1924 FINAL
All of the drama was confined to the Dominion Association pennant race, with the result in doubt until the very last day. Lambeth maintained a slim lead over Glasgow and Leeds for most of the second half. The Lambs put together one of the most successful starting trios in BA history, as Douglas Debenham (21-13, 3.70 ERA), Luke Corbishly (20-7, 2.85 ERA), and Matthew Timblick (20-14, 3.15 ERA) all passed the twenty-win mark. Infielders Evan Land (.357, 7 HR, 69 RBI) and third-year man Davis Barnes (.317, 7 HR, 79 RBI), getting his first chance to start on a regular basis, provided the bulk of an offense that ranked eighth in team batting average but third in runs scored. Glasgow's pitching staff posted a DA-best 3.33 ERA, due in large part to the efforts of Dominique Meyer (27-10, 2.86 ERA), whose baffling array of pitches kept opposing batters off balance throughout the season. At the plate, infielder Joseph Roskilly (.331, 2 HR, 99 RBI) and center fielder William Hebron (.345, 0 HR, 61 RBI) formed the core of an offense that hit a collective .293. Leeds hit only .284 as a team, but still managed to score 773 runs, second-most in the DA. The lineup contained five .300 hitters, including Andrew Noden (.314, 11 HR, 87 RBI), while George Cutting (.252, 13 HR, 51 RBI) captured the circuit's home run crown. On the hill, the Ironsides relied on the left-right combination of Danny Pankhurst (22-11, 2.81 ERA) and Joe Crook (19-14, 3.45 ERA). At the beginning of September, Lambeth held a tenuous one-and-a-half game lead over Glasgow, but the Lambs soon fell into a seven-game losing streak, and by the middle of the month their lead had shrunk to a half-game. Lambeth recovered, winning five straight and taking two of three against Leeds, but they dropped five of their next six while Glasgow and Leeds played catch-up, and Glasgow took over first place with a week left in the season on 29 September when they defeated Hull. That win proved costly, however, as Meyer left the game with a strained arm muscle that put him on the DL. Lambeth and Leeds stayed close, and when Glasgow, playing a season-ending series at home against Leeds, lost the second game of their four-game set, that created a three-way tie for first place with only two games left to play. The Gaelics regrouped and beat the Ironsides in the final two contests, while Lambeth, who kept pace by winning their next-to-last game against Islington, dropped the season finale 2-0 to Owl southpaw Tim Seddon (13-16, 3.78 ERA), thus giving Glasgow the pennant by the smallest of margins. Hull, last year's wooden spoon recipients, finished fourth behind the pitching of Bevis Spargo (20-11, 3.73 ERA) and the hitting of RBI leader John Vanstone (.339, 11 HR, 104 RBI) and William Watson (.358, 9 HR, 86 RBI). Sheffield ended up in fifth place primarily due to the efforts of hurlers Sean Alker (20-17, 3.53 ERA) and Corcoran McKelrae (19-13, 3.48 ERA), who was picked up from Lambeth before the beginning of the season.
In contrast to the tight race in the DA, the EL pennant hunt was dominated by one team: Liverpool. The Argonauts held onto the lead that they had built up in the first half and spent the rest of the season fending off all challengers. On the mound, the Argonauts boasted the best starting trio in the EL, with Ken Drummond (25-10, 2.55 ERA), Nick Fernyhough (23-11, 3.06 ERA), and Dwayne Scott (19-11, 3.76 ERA) ably shouldering the pitching burdens. The offense pushed 838 runs across the plate during the season, best in the Alliance. Craig Watt (.338, 2 HR, 69 RBI) finished third in the batting race, while Finley Badman (.287, 9 HR, 94 RBI) and Michael Bligh (.314, 12 HR, 81 RBI) supplied the power. In the face of this combination of excellent pitching and efficient hitting, the rest of the competition wilted. Dublin, runners up at the halfway point, played without inspiration in the second half and fell to fourth. Thirty-year-olds John Morris (22-8, 2.53 ERA) and William Westcott (.351, 16 HR, 109 RBI) had the best years of their careers, and the six regulars who hit over .300 contributed to an offense that led the EL with a .298 batting average. Bradford, by winning twenty-two of their last twenty-nine games, moved up to second place, the Badgers' best finish since their Cup-winning 1906 campaign. Tony Chetwynd (23-14, 3.61 ERA) led a pitching staff that registered a collective 3.28 ERA, which topped the League. Slugger Robert Ducker (.312, 9 HR, 97 RBI) sparked the offense, but despite hitting at an impressive .294 tempo, the Badgers ranked tenth in the circuit in runs scored. Brad Backhouse (.337, 11 HR, 65 RBI) and Benjamin Anstruther (.300, 17 HR, 91 RBI) spearheaded the Nottingham offense, but the Foresters ended up with the same third-place finish and 85-win record that they had at the conclusion of the 1923 season. The big reason was the pitching, which, apart from the efforts of Samuel "Pal" Buttery (20-16, 3.17 ERA), was a disappointment, and that called into question the wisdom of the June trade that sent Billy Dutton (20-11, 3.87 ERA) to Hull. Salford played consistently, if not spectacularly, in the second half to wind up in fourth place, which marked the first time they had achieved back-to-back first-division finishes since consecutive third-places in 1904-05. Bees fans were all abuzz over Marmaduke "The Great" Taylor (.310, 20 HR, 94 RBI), who had a season befitting his nickname and topped the majors in home runs. The team, however, never overcame the July injury that ended Alexander Hepburn's (11-8, 3.30 ERA) promising season. Westminster coaxed an excellent performance out of young right-hander Dave Sledge (25-13, 3.01 ERA), but the rest of the pitching staff was a disaster for which not even a lineup batting at a .290 pace could compensate.
1924 CUP FINALS SERIES: LIVERPOOL v. GLASGOW
In a rematch of the 1923 Series, Glasgow sent Eric "Scissors" Morris (15-15, 3.69 ERA), subbing for the injured Dominque Meyer, to the mound to face Argonaut ace Ken Drummond in the opener at Liverpool. Both pitchers, however, got hammered, with Liverpool going out ahead 9-4 in the fourth inning on a grand slam by "Tacky" Fraser MacInnes (.346, 15 HR, 80 RBI). Glasgow, though, would not quit, and the visitors clawed their way back in the final three frames to tie the score at nine apiece. In the bottom of the ninth, Finley Badman faced Gaelic reliever Dustin Johnson (2-2, 2 SV, 4.44 ERA) with a man on and two outs. On a 2-2 pitch, he launched a towering drive into left-center bleachers for his second homer of the day, and Liverpool took the opening game by a score of 11-9. Badman ended up with three hits and five RBI to lead the home team. Olcar "Sheriff" Cuzen (18-12, 3.23 ERA), who had been obtained from Leeds at the trade deadline, started for Glasgow in game two against Nick Fernyhough, and the Liverpudlians rudely greeted their Glaswegian guests with a four-run outburst in the first inning. The Argos would add five more tallies against Cuzen and reliever Johnson before it was all over, while Fernyhough held the opposition to seven hits en route to a complete-game 9-1 triumph. MacInnes added three hits to his total, and left fielder "Slippery" John Mildren (.278, 3 HR, 27 RBI) collected three RBI at the bottom of the order. Dwayne Scott went to the mound for Liverpool against Morris in game three at Glasgow. Argonaut left fielder Michael Oldknow (.333, 2 HR, 64 RBI) started off the scoring with a solo homer in the first, but Scott showed some nervousness in the bottom of the frame, giving up three runs on two walks and three hits. He settled down after that, however, and that allowed the Argo offense to take over. When Badman hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning, it capped off a 10-3 victory. Craig Watt had three hits and as many RBI for the winners. It was Drummond against John Shepherd (13-13, 4.23 ERA) in the fourth game, and Glasgow's bats came out of the gate swinging. The Gaelics scored once in the first inning and four more times in the second, with the key hit coming on a two-run double by Sebastian Meadmore (.318, 0 HR, 54 RBI). Liverpool, though, would not be deterred. A two-run homer by William "Bummer" Houlbrook (.263, 1 HR, 35 RBI) ignited a four-run rally in the top of the fourth, which tied the score at 5-5. The deadlock lasted until the eighth, when Badman sent a full-count fastball into the stands for his fourth home run of the Series. Drummond then held the Gaelics scoreless the rest of the way, inducing Curran Newmarch (.262, 5 HR, 42 RBI) to ground out with a runner on base to end the game, and the Argonauts topped off their sweep of Glasgow with a 5-4 victory. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Finley Badman, who hit .625 with four homers and ten RBI, deserved the MVP accolades.
THE MINORS
Westminster's minor-league affiliates had far more success than their parent club. The Oldham Athletics captured the Southern Conference crown for the second year in a row and dispatched the Bolton Rovers, Belfast's farm club, in three games to take the Second Tier title.
The Hackney Mudlarks came out on top in the Albion Conference race, but Westminster's youngsters fell in five games to the York Whitecoats of the Birmingham system, which made York the champions of the Third Tier for the second consecutive year.
ALLIANCE LEADERS
Empire League
Hitting
BA: .368 Greg Helton, Camberwell
HR: 20 Marmaduke "The Great" Taylor, Salford
RBI: 109 William Westcott, Dublin
R: 112 Benjamin Anstruther, Nottingham
SB: 47 Les Sedgwick, Birmingham
Pitching
W: 25 Ken Drummond, Liverpool; Dave Sledge, Westminster
L: 22 Dermot Iddeson, Portsmouth
K: 127 Ken Drummond, Liverpool
ERA: 2.53 John Morris, Dublin
SV: 15 Henry Forman, Camberwell; Walt Sanderson, Edinburgh
Drummond came within 0.02 of winning the ERA title and the pitching triple crown.
Dominion Association
Hitting
BA: .371 Buddy Thompson, Islington
HR: 13 George Cutting, Leeds
RBI: 104 John Vanstone, Hull
R: 106 Kyle Cole, Sheffield
SB: 35 Hogan Orme, Bristol
Pitching
W: 27 Dominique Meyer, Glasgow
L: 22 Galvin Bogle, Bristol
K: 141 Allan "Big Stick" Milborn, Stoke
ERA: 2.51 Cameron Lauder, Leicester
SV: 18 David "Pop" MacEachan, Belfast
Florida native Thompson, in his third year in the BA, is only twenty-one years old. This was his first full season as a regular member of the Islington lineup. Meyer's twenty-seven wins were the most in the majors since Ken Drummond collected the same number in 1919.