Remembering Joe Sawchuk, manager, ump, major league scorekeeper

Ted Schmidt, dear friend of the late Joe Sawchuk, stands at third base at Christie Pitts alongside a Ukrainan flag to honour Sawchuk’s heritage,

October 6, 2025

By Ted Schmidt

As the leaves were starting to turn, as the World Series was in sight, three friends of 75 years descended on the legendary ball diamond of Christie Pits.

Jim Bruce and Raymond Smith joined myself for the final interment of our longtime friend Joe Sawchuk. Joe’s son Jeffrey also joined us.

The iconic field was sealed off. But this was not a problem for downtown guys like us who hardly ever paid to see the triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs of Mike Goliat, Johnny Hetki and Sam Jethroe.

With the help of Smith, I scaled the fence and proceeded to third base to anoint the holy ground, where our friend was alive once again.

Joe and I met in 1950 playing ball hockey at Harbord Collegiate. I stood at third base wearing the last Columbus Boys Club jacket which had been presented to a young Sawchuk.

Joe not only scored Toronto Blue Jays games, he umpired them when American League officials went on strike.

Wearing a Detroit Red Wing hat to honour both Sawchuk’s and my own unwavering support for No. 9 and the Detroit Red Wings, I stood by the flag of the Ukraine to honour Sawchuk’s Ukranian heritage,

Supported by Bruce and Smith, we said our final farewell to our gifted friend, ball player, manager, umpire, brilliant graphic artist and outstanding major league scorer Joe Sawchuk.

This meeting of friends was not unusual. This story of a downtown community was chronicled in my 2001 book, Shabbes Goy: A Catholic Boyhood on a Jewish Street in Downtown Toronto.

The Schmidt brothers, Don and Ted Schmidt, Barry Fleming, Ray Smith, Jimmy Bruce, and Joe Sawchuk in 1971.

For decades, these friends have been meeting to celebrate what was lost as rampant capitalism destroyed community and the common good, infecting society with a worm-like bacillus called individualism.

On this beautiful autumn day, stories were told, memories were shared, and that most powerful sacrament which needs no clergy or intercessor was celebrated once again — friendship

We three friends hugged and departed from that piece of holy ground we played on those many years ago.