On July 14, 1951, CBS aired the first colour TV broadcast of a sporting event anywhere in the world.
But folks in Port Arthur likely had no clue what was going on south of the border. The sports-minded were on their way to the ballpark to watch the Red Sox take on the Giants, the debut of the city’s brand-spanking new ball park, Port Arthur Stadium.
Sixty years later the shine has yet to come off the building, one of the reasons why it’s reached the final of Baseball Canada’s search for the country’s favourite amateur ballpark. It's up against London’s Labbatt Field, which eliminated Trois Rivieres in the other semifinal, while Thunder Bay was knocking off Okotoks, Alta.
The two-week, final round of voting began on Tuesday at noon, and Gordon Wilson Jr. said he’d be thrilled to see his once home-away-from-home take top spot in the nation.
"I think that’s pretty good, considering the park is 60 years old, compared to what they’re going up against. London probably has a relatively new park and it’s a new city," said Wilson, one of three former players in the lineup that fateful day in 1951 who gathered on Tuesday at the stadium to launch the city’s bid for top spot.
"This park is basically almost the same as it was when we first started. They’ve certainly done a lot of things to it, but the stands are still the same and underneath the dressing rooms are the same. It has been a great park."
It’s a far cry from what they were used to playing on, he fondly recalled.
"We had Queen’s Park, which is just up the way," Wilson said. "It became the dump after that. It was very, very poor. The infield was poor, the fence was short. But then when they built this, it was really nice to see.
"The only problem was at the start we had no fences. They put up snow fences after that and that didn’t work too well. But later on they built fences. And we had great lighting in here."
Eddie Cox, who also played that first game in 1951, said Port Arthur Stadium – which now houses the Thunder Bay Border Cats – couldn’t have come along at a better time.
"That’s all we did in those days was play ball, play something," he said, adding his favourite memory of the stadium was taking on Detroit Red Wings Dave Gatherum and Alex Delvecchio on the ball diamond.
"It was so different. There were no fences, (but) everybody just enjoyed it. There’s lots of history there. Lots of stories. There’s a hole in the wall out there where a guy took a shot at me. But that’s OK."
To see it win would be tremendous, Cox said.
Coun. Larry Hebert, the president of the Thunder Bay International Baseball Association, said it’s coming down to the crunch. London got 74 per cent of the vote in their semifinal win, with Thunder Bay reaching 70 per cent.
It’s going to be close, Hebert said.
"It’s us against London, a big battle over the next two weeks," he said. "We’ll get another feather to wear if we win this and hopefully it can get some people here. Hopefully it helped the Border Cats a little those last few games."
Hebert also mentioned London Mayor Joe Fontana has thrown down the gauntlet, saying there is no way his city is losing to Thunder Bay in the nationwide contest. However, when pressed, Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs said he’s staying out of the spotlight, preferring to let the ballparks speak for themselves.
"I want to keep low-key on this while I’m down here, so that when we win the competition we can have bragging rights," Hobbs said, reached by email in London, Ont., of all places, where he’s attending the Association of Municipalities of Ontario annual general meeting.
To vote for either stadium, visit www.baseball.ca. The winner will be announced on Sept. 7.
