B.B.A. Winter Meeting Comes to a Close
Monday, November 9, 1953
End of Interleague Play.
Heavy rains and icy Atlantic winds would make for terrible baseball weather, but for the annual general meeting of the British Baseball Association, weather doesn’t delay play.
The biggest surprise of the meetings was a revolt against interleague play led by Edinburgh Cannons owner Donegan Campbell. A hangover from scheduling when the National League was regionally divided, Campbell was frustrated about games he considered “a waste of effort”, adding “we lose to Union League clubs, we lose ground to our rivals, we win against Union League clubs, it could be for naught…”. Campbell proposed as a sweetener; increasing to a 154-game season and using the extra generated revenue to increase the professional contract minimum salary. The salary increase would meet a known demand of the players’ union. Liverpool Giants owner, John Moores, spoke at length in the debate, most notably adding “this would bring us more inline with how our American cousins operate, and add an extra special element to the Championship Series.”. Blackpool owner Doris Thompson stated she saw no real need to make such a dramatic change to the season, going on the abstain in the vote that passed 12-3 with her lone abstention. Fans will be interested to see if the end of interleague play dramatically changes fortunes for any teams.
The only other major piece of news was that 8 southern independent teams were to join the Alliance League, the league will operate as two regional sub leagues with an end of season play off for the Alliance Trophy. Rumours of further Alliance League clubs signing up to player development contracts with the pro clubs persisted throughout the week, but nothing set in stone confirmed as the meetings closed.
There was no progress on a Home Nations contest, the idea stumbling on scheduling around weather and owner objections as to the risk of fatiguing players before the season has even begun.
Finally a commitment was made to explore an under-18s feeder league, the proposal suggested the BBA create a county level contest by 1955 at the earliest, the best schoolboys getting called up to represent their county in an annual contest. The proposals arose from concerns that raiding amateur level clubs is not sustainable, "there must to be a commitment to the growth and development, not just of the sport but of the player" the document stated. The BBA executive and the club owners are keen to control the development of the player from school to the professional leagues.