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

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1926
Third Division League Leaders

Northern Section

Batting Leaders

Pitching Leaders

Southern Section

Batting Leaders

Pitching Leaders

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1926
Third Division Top Game Performances

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1926
Third Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1926
Third Division Top Systems

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1926
Third Division Financial Report

[chucksabr]

Baseball League Annual Meeting.
Wigan Borough Resign from League.

The annual meeting of the Baseball League was held at the Connaught Rooms, in London, yesterday morning. Mr. J. McKenna (the president) was in the chair.

When the question of the election of clubs came up the President said that, as arranged previously, the clubs competing in the Southern and Northern Sections of the Third Division had been requested to make recommendations to the Management Committee as to the constitution of their respective competitions for next season. After inquiries, both sections recommended the re-elections of the retiring clubs—Wrexham, Merthyr Town, Swindon Town, and Tranmere Rovers—and the Management Committee, while desiring that the strongest possible clubs should be in the competition, made no recommendation to the meeting. By vote the recommendations of the sections were accepted.

Later in the afternoon, it was announced that the Wigan Borough baseball club are withdrawing from the Baseball League effective immediately. The club entered the League in 1921 with the absorption of the Central League to create the Northern Section of the Third Division. During their time in the League, Borough suffered both on the pitch and at the gate. They finished bottom of the Northern table in both 1924 and 1925 before recovering slightly to 19th this past season.

But Borough did not succeed at the gate even in the halcyon days following the war, never having drawn more than 140,747 supporters in a season, which works out to not much more than 2,200 paying customers per game. But their attendance fell from that dubious high point to 58,207 the following season, fewer than one thousand patrons per match, and although an improved squad drew more than 78,000 at the gate this season, that is simply not enough to field a team in the Baseball League, even in the lowest level and with the lowest of wage bills. It is said that Wigan’s turnover may have been less £3,000 this past season. Compare this figure with the estimated£18,000 in gate revenue enjoyed by prosperous Third Division clubs such as Gillingham and Birmingham, and it can be clearly seen that Wigan Borough does not now belong in the League, and probably never have. In lieu of an unqualified wind-up, Borough will continue operating their baseball team and play in the Britannia League next season.

In the place of the Wigan Borough club, Carlisle United, who fell well short by vote for inclusion in the League but nevertheless received the most support among the rejected bids during those proceedings, will be accepted into the League beginning with the 1927 season. United finished second in the Britannia League this season with 62 victories for a 61 per cent. win rate.

[chucksabr]

Here's a fun table I thought I would share: this is the division progression for each of the 103 clubs who have ever played in the League between 1889 and 1926. The records for 1888 are lost and need to be reconstructed. Missing numbers for clubs indicate their non-inclusion in the League for that season.

[chucksabr]

Here's something else I could share on a once in a while basis.

These are these top ten active batsmen in the Baseball League for both career and for the last three seasons, both overall and by division, ranked by VORP.

Top ten active career overall



Top ten active career by Division



Top ten active last three seasons overall (1924-26)



Top ten active last three seasons by Division (1924-26)



Is this kind of thing interesting? Or not so much?

[dynaboyj]

I find it interesting. It's a shame you can't really simulate a cup without having to associate the leagues/schedule it manually and not have stats in-game, because it'd be cool to see how Third Division and even non-league teams would do against First Division teams.

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by dynaboyj

I find it interesting. It's a shame you can't really simulate a cup without having to associate the leagues/schedule it manually and not have stats in-game, because it'd be cool to see how Third Division and even non-league teams would do against First Division teams.

Yeah, I really wish I could do that. The only thing I would really need, at minimum, to make it work would be the ability to move teams from a regular season to an alternate season and back, and that probably could be done if we could keep stats for exhibitions.

I will say, though, that scheduling would be an issue if I couldn't do best-of series during the season, and I can not. But I could still do that manually if I could do the alternate season thing. Give me that, and I'm ready to go. Heck, I even have the grid for the 1927 League Cup based on 1926 results all ready to go!

[chucksabr]

Just to close the loop on this, these are these top ten active pitchers in the Baseball League for both career and for the last three seasons, both overall and by division, ranked by VORP.

Top ten active career overall



Top ten active career by Division



Top ten active last three seasons overall (1924-26)



Top ten active last three seasons by Division (1924-26)

[chucksabr]

Prospects for the New Season.

After many trial matches, and a great amount of work in the re-organization of teams by means of trades, transfers, and diligent search for young and unattached players—hard work which is often not realized by the spectators—the Baseball League season will be begun in real earnest on Monday.

Almost fifty years on, Baseball has indeed become a most thrilling game. One stroke will often change the whole trend of play. A home run with men on the bases may make of a deficit a handsome lead. The game has been carried to a high degree of perfection. That is to be seen not only in the terrific hitting over long distances, the pitching with its cunning swerves and tremendous speed, the quick fielding, and the long and accurate returns of the ball from the outfield—but also in the codes of signals given by pitcher or catcher, or by the coach on the sideline where he has a place of his own marked off. Each player knows thereby what is likely to happen and is therefore on alert. The catcher faces the pitcher throwing his hardest with only a head mask, a huge chest protector, and an enormous glove on his left hand. He passes few balls that the batsmen miss. The batsman has no protection save his club. The big batters appear when the bases are well filled and the chance is offered to drive in several runs with a great hit. They can be drafted in at an emergency as a "pinch" batsmen, even though they did not appear at the start of the game. So, too, if the pitcher is off colour or “blows up”, as they say, he may be called off and a fresh man sent out to take his place. That is readily understood when the effort demanded in pitching is noted, for he may easily strain his arm or shoulder, and then he is of little use, and few pitchers can last through a whole game. It is a system that adherents of other top British sports, such as football or cricket, cannot altogether appreciate. To play the game really well requires great skill, constant practice, and thorough fitness, and also a quiet and unruffled temperament. The realization and understanding of all this is in itself the reward for the devotion to the sport of baseball that the most ardent of supporters profess, and practise.

In the top level of British baseball, Oldham Athletic start at the head of the championship, having last year managed to deprive Crewe Alexandra of the chance to repeat their triumph. Coventry City and Preston North End have gone down into the Second Division for the coming season, Watford and Leicester City having been promoted to take their place. Watford is now the third London club to play their way into the senior competition of late, following Fulham who had made the grade the season prior. The Arsenal and Derby County, as the two bottom clubs in the Second Division, go down, and Leeds United, winners of the Northern Section, and West Ham United, winners of the Southern Section, are promoted to the Second Division beginning this season.

The Arsenal were actually level on record with Bradford Park Avenue, but even though they were also level on runs scored, the Arsenal conceded a full 51 runs more runs than Bradford, and so they draw the short straw and will play their trade in the lowest level of the League. The Arsenal were actually well advantaged going into the last two weeks with a five game lead over Bradford, but lost nine of their last 13 to fall level, and then to lose out based on runs difference. It was only the latest galling development in the chequered history of the Gunners team. The club has clearly had much greater success on the football pitch, even despite their performance in recent seasons, than on the baseball pitch.

Two new proposals have been made during the close season. One will be that of the numbering of the players, to take effect immediately. It is a development that is generally welcomed. Numbers for baseball are not as necessary—for the enjoyment of the spectators—as they are in Rugby Football, but there are occasions when it is not easy to tell who it is coming to the bat. The League will become the first baseball organisation in the world to mandate the numbering of players.

The adoption of the other proposal, that of maintaining bright white baseballs during play at all times, has been tabled for one more year and will be begun for the 1928 season. This law change was prompted by the serious injury to Simeon Beckett of Huddersfield Town, who was hit in the temple with a pitch last May 25 and spent the ensuing three months in hospital hovering near death. In America, Ray Chapman, of the Cleveland Indians, was killed by a pitched ball in 1920 which led to the adoption of a new ball law in the major leagues. The safety of batsmen notwithstanding, objections by numerous clubs, particularly those in the Third Division, centred on the great expense of providing numerous baseballs, perhaps several dozen during each match. The delay of one year was agreed to as a compromise to assuage their concerns and to allow them to properly budget for the expense.

On the pitch, the spring practice sessions saw the strong return of the Walsall club to previous form, and they won the Portugal competitions among the First Division clubs. Elcock and Ramsey look as excellent as ever, and their keenest competition appears to come from Newcastle United, who seek to cap a decade long slog from the depths of the Second Division back to the top of the championship, as they were so often at the beginning of this Century. They are led by the pitching duo of Long and Hall, the former approaching the end of the fairly good career, and the latter quite possibly the best pitcher in the League these days, still young at age 26 and in the prime of his athletic prowess.

As for the Second Division, despite their weak showing in Portugal, the strongest side appears to be Sunderland who were exiled for the past season and look sharp enough to make their way back into the top flight. They will have to beat the likes of Liverpool, who are trying to return to the First Division for the first time since 1921, and Preston North End, who dropped down this past season. In the Third Division, the strongest sides appear to be Doncaster and Stockport County in the Northern Section, and Birmingham, Portsmouth, and Tottenham Hotspur in the Southern Section.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1927: Clubs

<<<<< Most uniforms courtesy of forum member
No Pepper >>>>>

.
.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1927: Club Locations


First Division




Second Division




Third Division North




Third Division South (Queens Park Rangers not shown)

[chucksabr]

Baseball League Broadcast.

A Lively Narrative.

The first Saturday match of the season at the Craven Cottage ground, between the Fulham and Bolton baseball clubs, resulted in a win for the Cottagers by a single run, and in an extra innings. It was a cracking affair with the score level at three after nine innings. Bolton Wanderers scored a run in the top of the tenth innings, but Fulham struck back in the bottom of the innings with a single, a 2B, a run scoring fly ball out to right field, and a Clark double to score Colley from second base for the victory. It was a taut and tense affair that was well contested by the Wanderers, who simply fell short in the end.

The experiment carried out by the British Broadcasting Corporation of transmitting from the ground an account of the match was entirely successful. Captain Fred Shelton, the retired Blackpool second base man who spoke the narrative, had a very difficult task, and performed it well. With a colleague he watched the game from a small hut in which a microphone was installed. The microphone picked up many sounds in addition to that of Captain Shelton’s voice. It was, indeed, a most faithful barometer of the enthusiasm of the 10,000 spectators, and the lively narrative which was broadcast all over the country from Craven Cottage went on against a background of continual hubbub, which now rose to a roar and now faded to a whisper. Efforts have been made before to convey “local colour” and “background” over the wireless; but none has been so effective and convincing as this.

In this circumstance Captain Shelton was at a distinct advantage when the game began, and he started addressing his audience of some 10,000,000 people. He chose the very simplest style of speech, that of an acutely interested spectator; and his frequent use of the sort of phrases that everybody watching the game must have been using made his story all the more convincing. None who listened could have failed to follow every detail of the game, and it was sound policy to state the score at short intervals as well as when there were additions to it. The burst of cheering that greeted the base on balls to Walsh in the bottom of the eighth innings to score Richards and bring Fulham level almost drowned the narrator’s voice; but listeners learned all the same the implication that base on balls had on the tenor of the match. So it was with other outstanding points of the game.

At times the narrator was in doubt concerning some of the decisions of the umpires, but probably he was not alone in that; and, at any rate, whatever minor mistakes he made in describing what was going forward were speedily corrected. His staccato ejaculations like, “Pitch, contact, and base hit,” “Great stop, throw, and out,” “Grounder to second, throw, dropped, man’s on,” “Up and in, man goes down,” “Ball four, and a score”, and so forth, made the microphone seem a very human instrument.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1927
First Division Results

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1927
EOI Cup Series

Grimsby Town defeated Walsall
Four Matches to Two

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1927
First Division Champions and EOI Cup Winners





Grimsby Town Mariners

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1927
EOI Cup Runners Up


Walsall Swifts

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1927
First Division Table