Baseball pitcher.
Born at Brandon on 25 April 1883, son of Walter Scott Ford (1858-1947) and Ida May Cleveland (1859-1947), the right-handed pitcher was the first Manitoba-born player to make baseball’s major league and the first Canadian to win 20 games in a season.
He played for the New York Highlanders (1909-1912), New York Yankees (1913), and Buffalo Buffeds (1914-1915). He had a 99-71 record with an ERA of 2.59. He started 170 games and completed 126. He accidentally discovered that a scuffed baseball would do crazy tricks when pitched. He began to use an emery board to scuff the ball and the “emery” pitch helped him reach the majors.
He died at Rockingham, North Carolina on 24 January 1960 and was buried there. He was inducted posthumously into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame (1987), Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (2002), and Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame (2004).
“Coleman’s column,” Winnipeg Tribune, 31 May 1951, page 20.
Website, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Website, Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.
Website, Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame.
Website, Baseball Almanac.
Russell William Ford, FIndAGrave.
“Diamond of the North: A Concise History of Baseball in Canada” by William Humber, 1995.
This page was prepared by Rick Mutton.
Page revised: 19 February 2026
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