The (English) Baseball League (est. 1888): A History

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Baseball League 1908
Emperor of India Cup Series

Liverpool defeated Port Vale
Four Matches to None

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Baseball League 1908
First Division Champions and Emperor of India Cup Winners




Liverpool Reds

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Baseball League 1908
Emperor of India Cup Runners Up

Port Vale Valiants

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Baseball League 1908
First Division Final Table

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Baseball League 1908
First Division Team Batting and Pitching

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Baseball League 1908
First Division Award Winners

Baseballer of the Year and Batsman of the Year: Robert Arscott




Pitcher of the Year: Sidney Crisp




Newcomer of the Year: Frederick Hand

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Baseball League 1908
First Division League Leaders

Batting Leaders




Pitching Leaders

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Baseball League 1908
First Division Top Game Performances

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Baseball League 1908
First Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

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Baseball League 1908
First Division Top Systems

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Baseball League 1908
First Division Financial Report

[Tigers84]

What's this? The Clarets appear to be creeping up the table. Will they return to the form they had in the early years of the league? Congratulations to Liverpool, but I'll be rooting for Burnley in the coming season.

Do you have any intention of making a quick start of your league available? Also, do you intend to introduce any other leagues from Europe to eventually compete against the British league in cup competitions? Do you have to manually configure your schedule or the playoffs?

This league is really interesting and one of the best I've seen in this format. Keep up the good work, I really enjoy the writing. You should change the Batsman of the Year award to the Alistair Bolton Award in honor of such a dominate hitter who has walked off into the sunset.

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NOTE: See disclaimer regarding commentary here.

New World Players Making Mark

For the first time in history, there are players in the League who come from the New World. One player is the fantastic young pitcher Freddie Hand, who is a Canadian born in the town of Leamington, Ontario. Aged only twenty one years, he has taken British baseball by storm and won the First Division’s Pitcher of the Year honour in his very first try in the League with the Manchester United club. Hand played some high level baseball in the neighbouring American state of Michigan, although not professionally, he did play amateur ball with some of the current American baseballers such as Ed Reulbach, Ed Cicotte, Billy Purtell, and Nig Clarke, according to Hand at least.

And he must have learnt quite a lot about baseball from playing with such luminaries, as he sailed over at the invitation of Red Devils manager and pitching coach Zach Acres to audition for the team and not only won a spot, but dominated the competition all year long. Hand won 16 matches whilst losing 13, which is worse than his other records would indicate, since he finished sixth in the loop in earned runs average with 2.04 and seventh in strike outs with 128, whilst yielding a mere eighteen walks, the fewest in the League among those pitchers who hurled at least one inning for every game his team played.

Hand appears to have the potential to rival the accomplishments of Jesse Morgan, who has similar skills in delivering the fast ball, the curve ball and the slower ball. Hand is not yet the equal of Morgan in talent yet, but he is not the equal of Morgan in age either, and as long as Hand stays alive and healthy, it would not shock us to see his final form compete with Morgan’s when the career is all said and done. Hand’s potential is all the more shocking considering his diminutive frame.





Elsewhere on the pitch plays a young coloured boy named Cedric Goulbourne, a centre fielder who hails from the exotic island of Jamaica, from the town of Kingston. Young Goulbourne is only nineteen years plus one day as of to-day, and he was already considered the best player among Jamaicans, white or negro, by the age of sixteen. His father moved his entire family to England to improve their lot, landing in Blackpool before crossing the island to settle in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Young Cedric took to English baseball immediately, and used his native speed and power to great effect to bowl over the weaker competition and gain the notice of the Sunderland, Newcastle United, Middlesborough and South Shields clubs, and Goulbourne signed on with the first club to put him on the maximum of four pounds per week, that being Sunderland.

Goulbourne spent the entire championship march “on the bench”, finding his way into thirty seven games on substitution duty, batting .318 and stealing nine bases. There is a bright future seen for young Goulbourne, who should be able to use his speed to force Black Cats to put him in the starting IX perhaps as soon as next season.

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Originally Posted by Tigers84

What's this? The Clarets appear to be creeping up the table. Will they return to the form they had in the early years of the league? Congratulations to Liverpool, but I'll be rooting for Burnley in the coming season.

Clarets did more than crept up. They leapt up, making a twenty game improvement. All four of their rotation made significant strides, most notably their ace Harry Gamble who went from 11-19/3.46 to 14-13/2.17. Harry hasn't been able to match his win-loss record to his FIP, ERA or VORP. No run support, I guess. They also added +60 VORP at the plate, too. Despite the ball change their slash numbers were down only slightly, and their homers were actually up.

Here, see for yourself:

Batting:




Pitching:

Originally Posted by Tigers84

Do you have any intention of making a quick start of your league available? Also, do you intend to introduce any other leagues from Europe to eventually compete against the British league in cup competitions? Do you have to manually configure your schedule or the playoffs?

I wasn't planning to make a quick start available, but I might rethink that. I have thought about doing leagues in other countries to feed players, although I'm not sure I want to go that route. I won't do other European leagues for this dynasty, anyway.

I do have to manually configure the schedule, which I describe in part here, and in gorier detail here.

Originally Posted by Tigers84

This league is really interesting and one of the best I've seen in this format. Keep up the good work, I really enjoy the writing. You should change the Batsman of the Year award to the Alistair Bolton Award in honor of such a dominate hitter who has walked off into the sunset.

Thank you for the high praise!

I'm not sure whether League officials will take up the question of renaming the award. It's up to them.

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Baseball League 1908
Second Division Results

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Baseball League 1908
Second Division Promoted Club

Hull City Tigers

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Baseball League 1908
Second Division Promoted Club

Rotherham County Millers

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Baseball League 1908
Second Division Final Table

Three non-league clubs challenged the two clubs seeking re-election in the vote for membership in the Baseball League. Voting (number of votes):

32      Derby County        Elected to the League
23	Huddersfield Town   Re-elected to the League
20	Chesterfield Town   Not elected to the League
18	Oldham Athletic     Not elected to the League
14	Barnsley            Not elected to the League

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Baseball League 1908
Second Division Team Batting and Pitching

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Baseball League 1908
Second Division Award Winners


Baseballer of the Year and Batsman of the Year: Joshua Lloyd




Pitcher of the Year: Edwin Callaghan




Newcomer of the Year: Griffith Healy