable performers in the series of local games for 1912. For the 1913 season the old Halton-Peel League was revived with teams from Acton, Georgetown, and Milton. The disastrous season of 1911 became an unpleasant memory.
