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Championship Series For 1906

In the wake of the 1905 First Division season came calls for a championship tournament series to determine one and for all the best baseball club in Britain. This will occur for the first time in 1906.

Few believed that Sunderland were the unqualified best side in British baseball in 1905, despite their superior attack, four victory season advantage and, perhaps most importantly, their four of six victories against United directly during the season. Many believe that United pitching would vanquish the Sunderland attack in a seriously-contested end of season championship series played for the Emperor of India Cup, and the League has agreed to afford the top two clubs of the First Division such an opportunity beginning with next year's competition.

The League might have benefited from such a tournament to crown prior season champions. Bolton Wanderers won the League Cup in the 1900 competition over Blackburn Rovers by a scant single length, although many thought Rovers generally excelled over Wanderers on the season. Bolton also beat out Newcastle United by a game in 1898, while United returned the favour over Wanderers by two games the following season.

Even if a leading club clear the division’s runner-up by several lengths, one clear advantage of a championship series would be the heighten interest and excitement among supporters of the League, as well as generate additional gate for the best teams, and for the League in all.

The format of such a series will be similar to how the top leagues of the United States have played their so-called “World’s Series”, championship tournaments which have been contested on and off over the past twenty years. In America currently, the champion of each of the two major leagues play in a series of between four and seven matches, in which the first club to win four from the other is declared the champion and winner of the Cup, and any remaining matches are rendered moot and thus are not played. Of course, such a “first to four” series here must occur between the top two clubs in only the First Division, as obviously the champion of the Second Division would not be considered fair and even competition for almost any club in the top tier, let alone the club at the top of the table, and thus would not constitute a fair fight.

Also in discussion by the League is an in-season cup tournament, along the lines of the former BA or current FA cup tournaments, which would interrupt the championship season for up to a week at a time, since the competitions would have to be played as a series of matches given the vagaries of individual games, to wit, poor teams occasionally do beat champion form teams on individual instances. Nothing along these lines is imminent, but does stoke interest among certain League board members and may return as a point of discussion in future sessions.