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League Will Add Four Clubs

The continuing success of the Baseball League has led them to the inevitability of adding four clubs, two for each division, starting with the 1905 programme, despite their rejecting the very idea just last month.

The total League gate has increased by well over one million supporters in just the past two years, and over half of all clubs have built new grounds or extended capacity in their current grounds. This added gate is a result of the better quality of play on the pitch with each passing year, a pleasing spectacle to behold, and which has augured baseball’s increasing appeal as the game of summer. But also, the inclination among supporters to attend more matches also results from the clubs’ desire to keep the matches orderly by marshalling spectating towards seats in the grounds, rather than allowing supporters to stand for entire matches as is common of football matches, with its attendant propensity to inspire rowdiness.

The grounds of fifteen League teams now exceed over ten thousand in seated capacity, with White Hart Lane, home of the newest League club Tottenham Hotspur, the largest at 17,600. Five Central League clubs also have grounds exceeding 10,000 seats—three of them are joining the League for 1905, and the two others will extend their seating to satisfy League request.

This change will invalidate the promotion and relegation scheme that normally ensues at the end of the season, at least for this season. Rather than descending to the Second Division, Small Heath and Notts County will continue to play in the top tier, whilst the loop will still absorb previously promoted clubs Aston Villa and West Ham United to round out their twenty.

A second League vote took place for the rounding out of the Second Division. Rotherham County and Hull City won the first vote and will retain their promotions from the Central. The second vote reinstates Wolverhampton Wanderers, who'd been booted previously, and also brings in previously unsuccessful candidates Bradford City, Leeds City, and the Chelsea club of Fulham, London. The Everton club, which had already suffered the indignity of exile to the Alliance back in 1890 and ’91, remain on the outs.

Two other changes, one direct, one indirect. The direct change is that of a fixture extension; to maintain the scheme of six games against each division foe, a total of 114 matches will be played by each baseball club starting in 1905; the indirect change is that of the name of the Small Heath club to that of the Birmingham club, made perhaps with an eye towards changing their luck on the pitch as well.

Baseball League 1904
First Division Final Table: REVISED





Second Division Final Table: REVISED

Shortly after the original vote, it was decided that each division would increase by two clubs. In the First Division this was achieved by reprieving the two relegated clubs. This left four vacancies in the Second Division with the vote being between the two clubs who had previously not been re-elected plus three of the non-league sides who had originally failed in their bid for election. Voting (number of votes):

36      Wolverhampton    Now re-elected to the League
36	Leeds City       Now elected to the League
26	Bradford City    Now elected to the League
26	Chelsea          Now elected to the League
20      Everton          Again not re-elected to the League