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Great Baseballers as Casualties of the War.

By the Baseball League’s official count, 225 registered players have had to quit playing the game of baseball professionally because of the grievous wound they suffered during the Great War. Included among them are some of the greatest baseballers to have ever played the game, as well as many young players who certainly would have taken their place among the all time greats.


Often referred to as the “Greatest Pitcher in the history of British Baseball”, Jesse Morgan had the great fortune of playing twenty full seasons, nineteen in the League and fifteen in the first division, before answering his King’s call to defend Britain from the tyranny of the Hun. Entering the League with Newcastle United to start the 1896 season, Morgan immediately became the best pitcher in the English game. On his way to accumulating 296 victories, in which he ranks second all time, Morgan led his division in strike outs an astounding fourteen times, all consecutively from his first season through the 1908 season, and he retires atop the career strike out list with 2,471, several hundred ahead of any other pitcher still playing to-day. Not only that, but he also wielded unparalleled control of the strike zone such that in eleven separate seasons, he issued bases on balls to the fewest batsmen per game of any regular starter. Morgan won twenty or more games in four separate seasons and led his division in this measure twice. He won Pitcher of the Year four times, Baseballer of the Year twice, and the EOI Cup with Magpies in 1905. Morgan was wounded in the Meuse-Argonne battle this past October. He is aged 44.

Centre fielder William Taylor was fashioning a brilliant career before he entered the Baseballers Battalion in early 1915. He joined the then newly renamed Port Vale club for the 1907 season and immediately made his mark at the bat, leading the top flight in threes with 36 and in total bases batted with 279. He continued batting at a torrid pace throughout his eight seasons in the League, and led his division in extra base hits six times; total bases four times; twos and threes both twice, stolen bases once; and was among the top five in these and many other categories in each of the seasons during which he played. He was the recipient of the Batsman of the Year award in 1909, and ends his career with a .335 batting average. It is reckoned that Taylor stole more bases and hit more threes in the first eight seasons of his career than any other baseballer ever has in theirs. Taylor was also considered one of the finest fielding centre fielders of the era, a position in which he put his considerable speed to good use. Taylor was wounded in the Battle of the Somme in July of 1916. He is aged thirty two years.

Ernest Gilbey, left fielder and first base man for the Chesterfield Town club, had one of the best starts to a career in League history. After his second season completed in 1913, his career batting average stood at .411 whilst missing not a single game, and by our reckoning he stole more bases and received more bases on balls in his first two full seasons than any other player has ever got in theirs, and by that time measure he is also second in base hits and fourth in runs scored. Only Bobby Arscott is considered to have had a finer career start than he. Gilbey won Batsman of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Baseballer of the Year in 1912, and followed up with another Batsman of the Year award in 1913. He was struck by injury early in 1914 and was limited to only 62 matches, but he still finished the season with a fine .355 batting average. Gilbey was destined to become one of the “shining stars” of the British game. Gilbey was wounded in the Battle of Ramadi in Iraq in September of 1917. He is still aged only twenty seven years.

We wish nothing but the best of tidings for these fine and brave men, and to their compatriots upon whom a similar fate has befallen.