Learn a little of Toronto's history as told through its plaques.

Toronto's First Professional Baseball Stadium 1886-1896

Photos by Alan L Brown - June, 2008

Attached to this building at 655 Queen Street East, west of Broadview Avenue, is a 1999 Heritage Toronto plaque. Here's the text:

"Sunlight Park" was constructed in 1886 as the Toronto Baseball Grounds. The smell of baked potatoes and cigars greeted fans filing in to the park through an avenue of workers' cottages called "Baseball Place". The stands, four storeys high and surrounded by a 4 m wooden fence, sat 2,250 paying customers. Admission was 25 cents. The grounds became known as Sunlight Park after William Hesketh Lever opened Sunlight Soap Works south of the park in 1893. Toronto won its first professional baseball title here on Saturday, September 17, 1897. The hero was rising superstar pitcher/outfielder Edward "Ned" Crane, nicknamed "Cannonball" for his long distance throwing feats. Over 17,000 fans witnessed the first two games against Newark, New Jersey to decide the International League champion. Crane pitched Toronto to a 15-5 win in the morning game and, to the delight of fans, pitched all of the second game (even though he severely sprained his ankle in the fourth). After hitting a base-clearing drive in the eighth to send the game to extra innings, he hit a home run in the eleventh to steal a 5-4 Toronto victory (the roar of the crowd was heard as far as Yonge and King). Crane returned to the park Sunday, with sore ankle and shoulder, and pitched Toronto to another victory (22-8). Today, Eastern Avenue cuts across the old infield of Sunlight Park. The site of the wooden structure lies just to the south of Queen Street, just to the south east of this plaque. Sunlight Park Road traces the the southern edge of the field. As Dr. Meyer puts it, "There is still something about the site of this first stadium that is magical, beyond the buzz of the city's traffic, beneath layers of concrete and years that have buried the old green field. It is still possible to stand here and imagine what it must have been like, what that crowd fifteen deep in the outfield must have felt, what it was to go home a winner."

Related Toronto plaque pages
Babe Ruth at Hanlan's Point
25 Years of Blue Jays Baseball 1977 2001

Plaque Location Co-ordinates: 43.658154 -79.351931

More Sports pages

Here are the comments for this page.

Posted August 23, 2010
I am thoroughly intrigued by History as a whole. I recently purchased a unit in the Ninety Condo that is to be built at 90 Broadview. Upon doing some research about this site I found out that it was formerly Sunlight Park. I am quite looking forward to residing on the grounds of this historic park and one of the reasons I purchased was because these grounds felt "magical" every time I walked on them! Toronto is such a great city!

Posted April 23, 2010
I walked by that plaque today and read it and the walked to the spot where the park once stood. The outfield now sells BMWs & the infield is condos. I'd rather have the stadium back.

Posted June 23, 2009
The plaque gives the date Toronto won the championship as Saturday, Sept. 17, 1897. The date doesn't make sense. The plaque's title says Sunlight Park closed a year earlier, in 1896. Also, Sept. 17, 1897 was not a Saturday. The game referred to probably took place in either 1892 or 1887, when Sept. 17 was a Saturday. Lastly, why would another game be played on Sunday when the championship was won the day before?
-Wayne

Posted June 11, 2008
If anyone would like me to come and speak to their group about Sunlight Park and the championship of 1887 and Ned Crane, please feel free to contact me at bmeyer@georgianc.on.ca. Best wishes, Dr. Bruce Meyer

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