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  • Terrier Town: Summer of ’49
  • Peter Carino (bio)
David Menary. Terrier Town: Summer of ’49. Waterloo ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2003. 407 pp. Paper, $25.95 U.S.

In terms of genre David Menary's Terrier Town: Summer of '49 is a curious book. On the one hand it is a history, most specifically of a magical season of the Galt Terriers of the Intercounty League of Ontario, a league billed as semipro but actually—in terms of talent and paychecks—more like an independent minor league. On the other hand the book purports to be a novel, introducing, as narrator, the fictional Charlie Hodge, a young native of Galt and rookie bench warmer on a team that includes ex-major and minor leaguers and local talent with professional skills. Certainly basing a novel on historical events is nothing new and often works, but here Hodge and the brief accounts we get of his growth seem ancillary to a well-researched and finely detailed history not only of the Galt Terriers of 1949 but of the Intercounty League itself, which dates to 1919. Within this history Menary details the place of baseball in Ontario before television, and the many characters, both on the field and off, who contributed to the vibrant rivalries among such small Ontario cities as Galt (population 15,000 in 1949), Brantford, Kitchener, Guelph, Waterloo, and London, the league's "big town."

Though Hodge's voice as narrator looking back creates an attractively wistful tone appropriate to evoking a bygone era, the power in this book comes from Menary's meticulous research. Some readers may find the detail more than they want to know, but for those with historical interests, and particularly interest in Canadian baseball, Terrier Town will be a welcome addition to historical work on baseball outside the Majors. Menary has interviewed and profiled numerous former Terriers as well as their opponents. He also chronicles the accomplishments of two of the most important men behind the teams, Gus Murray, owner and indefatigable promoter of the Terriers, and Larry Pennell, team president and GM of the rival Brantford Red Sox. Readers familiar with Canadian history and politics will also recognize Pennell as a longtime member of Parliament and friend of Prime Minister Lester Pearson.

Though certainly a pillar of the Intercounty League and a force for civic good in the town of Brantford, with the book's focus on Galt, Pennell garners less attention than Gus Murray, a Galt merchant and civic visionary who in '49 decided to put the town on the map by building a team the likes of which the Intercounty had never seen before. Known as "Hustlin' Gus," Murray is a shaker and mover, a twenty-four-carat character whose blather is exceeded only by his mercurial energy. A former friend describes him as a "helter- skelter" [End Page 159] kind of guy whose "characteristic frenzy... had brought together an all-star team, just like he said he would" (31). Murray is a poor man's Bill Veeck, concocting a variety of promotions to swell the crowds at little Dickson Field in Galt and draw attention to the quality product he has assembled on the field.

Murray's Terriers include former Major League catcher Tom Padden as player-manager, along with former wartime-era Dodgers Goody Rosen and TommyWarren. Locally, Murray recruits stellar Canadian athletes such as Tex Kaiser, who despite overtures from several Major League clubs chose a professional hockey career, which included a year with the Canadiens rooming with Rocket Richard. Negro League stars are also pursued as Murray signs Dave Shelton, a former member of the Cleveland Buckeyes and Buffalo Harlem Giants, to anchor the Terrier pitching staff. Murray's attempts to stock the team with talent certainly prove necessary as all of the teams in the Intercounty possess players with either professional experience or extraordinary athletic ability. Even Waterloo, a team not in contention in '49, boasts Don Gallinger, who enjoyed six productive seasons with the Boston Bruins while playing baseball summers in the Intercounty. Several players with big league connections turn up as Menary documents not only the '49 season but the ICL in...

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