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

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division Tables

Three non-league sides challenged the two North clubs seeking re-election to Division 3 of the Baseball League. Voting -

37      Wrexham             Re-elected to the League
33	Derby County	    Re-elected to the League
11	Mansfield Town	    Not elected to the League
7	Scun-thorpe & Lindsey United	Not elected to the League
2	Shrewsbury Town	    Not elected to the League

Three non-league sides challenged the two South clubs seeking re-election to Division 3 of the Baseball League. Voting -

42      Plymouth Argyle     Re-elected to the League
27	Swindon Town	    Re-elected to the League
16	Ipswich Town	    Not elected to the League
3	Argonauts           Not elected to the League
2	Kettering Town	    Not elected to the League

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division Team Batting and Pitching

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division North Award Winners



Baseballer of the Year: Killian McTier




Batsman of the Year: Brian McNeil




Pitcher of the Year: Louis Blackburn




Newcomer of the Year: Chris Stephen

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division South Award Winners


Baseballer of the Year: Billy Siddall




Batsman of the Year: Cecil Nott




Pitcher of the Year: Max Hopkins




Newcomer of the Year: Hector Hawkridge

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division League Leaders

Northern Section

Batting Leaders

Pitching Leaders

Southern Section

Batting Leaders

Pitching Leaders

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division Top Game Performances

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division Top Systems

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Baseball League 1927
Third Division Financial Report

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Nelson Club Expelled.

Investigation of Improprieties Also Revealed Intractable Financial Woes.

A Commission of the Baseball League, Mr. J. McKenna in the chair, met in Sheffield yesterday to make their final decision into matters affecting the Nelson Baseball Club, and the allegations made against the club’s dealings.

The Commission, having inquired into the allegations that Mr. A. Richardson, manager of the club, made proposals with the object of procuring the results of certain matches, is of the opinion that the evidence in support of the charges was so unsatisfactory that, having regard to the seriousness of them, they did not feel justified in enforcing the full penalty, but there is no reason to doubt that Mr. Richardson acted irregularly in other matters, and for this he is suspended for six months. The Commission expressed its dissatisfactions with the statements made to it by Mr. E. Wells, manager of the Wolverhampton Club, Mr. E. Moore, the manager of Bransley, and Mr. C. Palmer, manager of Manchester City.

Concomitant with the investigation into such personal indecorousness was that into club misconduct regarding alleged payments of bonuses to players of the Nelson club, and the misrepresentation of the amateur status of certain players on the reserve squad. The report of the Commission states that the Commission experienced great difficulty in obtaining the information that they considered necessary from the club. They examined such books as were obtainable and also took the evidence of officials, directors, members of the committees, and players, and they found that the club had failed to observe the rules and regulations of both the Baseball Association and the Baseball League.

Further examination revealed that the club has lost almost £2,000 in three of the past four seasons, and furthermore it has been easily observable that Nelson has failed to produce the level of gate necessary to maintain sufficient interest of the community and its supporters in the club’s inclusion in the League. In three of the past four years fewer than 64,000 supporters showed up to Nelson matches, and in 1924 the figure was 48,000, fewer than 800 per game. This does not meet the standard of the Baseball League.

In view of the various circumstances surrounding the club, the Commission made the recommendation to immediately expel the club from the League and to invite the Mansfield Town club of the Britannia League to take their place for the 1928 season. Mansfield Town finished the season with a form of 57 wins and a win rate of 56 per cent., near of the top of that league, and as importantly, drew of a gate exceeding 200,000 spectators for the season, both of which augur for their ability to provide steady competition and strong gates as a League club beginning next season. The status of the Nelson Baseball Club for 1928 is as yet uncertain.

[darkcloud4579]

This is absolutely astounding. Just got caught up with everything you've been doing here in recent months (I was tuning in early on) and just astounded in every way. So great!

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Baseball League Rejects Substitute Batsman Law Change.

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.

Among the routine discussions and actions that typically take place at such meetings arose the question of the implementation of the permanent substitute batsman in place of the pitcher during matches as a matter of course. Such a change would result in the pitcher no longer batting during the game, but instead a batsman not playing the game in the field would bat in the pitcher's normal place in the batting order. In this way, there would still be nine batsmen in the batting order, and nine fieldsman including the pitcher on defence, but ten players on a side would be active in the playing of the match at any given time.

The idea first arose twenty or so years ago, and the topic has scarcely been broached since then. A cadre of club chairmen from the Third Division, led by Mr. F. Milnes of Darlington from the Northern Section, and Mr. E. Jones of Aberdare Athletic from the Southern Section, proffered the change towards the end of the proceedings. At first they suggested adoption across all divisions, but upon round rejection voiced by the majority of the club chairmen of the top two tiers, the former then suggested its adoption only in the Third Division as a test of the idea. Their argument, that an increased run scoring attack would be beneficial to both pitchers and fieldsmen, as well as more interesting to spectators, won favour among the majority of clubs with lower turnovers, but given a majority vote in the affirmative among all 88 clubs was needed to pass the motion, it went down to a sound defeat by several dozens of ballots cast.

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NOTE: See disclaimer regarding era-based commentary here.

Baseball League.

The Opening of the Season.

The baseball season of 1927 ended in a tense atmosphere. Up to the final week-end it was uncertain which league clubs would be promoted and which relegated—so even, indeed, was the position in the First Division such that the result of one series of matches could almost transform a club from one of the strugglers at the bottom of the table into one of the aristocrats at the top. In the end Blackburn Rovers and Rotherham United descended and Preston North End and Sunderland went up, while old London Town was denied the consolation of the rise of Tottenham Hotspur, once League stalwarts and erstwhile EOI Cup winners, from the Southern Section of the Third Division into the Second.

The season, which opens to-morrow, will start on a note of somewhat childlike optimism. All the defeats, disappointments and injuries of last season will be forgotten, every club sees themselves potential Champions, and a ghostly cup glitters in not a few committee-rooms whilst chairmen gaze longingly at the apparition. Grimsby Town, last year’s Champions, are a triumphant example of the success of the wholesale buying of players. The year before saw them fall just short of the Championship despite their winning of the EOI Cup. To close the remaining gap, they bought heavily and won their way to the top of the table. They owe a bigger debt to McConnell, however, than they do to their money. One man as a rule cannot make a baseball team as he can a cricket side, but McConnell is no ordinary baseballer. He had one of the great pitching seasons in recent memory, as the winner of 23 games against only six losses, a fantastic record that meant the difference between a Division Championship and a finish out of the top two. He should keep Grimsby Town again well in the hunt for another Championship and Cup.

Walsall’s Continuing Greatness.

The real heroes of the season, however, were Walsall Swifts. The many-time Champions of the League had finished in the fifth place in 1926, and were thought to finish even lower for 1927 as the season commenced. Indeed, as of July 1, they had lost more games than they had won and were firmly ensconced in the middle of the table. But they then embarked on a wonderful win streak, victorious in 72 per cent. of their matches in July and 70 per cent. in August, and by the start of the final month were situated in familiar position among the top two sides. They withstood a final two week charge from Luton Town, who won eleven of their final thirteen, by winning eight of their own during the same period to finish in the second Cup tie position by a single length. Were the season one week longer they may have broken, but did not, and fought Grimsby hard throughout the series to fall just short of Cup glory. But their spectacular run served them well to maintain their position as perhaps the greatest club in the annals of the League, and a certain contender in the upcoming season. As long as they have Ramsay and Elcock as youths on their roll, they must be considered one of the best teams in British baseball.

Besides the two Cup series clubs of last season, an ascendant Newcastle United must be reckoned with, their dusky home run hitter Slattery poised to slug them to the top of the table, and moundsmen Long and White prepared to lead them from the hill. Crewe Alexandra are looking to shake off an uncharacteristically poor showing that nearly got them expelled to the Second Division after having finished among the top five each of the prior eight seasons. They have “reloaded” after having received poor showings from their batsmen among a rash of injuries, and looked strong during spring practice matches in Portugal this past month. Leicester City and Chesterfield will surely make the proceedings as interesting as they can, and hope to steal glory from the better teams by outworking and outplaying their rivals.

Preston North End, who come up, are a side whose success no one can grudge. Even more than Sunderland, who return after a brief exile from the top flight, they had scuffled in the second half of the top tier table for some years before finally falling after the 1926 season, but immediately proved themselves to be the class of the second level by winning 60 per cent. of their games and earning their shot at top opponents once again.

The Lower Divisions.

Two clubs new to the Second Division from different directions will likely be the ones fighting for promotion after the coming season. Blackburn Rovers were very active in the close season trying to fill holes at third base, with Judge from Merthyr Town, and at first base, with Green from Grimsby Town, who had been pushed out of consideration of a starting job given the arrival of Job White from the Arsenal two years ago. They hope to make their stay in the Second Division, their first appearance there since before the war, a very brief one. From the other end, the Durham City club had crushed their competition in the Northern Section of the Third Division and seem ready to follow the path of Exeter City, Accrington Stanley, and most recently Watford before them, leaping from the obscurity of the lowest level to the heights of the highest level. The first two fell quickly back to earth, and the fate of the third remains to be seen, but none of this will daunt the Citizens from taking their chance at the risk of repeating the same route. The other clubs which did well during spring practice were South Shields, Sheffield United and the newly promoted Birmingham clubs. London has some hope for advancement from Chelsea and West Ham United.

In the Third Division, which does not benefit from full fixtures list for spring practice the way the top two flights do, it is more difficult to hazard a prognostication for the upcoming season, but suffice it to say that based on expert observation, the top clubs in the Northern Section appear to be: New Brighton; Stockport County; Manchester City; and Leeds united. For the Southern Section, the better clubs to keep your eye on are: Merthyr Town; Southampton; Portsmouth; and Bristol Rovers (not to be confused with newly relegated Bristol City). London’s best chance for advancement to the Second Division lies with Charlton Athletic and Tottenham Hotspur, although neither were named by experts as being among the top of the southern clubs.

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Baseball League 1928: Clubs

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Baseball League 1928: Club Locations


First Division




Second Division




Third Division North




Third Division South

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Gill Fourth Top Tier Player to Make Three Home Runs in a Game.

The effect of the new baseball has been readily apparent to even the most casual watcher of baseball matches this season, and the new whiter ball has been observed flying out of grounds around the League at an alarming rate since the first matches of May. Saturday was merely the latest example of this. Peter Gill, the squat but powerful catcher for the Nottingham Forest club, took advantage of a warm day and a friendly wind blowing towards left field to power home runs on three separate occasions over that same wall. Gill made a home run in the first innings, a twobee in the third and another homer in the fourth. The starting pitcher Atkinson had seen enough and served Gill a base on balls on four straight wide throws in the sixth innings, but relief pitcher Elwell apparently had not been paying attention to the game before coming in, as he served up a plum to Gill who laced his third clout over the left field wall in the seventh. Forest took the match by a count of 12 runs to one.

Gill became the fourth batsman in the annals of the First Division to make three home runs in a single game, and the second this year, as Hunt of Everton as hit three in a June match at Villa Park against Aston Villa. 

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Staid Cup Match Turns Wild at End.

Tuesday’s EOI Cup match began rather quietly. Fulham had worked their way to a two runs to one lead after six innings. A fine “duel” between the pitchers, Pujara for Fulham and Smith for Chesterfield, seemed destined to end as a tight match. And then the floodgates opened. The Cottagers scored two runs in the seventh innings and four more in top of the eighth, whilst the Spireites put up two of their own in the bottom of the innings. Fulham took a commanding 12 runs to three lead with another four runs in their half of the ninth innings, which featured a home run made by substitute right fieldsman King. The Spireites showed some life of their own in the ninth, however, and although they fell well short and lost the match, their own four runs gave the almost 30,000 spectators one last thing to cheer.

The result was, after three runs had been scored during the whole of the first six innings, the sides scored sixteen between them in the last three innings. This is yet more proof that unlike football, no lead is safe in baseball and indeed, the game you think you are watching may turn out to be a completely different game at the end.

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Fulham Take Cup with Historic Thumping of Spireites.

As if to punctuate the high attack nature of the EOI Cup series, the sixth and final match of the series ended up as the most run-happy of all. Fulham completed their quest for the Cup with a 17 runs to five tarring and feathering of the Chesterfield baseball club. The highlight of the match from Fulham’s point of view was the sixth innings in which they plated ten runs to put away the match for good, after which most of the 29,000 spectators watching at Saltergate trudged wearily home, presumably to lick their wounds, forget about baseball for a while, and prepare themselves for the Chesterfield football club’s home match against Darlington on Saturday.

In no match during the series did the winning side score fewer than nine runs, and the 17 scored on Monday were the most by a club in an EOI series. A grand total of 90 runs were scored between the two clubs in the six matches. The previous high mark occurred in the 1922 series during which Walsall and Manchester United combined to score 81 runs in seven games.

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Baseball League 1928
First Division Results

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Baseball League 1928
EOI Cup Series

Fulham defeated Chesterfield
Four Matches to Two