Atlas Steels Baseball Park

There was no greater time for Welland baseball than the industrial boom years: specifically, 1944. It was that year that the Atlas Steels baseball team became “the most powerful team to ever represent Welland”, winning the Ontario Senior A championship by defeating the London Majors.

Pitching for the team was none other than Sal “The Barber” Maglie, who later became a Major League Baseball legend when he played for the New York Giants in the 1950s. His .657 career winning percentage remains near the top of all MLB pitchers to this day. Born in Niagara Falls, New York, Maglie’s humble championship time in Welland came as a result of doing defense work with Atlas Steels when the US entered World War II.

The company maintained multiple practice and play areas across their sprawling property. Because these diamonds were often reserved for employees and their families, they were frequently omitted from general city park maps and listed instead as private industrial facilities. The ruin in this post is one of the last areas that still existed and was actually used into the 2000s. Its final demise came after the southern and eastern sections of the plant were demolished in 2007. It now sits as a rotting and overgrown ruin, but seems to have been used as a rather spectacular bush-party location at some point!