Vincent "Manny" McIntyre

1918 - 2011  (92 years)

• Name	Vincent "Manny" McIntyre
  Born	4 Oct 1918	Gagetown, Queens Co., New Brunswick
  Gender	Male
  Interesting	race, black, sports
  Race	black
  Name	Manny McIntyre
  Occupation	1950
  	baseball player - Waterloo Tigers
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-199925
  Died	2011
  Person ID	I199925	Generations
  Last Modified	25 Apr 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Breaking baseball's colour barrier First black Canadian pro ballplayer in modern era had memorable stint with Waterloo Tigers by James Jackson Waterloo Region Record WATERLOO - It was a cool and cloudy September evening when Manny McIntyre stepped into the batter's box under the bright lights at Waterloo Park with an opportunity to make history with the 1950 Waterloo Tigers. It was the bottom of the ninth inning with one out, and runners were on first and second in a 5-5 ball game. The Tigers were just one win away from their first Intercounty Baseball League championship title in nine years, but were in tough against the defending champs from Brantford. The team's six-foot tall, 195-pound first baseman already had one hit in the game, a leadoff single to right field in the second to spark a five-run inning for the Tigers, and the 2,000 fans who packed into Waterloo Park on the evening of Sept. 28 were anxious for more against a Red Sox club that had just scored twice at the top of the ninth to tie the game. League MVP and centrefielder/ team manager Alex Kvasnak was standing at second base after a leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt from outfielder Augie Herchenratter. Catcher Johnny Fornari was on first after an intentional walk. Brantford pitcher Alf Gavey turned his attention to Manny. The man in the batter's box was the first black player in Waterloo Tigers history, and four years earlier made history as the first Canadian-born black player in the modern professional era. But at that moment, Gavey just needed to get him out. The pitcher had a reputation as a hard-throwing lefty, and had come close to making the majors a few years earlier, but batters were leery of his lack of control. He kicked up his leg and delivered the pitch. Manny tracked the ball out of Gavey's hand, then swung..... Four years earlier in the spring of 1946, 27-year-old Vincent "Manny" McIntyre was playing shortstop with the Middleton Cardinals of the Halifax and District League when scouts and managers from the newly-formed Class C Border League '97 a professional league '97 started showing interest in the talented athlete...... Manny signed his first pro baseball contract with the Sherbrooke Canadians on May 30, 1946 '97 just six weeks after Robinson suited up for Montreal '97 and on June 1, the Canadian shortstop became the first Canadian-born black player in the modern history of professional baseball to play in a regular season game..... One scout described Manny as "sure fire" to make the majors, but as good as he was at baseball, he may have been even better at hockey. He had 187 goals, 278 assists and 465 points in 468 career games, mostly at left wing, and he travelled throughout Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes playing both sports until he settled down to marry Rita Vigneault and start a family in 1955. No matter where he went, he blazed a trail for future black athletes. "Imagine being a black man playing baseball all those years (and) being the only one on the team, and sometimes the only one in the league," said John Lutz, who grew up watching and idolizing Manny during the early 1950s. Lutz is also among a small group of individuals trying to get him into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. He even delivered the eulogy at Manny's funeral in 2011..... After retirement from baseball and hockey, Manny worked as a porter for Canadian National Railway and at Dorval International Airport (now Trudeau International Airport) before taking a job as a parking attendant and parking supervisor at McGill University. He fully retired at the age of 80..... Recognition finally came Manny's way in the mid-1990s when was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2006, he was inducted into the Black Ice Hockey and Sports Hall of Fame, and he was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 2015 after his death in June 2011 from heart failure at the age of 92. Jackson, J. (2018). Breaking baseball's colour barrier. TheRecord.com. Retrieved 16 June 2018, from https://www.therecord.com/news-story/8675154-breaking-baseball-s-colour-barrier/

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 4 Oct 1918 - Gagetown, Queens Co., New Brunswick  = Link to Google Earth