Blake Constable and Ken Tupling
October 8
Length: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Talking about baseball in Bradford West Gwillimbury.
Interviewer is believed to be Joe Saint. His name is never explicitly stated but for this transcript he
will be referred to as Joe Saint.
Kens talking about his baseball experience. They had a minor team and Ken coached it to
help out. Mike (last name is not given) went on to play in a bigger league and then scout and
apprentice. He eventually went on to play in the big leagues for Toronto. Mike went on to play for
the Detroit Tigers. Asks what diamond they played on in town, but is not answered. They stop
talking about the story for a minute to offer changing of seating because of sunlight coming into the
room. Get back to baseball by bringing up Frank Hill and say he was a great guy and active curler.
Frank had a sister Margret. She was married just north of Woodstock. They met up with her at a
reunion and her grandson from her first marriage (her first husband died) has been signed by a big
league baseball team. They say he is still young and may never make it to the big leagues but Margret
was excited for him still. Interviewer brings it back to local baseball by asking where they played in
town. The speaker is quiet and I am unable to interpret the name of the diamond (2:47). Discuss the
diamond further and remark that there were lights there. Mike is brought up again and that he was a
good player. Keith Kilkenny was Mike's grandfather. As a kid Blake can remember Keith pitching
for Bradford against Churchill and the league at that time was Bradford and Churchill and for sure it
expanded to two different leagues, one was Stroud and they can't remember the other one. Later
Keith was still pitching for Bradford and there was a league that was composed of Bradford,
Churchill, Aurora, Newmarket, and Richmond Hill. And that was in roughly 32 or 33. Blake remarks
that he can remember it over Ken because he is older and Ken did not come to the area until 1945.
Ken remarks he was unaware of that but that Mr. Kilkenny still played when he got there. Blake
comments back that Mr. Kilkenny played a long time and that Blake himself played for 25 years.
This is giving them a better history that ties into other things. Joe says this ties into the history of the
hardball league that was mentioned earlier.
Earliest record of Baseball is the Newton Robinson Clippers who played in 1888 and they
were Lloyd Colborne. Lloyd used to catch for them and they were a hard ball team and Lloyd did
not use a glove. Lloyd played for a long time in Newton Robinson and Cookstown. They all say that
Lloyd was a great guy, but he was the father of the Lloyd that they all knew. Lloyd was talking about
it to Sara. There was hardball around when Blake and Ken played and they think it was around the
same time that Blake left Churchill. Blake explains that Churchill was not doing so well so he left
and they tried hardball. They think that it was the same era. There was a hardball team in Angus,
Evers. Evers was a hardball town. There was a community of Knock that had a hardball team and
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Blake gave historical speeches there. Knock is in the geographic middle of Innisfil. Ken had never
heard of Knock. Beeton and Alliston had hardball teams. Beeton was only hardball. Bradford would
play hardball with Alliston.
Joe asks what created the interest in hardball. From the point of view of Ken he says that
there was already a softball interest when he came to town in 1945 and it started to bloom then. The
baseball interested had wained through the depression but through the early thirties and when
World War Two was breaking out baseball was gaining support. However, it recessed again because
so many big farm communities had a lot of the boys called to service and the ones that stayed were
needed on the farm. This meant that it backed up again until about 1944 and there was a different
feeling then. From 1945-1950 there was no television or distractions and in one game between
Fennell's Corners and Cookstown to decide who would go to the playoffs made the headline of the
paper. There were about a thousand people watching the game and it was a community event. It had
to do with a depressing time with people having to deal with the war and loss of friends and family.
It was a new way and there was a big rivalry between teams and the people knew all the players. Joe
talks about how in current times when you go to see the Bradford hockey team you don't know the
people playing, but when you went back then you knew the people playing.
Abe Brown owned a farm and was Tom's father. He was at every game in Bradford and
Fennell's. It was his past time and he would talk to old Herb Sr. Mount Pleasant had a team in a
league at one point and they would get a good crowd to show. People from Bradford would go see
games in Churchill or Fennell's Corners. Art Kneeshaw played for Mount Pleasant before coming to
play for Bradford. The guy that runs the Christmas Tree farm Doug Drysdale is related through
marriage to Ery Merary (spelling of that name is likely wrong was at 11:30 of the tape) and he played
ball at Mount Pleasant in the summer.
Blake and Ken talk about how many memories they have of playing baseball. A man playing
catcher would play in a sleeveless shirt with no glove or mask and with a cigarette in his mouth.
Blake's brother named Mac could hit very well. All of the brothers had nicknames for one another.
Most of them played ball but some that were not very good did not continue to play. The oldest
brother gave nicknames to all the younger ones and they did not all make sense. One of the best
hitters in the league was the brother Jack. He was strong and quick which made him a good batter.
Bill Mcholm played pro hockey but also played for Newmarket as a pitcher and was a left handed
hitter and did well. Blake has artifacts from 1936-1960 and has it because his sister in-law was a fan
and if she was not at the game she would take all the clippings out of the newspaper about the game.
The Bradford Witness did not write good articles on the games but the Barrie paper did because
George Story was Red's brother who played for a Barrie team. George was a good writer and got a
following. The South Simcoe League was more exciting than others. In the mid 50s they had the
interlocking league and as the South Simcoe League tappered down and Blake started to pitch for
Bradford there were three or four Barrie teams and a Minising team. In 1953 it was the Simcoe
County team and the air force out of Camp Borden had a team and so did Barrie. Describe a picture
17:40.
Towards the end of the glory days of the South Simcoe league they tried an interlocking schedule.
Was a game deciding if Cookstown or Fennell's would be in the playoffs in 1949 and there were a
thousand people watching. Tottenham had a team with Billy Thorton on it.
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In the late 1940's Blake pitched for Churchill. Occassionally Blake would fill in for other
teams to pitch for them. Ken was 21 or 22 and was just appointed Justice of the Peace and was
playing for Bradford at the time. Ken and Pat were going to the game and both were wearing their
black uniforms. Pat says we'll take the unmarked police cruiser to the game. Pat makes him go 80-85
mph and comes flying into the parking lot and thought old PJ shield was going to stop them but he
did not. Talk about a man named Fred that drove fast and dangerously to the games. Joe asks where
they played the early games in Fennells. Blake says it's in his notes but he cannot remember off the
top of his head. Blake says it was 1941 because he was 15 and Bradford, Newton Robinson were in
the league so was Stroud. Blake had been pitching from the time he was 5 he watched Jack Read and
knew since then that he wanted to be a pitcher. Blake played with his dad because his dad was a ball
player. Blake was a pitcher in high school and then one summer working for his brother Jack on a
farm Ken Bell comes along because both had their eye on the O'Neil girls. Ken Bell tells Blake that
Fennells needs a pitcher so Blake went and watched a game and that was the first time he ever saw
Joe Magani. Blake indicated he wanted to play so he got to play 4 or 5 games in June and then he
needed to get his appendix out so he was done for the year. Blake gave a speech in Innisfil about his
baseball career. Churchill had a team with four reeves on it and five constables. It had more
optimism when it came back in 1944.
There were two diamonds at Fennells. The first ball game was at the old Brown Property
where they now park. It did not use to be used so they let the ball team use it. Blake does not
remember seeing a game on Herb Hughes farm but knows that there was a diamond there. Then
because of the increasing interest from the promotion of Jack Hughes he talked the Kells into selling
part of their farm on highway 9 for $400 which was not very much money. They were farmers and
did not want to part with their land but Jack talked them into it. It was then made into a ball
diamond. The other piece of property still belonged to the Browns and Art Evans helped them get
poles for lights and things from the Edgar Raider station and then sold tickets and raised $6700 for
the draw and was able to make a diamond. The prize for the draw was $1000 or something like that
Blake cannot remember exactly but remembers that the tickets were $10. Jack Hughes was the most
energetic about it and that was in 1943. Lights came in to the diamond in 1947. Blake started playing
in Fennells in 1949 but did not move there until 1950. Bradford would get lights after Fennells. Art
Evans was instrumental for getting the same deal for Bradford. Blake talks about the posts being put
in for the Bradford diamond. There was a town truck that took out all the stumps of the posts and
were brought to the yard where Blake worked and he saw it was all pressure treated wood so he had
it put off to the side because he thought something should be done with them. When he retired
nothing had been so he hired a truck and took them off to a lumber yard and had them trimmed
down and used them to make the deck on the back of his house. It was red cedar pressure treated
and had been in the ground for about forty years but was still in good quality. Jerry Prike was a good
ball player and nice guy. He played pro football with the Sarnia Imperials and worked on the Averill
project. When the project was scrapped he was out of a job and moved to San Fransisco and
thought it was a great place to live. Hockey players would occassionally play baseball as well. There
was an annual May 24 weekend in Churchill but later on there was not as much ball interest in
Churchill so the tournament stopped. Also, the orangemen held a tournament in July. Innisfil would
occassionally hold a tournament at the start of July.
Churchill Jrs. Is a team that Blake wants to talk about because he is the only living member,
but he wants Ken to hear so he waits for Ken to return from the washroom and discuss
tournaments more with Joe. 1932 softball tournament 8 teams compete Fennells, Cookstown,
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Newton Robinson, Bradford had 2 teams, Elmgrove and Churchill jrs. Glencaren. Anyways in 1930
there was a league in Bradford, Churchill, Midhurst and Barrie only had 2 teams and the Allandale
Imperials (named after Imperial Theatre) and the Roxie Aces. Churchill beat the final game against
the Allandale Imperials and the picture is up in the Churchill Hall. Jack was 18 and Bill was 20 and it
was a very exciting game. Ken Gilfoil was a good pitcher and played in the professional league in the
USA but Jack was able to hit his pitches and that made Churchill win. Verne Hughes and Jack Reeve
helped Churchill win. Winning the tournament created more interest in baseball in Churchill. Earl
Steeles who lived on Steeles corners drove into Blakes farmyard to see his brother Mac and asked
him if he was interested in forming a jr. Ball team because they didn't have the chance to play on the
senior ball team. At 1931-1932 there was the Churchill jrs. Don Beatty and a few others who were
good at ball but not good enough to be on the senior team resulted in the churchill jrs. Lloyd hughes
mother was Gwendallyn Hughes and he was the same age as Mac. Fennells was not operating at the
time so there was no chance to play ball there so it resulted in them forming their own team. Joe
asks if he ever played any Scotch Settlement teams and Blake says they did but only once. They tried
to get a team going but were unable to. Joe was helping Bruce Collings work on their family history
but Bruce passed away and no one knows what happened to the family history. Bruce's son Bill was
a good kid but he did not know of the family history. Tape switches sides and comes back in midsentence.
Talking about a man named Joe who was a power hitter but he put weight on so he did not
run very fast. Ken gives a specific example of how he was pitching a game and lost because Joe hit a
home run in the end of the game when Ken had 2 outs already. Blake talks about how there was an
annual banquet at the end of the year in Churchill Hall. Blake gave a speech to the Innisfil Historical
Society. Blake had Art Kneeshaw as an umpire and said he was a great and fair umpire. They all
agree that having a good umpire would make or break a ball game.
Ken tells a story about Art Kneeshaw umpiring a game in Schomberg. Art was umpire
behind the plate and calls Ken to be umpire behind bases because the other umpire was sick. Ken is
behind second base and there is a play at second base and Ken calls him out. Well Schomberg was a
neutral field for the game and the team playing was from Maple and they had rowdy players. Those
players were angry with Ken and Art's trying to calm everyone down then Joe Wood comes out of
the stands and says that's enough boys and that made all the players stop. They all agree Joe was a
good man and that they respected him. Blake says a great part of playing was that they all got to
know the other players and were friends. Blake talks about Tom Gardiner as a fan. There was
nothing mean about Tom but it came across like boosting the game. Joe asks if Tom had a favorite
saying but neither can recall.
Ken has a story about Joe Wood and Hurricane Hazel in 1954. They got in a truck together
and go down the 400 Highway to see if they can help any of the people in the Marsh together. All
the guy tells Ken is pull the brake when I tell you because the brakes will be wet. Ken looks out the
window and sees pieces of the 400 highway flying past the truck. Joe Wood says just a minute and
takes his shirt off. He gets out in front of the truck ties the rope to the truck and starts feeling down
the highway with his feet to make sure that the truck did not come off the road. Blake talks about
seeing the marsh after the hurricane and how the whole thing was like a lake. He came across
highway 88 and drove through a creek there and how he could not see a road and how he should
not have driven there because the road might not have even been there. Blake was trying to get to
Gilford that night for his wedding rehearsal but was unable to do so because of the road conditions.
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However, Blake was able to make it there the next day for his wedding. The last road that Blake tried
to cross was highway 14. He saw a maroon coloured fort and thought someone was stuck there so
he lowered his brother in law down with a rope and could not find anyone. They tried to call
someone but the phones were out. Next they heard footsteps and it turns out the people left their
car because it was stuck and when they got back there were three or four cars stuck down there.
Anyway the people were okay and Blake's fiancé did not think they would make it to the wedding
but they did. Ken talks about how a lot of cows died after the hurricane because they were unable to
pasture and it caused them to die. Blake talks about the 7th line of Innisfil and his sister-in-law and a
creek near the 7th line that went under a nearby railroad track. At least for 50 feet that was 20 feet
high was hanging like a swing bridge because of how the hurricane took out everything beneath it.
North of highway 89 was washed out completely. Road inspections used to be done but they talk
about how they don't see people doing that anymore.
Blake offers to leave all his information and artifacts with Joe. Then they talk about a Mr.
Crawford who was a nice guy and according to Blake a good hockey player. He tried out for the
American league but never made it, was a good curler as well, and won a horseshoe tournament with
his son. Elle Crawford died in the Cookstown curling rink and his brother Jack was there with him.
The Griffins knew Mr. Crawford better than they did. Next they identify themselves on a picture of
their teams. They notice Steve Simony in the picture and talk abotu how he was the most
sportsmanlike player they ever played with. Joe brings them back to the topic of the end of the year
banquet and it was not always in the same place and would sometimes change based on who won
the championship that year. Talk about Lloyd Hughes who was there and how he had passed away.
It was Alan Dawson that gave the euglogy at the funeral. Talk about how short term memory goes
with age and having to write down notes to remember things. It came up because Blake wanted to
remember to look for an old team photo. There was a big game in Innisfil and Blake was pitching
and the field was way back behind the stock yards. Blake says league exectutive said he was unabel to
play there anymroe because Blake was an outsider. Blake asks Ken what his life would have been like
without sports. Blake interupts Kens answer by saying that Blake only played baseball because he
could not play hockey well. Joe asks if any of the ball parks had bleachers? Blake answers that one in
Fennells did. Joes grandson Greg enters the conversation here. Ken talks about how he now
sponsors a baseball team now because he grandson plays for the team and wants to preserve the
Tupling name in the sport. Cubie McCuik played for Churchill team and played infield about centre
field. Blake corrects that he played for Bradford. Blake says that one of the Nesbitt girls might know
more about Cubie. Joe says he knows that name but cannot place it. Ken says that Peter Kilkenny
might know more about Cubie. Cubie was able to throw a very strong pass from the field to first
base. Joe asks if there was ever a girls baseball team? Blake says that there was a girl Lillian Edwards
that played on the Scotch Settlement team. Other than that none of them can think of a girls league
in the area. Connie Bateman played as well and was coached by a Gould. Margaret MacDonald and
Mary Farris played as well.
Banner image from the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library Local History Collection depicting cars
lining Holland Street East. ID Number 3696. http://www.ibidnet.ca/details.php?IDnum=3696
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