We pack a lot into the pages of every issue of Kayak, but there’s always more great stuff we just can’t fit in. So join Teeka and Beau, our otter mascots, to find out more about the theme of each issue, or just pick up some random bits of Canadian history.

Canada Makes Baseball History

You may have heard the story about how baseball was invented in Cooperstown, New York, by a man named Abner Doubleday in 1839. Well, not only has that story been proven wrong, the truth may just lie in southwestern Ontario!

On June 4, 1838, a group of men played a game of baseball in a field in the village of Beachville, Ont., not far from London. Okay, so they had five bases—which they called “byes”—and a ball made of leather-covered yarn. But the players weren’t just goofing around; they were playing by agreed-to rules. We know about it because Dr. Adam Ford wrote a letter to the magazine Sporting Life many years later setting out all the details. Although there are references to “base ball” in the U.S. as far back as 1792, what’s considered the first real game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1846, eight years after the one in Beachville.

You can learn more about our baseball history at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Marys, Ontario.