Elliott: Charley Pride was 1st to high-five McDougall on Toronto expansion news

Three legends: Loretta Lynn, George Strait and the late Charley Pride, who was the first person to high-five Don McDougall when he heard news that Toronto would get an expansion franchise in 1976.

December 14, 2020

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Unsuccessful in an attempt to gain a National League expansion franchise for Toronto, Don McDougall and Herb Solway had time on their hands in 1976.

After the NL owners meeting at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, the American League owners met at 2 p.m. in the same five-star location. McDougall and Solway had time on their hands as their scheduled flight to Toronto was five hours later.

McDougall decided to kill time in the hotel bar, while Solway went for a walk. Both men had attempted to buy the San Francisco Giants and had applied that day for an expansion club. They had zero standing in an AL meeting.

“I decided I was going to wait and learn the AL’s decision on Toronto, we had no status and were not invited to the meeting so I chose the bar as a good place to spend a couple of hours,” he said. “Herb, of course, was somewhere else fretting.”

“The bar wasn’t busy, it was 2 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon in February,” said McDougall sounding a little like a Billy Joel song. He sat down near a man at the bar. “The man beside me was putting in time as well. We struck up a conversation.”

“The man was about the same age as I was,” said the former president of Labatt breweries, from O’Leary, PEI. “You here for baseball?”

“Yes,” said the other man, “I’m here with the Texas Rangers. My friends are in management. They invited me to come.”

“We had a long talk, I’m not sure how long, an hour, two hours, that was a long time ago,” said McDougall. “We talked about whether the AL should expand or not?’ We agreed the league should.

“He told me he was not on the team but did work out with them at spring training. He was clearly knowledgeable and keen on the possibility of expansion to Toronto.”

Eventually, “word came down the hall from the meeting room, pretty fast ... the AL had officially decided to proceed with expansion to Toronto.”

“We high-fived each other,” said the member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont.

In walked an excited Solway, who asked McDougall as they left the bar, “what are you doing talking to Charley Pride?”

Don McDouall, former president of Labatt’s breweries.

* * *

Pride, a country music legend, who became part of the Ray Davis-Bob Simpson ownership group that bought the Rangers in 2010, died Saturday in Dallas from complications of COVID-19. Pride was 86.

He still owned part of the team when he passed and has been a fixture around the Rangers since the club arrived in Arlington, Tex. in 1972. Pride pitched for the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro Leagues, class-A Nogales in the Arizona-Mexico league and class-C Missoula in the Pioneer league. He was also a position player with class-C Boise in Pioneer league in the Yankees system and class-D Fond du Lac in the Wisconsin State League

Each year he’d come to spring training -- to work out and give a concert -- whether it was Pompano Beach, Port Charlotte, Fla. or Surprise, Az. He sang the anthem when Globe Life Field opened as he did regularly at Arlington Stadium and the Ballpark in Arlington.

* * *

When news of Pride’s passing reached PEI, McDougall sent out an email to his children which began: “I just learned that my friend died today of COVID in Texas.”

McDougall knew country singer Charley Pride’s songs and liked them. He just didn’t know he was talking to him until noted country fan Solway gave him the heads up. Pride had 36 No. 1 hits and 11 gold albums.

“Little did I know then he was the same person I admired so much as a country singer. He had tried to be a major leaguer but it was not to be,” McDougall said. “His long hours of singing on the bus prepared him for an even more successful career as one of the very best entertainers of his generation.

“He sang the music I love, I continued to be a big fan, but that day -- with the stress of the first meeting and awaiting the results of the second -- I never made the connection. He was 41 then, I was 38 -- almost the same age.”

* * *

But back to the first meeting of the day. Solway and McDougall were with NL owners. The vote for expansion was 8-4 in favour of giving Toronto a club. However, unanimity was required. Atlanta, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Cincinnati all said no.

After a 15-minute break -- “Gentlemen, start your lobbying” -- Atlanta changed its vote. Now it was 9-3. McDougall was asked to speak to August Busch since both were in the beer business. McDougall said Busch told him “I have no problem with Labatt, I have no problem with Toronto, I do have a problem watering down our product.”

Busch changed his vote. Now, it was 10-2. But the Reds and Phillies were not budging.

“They came with instructions not to expand,” McDougall said. The Labatt boss said the meeting was unlike any other.

“Now the president suggests adjourning the meeting, you know how that goes ‘I move to adjourn,’ ... ‘seconded,’ let’s go, we’re out of here,” he said. Charles Bronfman wanted Toronto in the NL for the natural rivalry. The vote was 8-4 against halting the meeting.

“They decided to postpone the meeting for two weeks,” McDougall said.

* * *

Returning to Toronto McDougall called AL president Lee MacPhail at home to tell him the Labatt group was interested and would like to talk.

He nearly dropped the phone when MacPhail told him he’d be in Toronto to meet with the Granovsky group on Monday. Phil and Irving Granovsky ran Atlantic Packaging and were closely associated with the Carling O’Keefe brewery. This was in the days of the beer wars.

The group staged a Sunday night press conference at the Westin Harbour Castle, the reasoning being “we didn’t want to be seen as chasing the other group, we wanted to get our name out their first.”

“I had a driver meet (MacPhail) at the airport and had our driver take him downtown after to meet with us,” McDougall said.

Solway put together the partnership that included Montreal financier R. Howard Webster (45%), Labatt (45%) and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (10%).

* * *

That afternoon at the bar when McDougall and Pride talked was either Feb. 20 or Feb. 27. On March 26, AL owners gathered in Tampa to vote.

McDougall said Detroit Tigers owner John Fetzer was a big help, Solway and McDougall toured all the spring training camps in Florida. They were unable to reach Charles O. Finley of the Oakland A’s and didn’t hear from George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees until the morning of the vote.

“I know why you’re calling me,” Steinbrenner said. “You have my vote.”

The Labatt group was accepted by a 11-1 vote with Jerold Hoffberger, owner of the Orioles and close friends of the other group voting against Toronto.

One of Pride’s biggest hits was “It’s Gonna Take a Little Bit Longer.”

It took a little bit longer but McDougall and Solway’s time at the Plaza was a success.