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

[chucksabr]

Clark Withdraws From The Game of Baseball

One of the greatest hitters ever to play British baseball, William Clark, has announced he will no longer be playing in the Baseball League.

Clark played for 21 seasons in the League, coming in with the Sunderland club. He was the best batsman in the League for five years, in 1890 and then from 1893 through 1896. He led the League in hits twice, runs scored four times, stolen bases thrice, and hits average twice. He was also considered the finest defensive right fielder in the game during his halcyon years. In addition, he was practically indestructible for a time, missing only 25 starts in 1,482 matches between 1892 and 1906, almost all due entirely to injury leave in 1901.

Clark finishes as the League historical leader in runs scored with 1,488. He also is drawn for second in league history in games played with 1,817; second in stolen bases with 935 (only one less than Ed Stevenson’s record of 936); fourth in hits with 2,382; fourth in three base hits with 266; fifth in base on balls with 1,106; and seventh in hits average with .351. He could also display a bit of home run power, clubbing 76 during his illustrious career, good for eighteenth on the League’s historical ledger.

Most importantly, Clark was instrumental in Black Cats’ success as a championship club, leading them to four, in 1895, 1897, 1905, and 1907, as well as an EOI cup in 1905.

William Clark will surely be remembered as one of the greatest baseball players in British history until the end of time.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League and Amalgamation With Other Leagues

Birmingham Meeting Agrees to a Third Division

Two meetings have occurred in the past week that have contemplated an amalgamation between the Baseball League and other leagues.

At a meeting of the Management Committee of the Baseball League, held in Birmingham yesterday, Mr. J. C. McKenna being in the chair, the committee received a deputation from the fourteen clubs who had signed an application to the Baseball League to form a Third Division. Mr. Wilkie (Barnsley) acted as spokesman. The committee passed the following resolution: “The Management Committee decided to circularise their clubs setting forth the clubs which were prepared to join a Third Division and the scheme suggested by the Management Committee at their meeting on 30th of October last, and asking for their votes for or against the formation of such Third Division.”

This resolution follows on the ordinary meeting of the Management Committee of the Central League, held in Barnsley last week, where proposals to amalgamate with the Baseball League were held at length. Those proceedings were private.

Although the clubs in membership of the Baseball League had unanimously declined to accept the suggestions of the Central League with regard to sectional divisions, it was stated by Mr. Nat Whitaker, the secretary of the Central League, that a subcommittee had formed to confer with the Baseball League concerning a third division. The matter was discussed by representatives of the two organisations Monday last.

Then, on Wednesday last, a conference was held in Birmingham between the Baseball League Management Committee and representatives of the Central League to consider to question of the formation of a third division of the League. The Central League made certain proposals, and it was agreed to submit a scheme for the formation of a third division to an early meeting of the whole of the English League clubs. The proposal is that the third division shall consist of twenty clubs, made up of the whole of the Central League plus certain teams selected from the Western, Southern and Northern leagues; entrance fee £5 5s., with a fee of £100 in case of promotion.

It was decided that the Central League should pay fees for League players on a basis to be agreed upon, so far as amounts are concerned, but nothing would be charged for players who have been away from the clubs holding their transfers, five years or more.

The third division will have a representative on the Management Committee of the League, and ten votes at the annual general meeting. The system of promotion between the second and third divisions will be the same as at present exists between the first and second divisions, the newly admitted clubs to undertake not to apply for election to the second division this year.

The scheme will now be put to a vote among the member clubs of the League currently. No further details of the scheme were officially communicated, but the formation of a third division was spoken of as highly probable.

[Caporegime]

Chuck,

Absolutely outstanding work all around! I rarely follow dynasties here, but yours has me riveted. I was considering creating and simming my own English professional baseball league starting from the mid-19th century to the present that was based more on the historical timeline of cricket - a kind of "what if" baseball supplanted cricket at some point in England and the Commonwealth scenario.

However, your league makes my idea look positively ludicrous. Your storyline is at least a plausible and interesting one, and you've done a superb job with the uniforms, logos, and name files as well. I wish this were a mod or a template. If we ever get the ability to add international tournaments like the WBC to OOTP, this is the English baseball league I'd want in my universe. Great work!

BTW, I'd love to know your thoughts on the following: If baseball had fully developed in England along the lines of your dynasty IRL and achieved a level of popularity only surpassed by football (soccer), where do you see baseball's place in the rest of the Commonwealth today? Do you think it would've caught on elsewhere in the Empire? Would it have replaced Cricket at some point as the ball & bat game of choice? Would "Cricket-mad" India, for example, be "Baseball bonkers" India today instead? How about in Australia, the West Indies and elsewhere?

Thanks again!

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by Caporegime

Chuck,

Absolutely outstanding work all around! I rarely follow dynasties here, but yours has me riveted. I was considering creating and simming my own English professional baseball league starting from the mid-19th century to the present that was based more on the historical timeline of cricket - a kind of "what if" baseball supplanted cricket at some point in England and the Commonwealth scenario.

However, your league makes my idea look positively ludicrous. Your storyline is at least a plausible and interesting one, and you've done a superb job with the uniforms, logos, and name files as well. I wish this were a mod or a template. If we ever get the ability to add international tournaments like the WBC to OOTP, this is the English baseball league I'd want in my universe. Great work!

Thank you very much for the very specific kudos. Plausibility was a major goal of the dynasty.

There are a lot of excellent fanciful dynasties in this forum, and they are ripping fun reads, so they were good choices for the OOTPers who went that route. My choice was to lead people to believe that baseball in Britain could very well have happened in just this way, which is why I took special care while setting up the dynasty in the creation story. I studied some of the history of how football took hold in Britain and applied some aspects of that to baseball, e.g., the professional vs. amateur aspect of that story. Plus, it helped a lot that cricket was already a popular bat and ball sport in England, which makes the possibility that baseball could have become popular there more real than, for instance, in Russia or in continental Europe.

Funny you mention ability to play tournaments because I've been kicking around a league cup idea that would be made a lot easier if tournament mode were available. Without that, I have to conduct it all manually, which may or may not even work. Stay tuned.

EDIT: I have to add here that if you really like the uniforms, I can proudly state that I had nearly nothing to do with them. All the uniforms save the returning Lincoln City team were created courtesy of forum member No Pepper, who has been awesome about generating dozens of kits and caps for this dynasty.

Originally Posted by Caporegime

BTW, I'd love to know your thoughts on the following: If baseball had fully developed in England along the lines of your dynasty IRL and achieved a level of popularity only surpassed by football (soccer), where do you see baseball's place in the rest of the Commonwealth today? Do you think it would've caught on elsewhere in the Empire? Would it have replaced Cricket at some point as the ball & bat game of choice? Would "Cricket-mad" India, for example, be "Baseball bonkers" India today instead? How about in Australia, the West Indies and elsewhere?

First of all, I don't necessarily concede that baseball would naturally by surpassed by football in popularity in Britain.

Anyhow, an ongoing subtext to the dynasty is that baseball indeed does become popular throughout the Commonwealth in the same way cricket has. I assert as much in this post:

How Baseballers Sustain Their Wages During The Winter (Please see the disclaimer in the previous post for context.)

So even though it is beyond the scope of the dynasty to report on leagues being played in Commonwealth countries, they do exist in the background and will be referred to in future posts as needed to move the story along.

[chucksabr]

Baseball Clubs to Play Scheduled Training Fixtures

Baseball clubs typically shake off the doldrums of a long winter beginning in the middle of March, by undertaking a rigorous training schedule to put them in the top physical shape they need for the long slog (not to be confused with a long cricket slog) through the season, which now stretches across five months and encompasses a exhausting 114 matches to complete a Baseball League campaign. Top non-League loops play between 77 and 90 matches, but no less require a physical condition for their players that far exceeds that of the average Briton.

In previous years, such training consisted of calisthenics, gymnastics and military drilling, with a simulation of baseball games achieved through specific exercises to hone specific skills. However, nothing can take the place of real competition to strengthen the body and sharpen the eye and reflexes to the degree necessary to play at full capacity in early May as well as on any day in July or August.

To accomplish such a goal, the clubs of the Baseball League have agreed to a schedule of friendly match fixtures with one another whilst in training, to commence in April and to continue on up to the first day of the season. The games will take place on various pitches throughout England and not necessarily on the grounds that each club occupies during the season. The general public may attend as they are able, although they should not expect to see the top competition they are used to seeing in season, not at the outset at least. The weather may be the deciding factor as to whether the friendly games are even played, given that the vagaries of April could yield any one of a number of potential meteorological results, ranging from the sublime (e.g., a pleasant and mild 65 degrees Fahrenheit) to the torturous (e.g., a raw, windy and chilly 35.)

Despite this possibility, it has been deemed preferable by the League board and their respective club members that the richly compensated baseballers suffer whatever discomforts they might in the service of providing the highest quality product to a British public increasingly hungry for good baseball by playing skilful friendly games, rather than said baseballers performing stars jumps and sprint races without facing live competition until the bell rings on the 1st of May.

[chucksabr]

Another Former Major Leaguer, And An Erstwhile Star

Yet another English-born baseballer makes his way to this side of the pond to profit from his experience at the expense of British professional baseball. Dave Brain has played for several teams in several American leagues, including both major leagues, the American and the National. The man was a starting short stop and third baseman, and he could really hit the ball. He did, in fact, pace the National League in home runs just four years ago, hitting ten of them for the Braves of Boston. He also holds a National League record, shares one actually, having hit three three-base hits in one game, and he in fact did so twice, and in the same season of 1905. So the man can hit, even if his fielding is somewhat suspect.

Brain is, however and for want of a better term, a used good, and this is a charitable assessment. Age thirty two years, his best baseball years are most assuredly behind him, and we do not expect him to start for the Burnley club that hired him on, since Reuben Allen is still quite serviceable at his own age of thirty two. Brain is, however, an intelligent man with ten years of professional baseball experience in the country that claims to have invented the game which, while disputable, also indisputably surpasses all others in baseball acuity. So he may have much to teach the young baseballers surrounding him. Clarets have him on £2 6s. per week, a reasonable fee for someone who will probably contribute much more off the pitch than on it.

[chucksabr]

1911 Season Starts To-Day!

May Day has arrived! To some May Day is redolent of the crowning of May Queens and dances around maypoles; to those of a socialist bent it is a celebration of labour. But this year, May Day falls on Monday, and the first Monday of May means that the Baseball League season commences to-day, May Day!

These are exciting times for the League, as new clubs are becoming ascendant to sprinkle more interest in the professional game around the island. Liverpool have had a firm hold on one of the slots in the EOI Cup ties of the last four years, winning three of them, and of course will be a strong contender to return in 1911. However, they are not guaranteed a position there, and besides Tottenham, who are the current Cup holders, the strongest sides look to be Crewe Alexandra, Port Vale, Sunderland and Blackburn. Crewe are especially an interesting side, as they play in a rather small but baseball mad town who have been among the best supporters of any team in the game, even when languishing in the nether regions of the second level since coming into the League with that division. They have been in the top flight for three seasons now, and although they finished 20 lengths out last year, that was still good enough for third. They expect to rely on their pitching, likely the best in today’s game, whilst counting on their newly signed first baseman Ernie Turrell to supply much needed power on attack to help young and improving short stop Sam Polson on that side of the ball.

The second level expects to be equally crowded at the top of the table where, based on the spring friendlies played for the first time this season, the best clubs appear to be newly arrived Lincoln City, Glossop, Bury, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County and recently relegated Stoke.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1911: Clubs

<<<<< All updated uniforms courtesy of forum member No Pepper >>>>>

.
.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1911: Club Locations


First Division




Second Division

[chucksabr]

Baseball League

Proposal to Form Third Division Lost To-day

A meeting of the Baseball League was held at the Midland Hotel, Manchester this afternoon, Mr. Wilkinson in the chair. On the question of forming a Third Division of the League an objection was raised to the Central League having the right to elect all fourteen of its clubs to form the main part of this division, at the expense of other equally competent leagues in the kingdom.

An amendment that the question be adjourned for twelve months and that application be made from clubs all over the country to form this division was defeated.

The proposal to form a Third Division of the League was voted on, and failing to get a two-thirds majority was lost.

[Oisk]

Great read !!!

You might like to remove the red from Spurs though.....

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by Oisk

Great read !!!

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Oisk

You might like to remove the red from Spurs though.....

I don't know what this means?

EDIT: OK, I understand what you mean.

[chucksabr]

Hodgson Leads Valiants to Victory Off His Own Bat

Pat Hodgson, the first baseman from Epping who has been a leading batsman in the League for Port Vale for fourteen years, has been one of the better home run hitters in the League. He has paced the First Division in homers three times, in 1901, 1908, and 1909, and appears to be on his way to doing so a fourth time this year as well. He had hit 127 in his League career coming into this year's championship, and had added nine more to that total before Thursday’s match against Tigers in Hull City.

Hodgson simply outdid himself in that game, doing nothing less than hitting three home runs, the only top tier batsman to do so in a single game save the legendary Alistair Bolton, and dramatically as well with a late game surge that belied his pedestrian start. He’d only drawn a base on balls in the second innings and was put out on a ground ball to the first baseman in the fourth. But o, did he ever undertake a fantastic turnabout after that!

Hodgson hit a home run with one runner on base in the fifth innings, then hit a grand slam home run in the sixth, then yet another grand slam in the seventh. With the match safely won for Valiants he retired from the game in the bottom of that seventh, but not before, in the space of three innings, he had made himself responsible for ten runs scored off only his bat, the only batsman in our memory to ever have done so in one game.

This was a game for the ages, and will be recalled long after we all have passed on to a better realm.

[RMc]

Will this league eventually expand across the UK, or even onto the Continent?

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by RMc

Will this league eventually expand across the UK, or even onto the Continent?

Right now there is a lot of talk about forming a third division which would include more teams from across country. If the third division does come online, it would probably include teams in Wales and maybe Ulster (although the rest of Ireland is not very good baseball country), although since it's 1911, travel would be an issue (i.e., you can't take a train to the Irish island, and a ferry takes several hours). The League probably won't expand to Scotland, which has its own decent baseball league. A lot of good Scottish players do make their way to the English League, though.

The continent does not appear to be picking up baseball as Britain is. Bat and ball sports just don't resonate down there. So that seems unlikely, at least in the near term.

[Oisk]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

Thanks.



I don't know what this means?

EDIT: OK, I understand what you mean.

The Arsenal - Spurs thing. First match between the two 1887, first league game 1909 and the heat turned up to 'hotter than hell' in 1913 when Arsenal moved from South London (where Woolwich Arsenal they were named for was based) to North London, just 4 miles away from Spurs. Add in serious underhand dealing from Arsenal to get themselves promoted to the top flight despite finishing nowhere near the top of division 2 in 1919, at Spurs expense, and things have just escalated from there.

Even now, Spurs fans don't even like a Sponsors logo to be red.....

[chucksabr]

Strange No Hitter for Fulham at Burnley

In the annals of English league baseball, few pitching efforts have been as odd as that seen at Burnley by a scant fifteen hundred or so Clarets supporters who have little more to root for than the close of play for the season.

Jeremiah Long, a neophyte starting pitching for the Fulham club aged barely twenty years and seen as not much more than a warm body on any top tier team’s squad, had the best of luck attached to the worst of control as he handed free bases to twelve Clarets batsmen in eight and one third innings, eleven by the base on balls and one more by way of his own error, and yet he gave up only a single run in the bottom of the third innings to give a one run to nil lead to the Clarets, that which they held all the way until the ninth, again without a base hit to their credit.

That the Fulhams patched together a run in the top of that ninth innings spared Long the ignominy of simultaneously ceding no hits and a win to the opponent, but ignominy was restored as Long failed to finish the bottom of that innings, yielding the mound to fellow Cottager MacWhirter after yet another walk. MacWhirter retired the next two batsmen via the strike out and the ground out. After Cottagers had cobbled together a run in the tenth on single, base on error, walk, and passed ball, MacWhirter got all three Clarets batsmen out in the bottom of that frame to steal the win from starter Long, which is just as well since everyone in attendance would have to concur that Long simply did not deserve the win attached to his form in any event.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1911
First Division Results

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1911
Emperor of India Cup Series

Liverpool defeated Bolton
Four Matches to Three

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1911
First Division Co-Champions and Emperor of India Cup Winners




Liverpool Reds