text: The American variant of baseball had nine players a side instead of eleven, and four bases instead of five. Southwestern Ontario was the first region in Canada to adopt this version of the game, doing so in . The so-called "Canadian Game" soon fell out of favour.
  The London Tecumsehs of London, Ontario, were charter members of the International Association and won its first championship in 1877, beating the Pittsburgh Alleghenies.
  Rather than competing nationally in an east–west fashion, local baseball clubs would instead compete with their American neighbours to the south. This meant that teams from the Maritimes played teams from New England, teams from Quebec played against teams from New York and teams from British Columbia competed with those from Washington.
  The first Canadian to appear in a Major League game was Bill Phillips, who played for Cleveland. In his first game on May 1, 1879, the Saint John, New Brunswick native went hitless, although managed to get three hits the next game. In his second season, in , he became the first Canadian to hit a home run in the Majors.
  By the 1880s black Canadians were barred from playing in white professional leagues, but Emancipation Day black vs white matches provided an opportunity for black teams to shine, such as when the Northern Stars trounced a white team in Edmonton.