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

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Baseball League 1930
First Division League Leaders

Batting Leaders




Pitching Leaders

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Baseball League 1930
First Division Top Game Performances

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Baseball League 1930
First Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

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Baseball League 1930
First Division Top Systems

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Baseball League 1930
First Division Financial Report

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Gillingham Beat Notts in Extras
after Shocking Ninth Innings.

Never before had anything been seen quite like that which occurred at Prisestfield Stadium on Saturday. Notts County, well out of the promotion race, was having their way with Gillingham, newly up from the Third Division and equally out of the race. The Magpies had scored in seven of nine innings batting and had a seemingly insurmountable lead of 11 runs to 3, as the Gills came to the plate for their last chances.

Things started smoothly for Notts’ starting pitcher Watson as he induced Price into a ground out on the first pitch. Then the unravelling began. Watson issued walks to sub batsman Barritt and top of the order man Truscott. Seago singled on a fly ball to left field scoring Barritt for the first run, and Truscott and Seago both advanced a base on the throw to the home plate. Watson was replaced on the mound by Maddicks, who promptly walked the dangerous Mackay to fill the bases. Cole hit a soft ball to Notts second base man Ferguson who took the out at second, Truscott scoring for the second run. Another base on balls was issued, this time to Gillingham’s Ferguson, reloading the bases. Inman himself drew a walk next, scoring Seago for the third run, keeping the bases full, and signalling a big trouble for Gillingham.

Then the base hits started raining down. Elphick singled to score Cole and Ferguson; Price singled to score Inman, and after only three more pitches Gillingham had scored three more for a running total of six for the innings. The innings’ lead off batsman Barritt came up to the bat again and singled to score Elphick for the seventh run; then Truscott singled to score Price for the eighth run; and seemingly in no time at all, five walks and five hits had transpired and Gillingham had drawn level with Notts, the score standing at 11 all!

The few hundred rowdy fans remaining of the original six thousand or so were shouting and hollering their approval at this turn of events. Notts manager Mackenzie had seen enough of Maddicks, and even as the crowd beseeched Mackenzie to leave in Maddicks to finish their job for him, Mackenzie instead summoned pitcher Hunter to rush headlong into the fire of a very good base runner at second and one of the Gills' top batsmen at the plate. Hunter calmly did his job, however, by immediately throwing strikes: first one called, second one fouled, and third one hit benignly to the short stop for the third out, and now there were extra innings to play.

Notts, clearly shaken by the circumstances they themselves had caused, could scarcely put up a fight during the extras, and the roof finally came crashing down on their heads in the thirteenth as the Gills turned a single, a sacrifice, and another single plus a throwing error to complete the astonishing “comeback” for the victory, to the loud approbation of the hundreds remaining in the grandstands. It was, to the recollection of all who were queried, the greatest ninth innings performance by a home club in anyone’s memory.

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Young Davies’ Stupendous Season.

It is rare when a boy of eighteen can come into any profession, especially one as difficult and physically demanding as that of professional sport, and dominate the opposition in the way Joel Davies did this season.

This axiom is truer of baseball than of many other sports, such as Association football. In football, the most valued attribute among forwards, midfielders and defenders is speed, and so there are many short, slim, even skinny players whose charge, in the service of scoring goals, is to outrun the opponent. Not true of baseball: the speed needed is of a different type: running yes, but also throwing, and especially pitching. Strength in the torso, arms and shoulders are much valued in baseball, and the very best players, on the mound and at the bat, have that in spades.

Not Davies. He is tall, an even six feet, but he is lanky at 11 stone seven. No one can accuse him of being muscle-bound, and his fastest pitch is not exceptionally speedy even by Second Division standards. But Davies’ secret weapons are movement and control, as well as the ability to throw four different types of pitches, including the new-fangled "nickel curve", recently imported from America, a pitch which breaks towards the side and away from the batsman, rather than straight down as a traditional curve would.

Davies was signed directly out of secondary school in Gateshead by Clapton Orient, right under the noses of the South Shields club, actually, and was put straight to work on the O's reserve squad for the second half of 1929. He impressed greatly there and, even after a rough April in Portugal, started this season as the season's opening match starter, and he paid a great dividend immediately. Davies won his first six starts and never slowed down, also winning twelve straight between mid-June and mid-August, at the end of which he had notched his twentieth victory against only two losses, almost single-handedly leading Clapton to their runaway division championship. It was absolutely certain he would win the Newcomer of the Year award, and nearly certain he would win Pitcher of the Year. The astonishing question being asked was, could a player who has only just recently emerged from childhood win the Baseballer of the Year honour as well?

This was never a controversial question in the dressing room, however. Davies is an unusually poised young man, certain of his talents, and has a commanding presence both on the mound and off. The baseball writers of Britain, recognising his value to his club's promotion, nearly unanimously awarded him the highest accolade a player can achieve.

Having turned nineteen by the close of the season did not influence their decision—he was no less a leader then than he is now. Joel Davies is unquestionably the leader of the Clapton Orient baseball team, the Baseballer of the Year in the Second Division for 1930, and will likely be a force for batsmen to reckon with throughout the 1930’s and quite probably the 1940’s as well.

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Results

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Promoted Club

Clapton Orient O's

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Promoted Club

Sheffield Wednesday Owls

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Table

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Team Batting and Pitching

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Award Winners



Baseballer of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, and Newcomer of the Year: Joel Davies




Batsman of the Year: Aaron Lyall

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Top Game Performances

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Top Systems

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Baseball League 1930
Second Division Financial Report

[Trebro]

That "loss" given to the last guy in the wild Gills game is why "wins" and "losses" are such an awkward stat to judge quality. I'm pretty sure that game was lost in the 9th, just the final nail wasn't till he showed up and gave up *one.*

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Originally Posted by Trebro

That "loss" given to the last guy in the wild Gills game is why "wins" and "losses" are such an awkward stat to judge quality. I'm pretty sure that game was lost in the 9th, just the final nail wasn't till he showed up and gave up *one.*

I know, right? It wasn't Bert Hunter's fault that Watson lost the plate and then Maddicks found too much of it in the ninth. Hunter came in and got his one guy out. And he didn't pitch terribly, even giving up eight hits in his four innings, but he was going to inevitably lose at some point because his hitters just weren't giving him any help. But yeah, if anyone lost that game, it was Maddicks.

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Ransom’s Three Homers Lead Burnley
to Victory against Halifax Town.

Ernie Ransom, the young right fieldsman for the Burnley baseball club, put on a one-man show at Turf Moor on Monday to the delight of 1,798 supporters. Helped by a warm day and a strong wind towards left field, he led off the bottom of the first innings against Halifax Town starting pitcher Claude Copeland with a home run to provide the initial lead. After the Clarets fell behind in the game, Ransom also led off the sixth innings with another homer to bring the Clarets within two. He then drew his team level in seventh with his third blast. With that last blow, Ransom became the third man in the annals of the Third Division, and the fourteenth in League history, to hit three in a single match. All three were hit with no runners on the bases.

In the bottom of the ninth, Ransom had a fair chance to hit a fourth, which would have been a first for League baseball and also would have won the game for the Clarets. With sub batsmen MacAlonie and O’Solan on the second and first bases, respectively, pitcher Copeland, who had served up all three to Ransom, thought the better of it this time around and allowed him to advance to first on a base on balls instead. It was not the best of decisions, as MacPherson followed straight away with a sharp single past the short stop David for the Burnley win.

Burnley now stand at 17 wins and 14 losses, level for the seventh place with Liverpool and Southport. Halifax drop to twentieth with the loss.