“There is a 10-foot extension atop a chain link fence that protects a house on a hill overlooking a ball field in Etobicoke in west end Toronto. It was known by neighbourhood kids in the 1960s as ‘the fence that Smyth built.’ Almost 60 years later, the post-World War II bungalow on the hill has been replaced by a modern ‘monster’ home, but that extended, weather-beaten fence on the edge of Lambton-Kingsway Park still stands. It represents a beginning of the amateur ball legacy of Etobicoke’s own Bob Smyth.”

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