1925 MID-SEASON
It was a two-team dogfight in the Dominion Association as Leeds and Glasgow battled for the head of the table. Glasgow, looking for their third-straight DA flag, got off to a slow start but picked up steam in May, winning twenty-one of their twenty-seven games in the month to vault into contention. The pitching rotation featured four hurlers with double-digit win totals. Dominique Meyer, coming off the biceps injury that kept him out of the 1924 Cup Finals Series, and John Shepherd, having his best season since his twenty-win rookie year in 1914, headed the mound corps. Third baseman Richard Stowe, who spent much of last season on the DL with various ailments, stayed healthy in the first half and responded with a team-leading .370 batting average, and shortstop Mike Allen chipped in with fifty RBI. Leeds managed to keep a half-step ahead of Glasgow for much of the spring. The offense hit a feeble .283, tenth in the circuit, but still scored more runs than anyone else. Third-year shortstop Cundles O'Neil paced the attack with a .328 average and forty-seven RBI, while center fielder Jack Pollock contributed with a .319 average. It was, however, the pitching staff that distinguished the Ironsides from the competition. The starting tandem of Danny Pankhurst and Joe Crook won twenty-five of their first thirty-seven decisions, and the staff combined for a 3.65 ERA, second only to Glasgow. The rivals ran neck-and-neck until Leeds hit a rough stretch at the end of June, which allowed Glasgow to pass them on the inside and finish the first leg of the race by four-and-a-half lengths. The rest of the Association followed at respectable distance. Manchester lost starting pitchers Paul Deakin and Michael Hastie to long-term injuries, and David Barwell, obtained in a trade with Edinburgh to fill the gap in the rotation, proved ineffective. Left-handed slugger George Kirkman, platooned at first base, carried the offense with a .379 average and nine home runs. Belfast was at the bottom of the Association with a .281 team batting mark, despite the efforts of veteran slugger Robert Crober, who knocked the ball at a .357 tempo, and sophomore left fielder Joe Maddy, who followed close behind with a .353 average and eleven return trippers. On the mound, Montreal native Nino François was on his way to a fine year when he tore a shoulder muscle in June which will put him on the shelf until late August. Stoke's left fielder Sean Toogood lived up to his name by leading the DA with a .378 batting average, while fellow sophomore Donnelly Flynn topped the home run category with fourteen and the RBI list with sixty-six. The formidable Potter offense, however, was offset by a shaky pitching staff, out of which only Allan "Big Stick" Milborn could be said to have performed well.
The situation was a bit more fluid at the summit of the Empire League. Edinburgh, behind the pitching of John Olivant and Bert Woolston and the hitting of infielder Michael Drudge and second-year outfielder Cameron Bailie, staked an early claim to the League lead. The Chieftans, however, ran out of steam at around the time they traded pitcher David Barwell to Manchester, and Woolston suffered a season-ending elbow injury on the eve of the all-star break, which does not bode well for Edinburgh's chances in the second half. As Edinburgh flickered, Nottingham caught fire, winning twenty games in May and climbing to the top of the standings. A balanced offense had five regulars hitting over .300, including sophomore catcher David Radway, whose .319 average and fifty-five RBI led the club. When infielder Benjamin Anstruther went down with a hamstring injury in late May, however, the Foresters' fortunes changed for the worse, and they fell to fourth place. London were on hand to fill the spot vacated by Nottingham, winning seventeen of twenty-five contests in June and making a serious bid for a pennant that they last held aloft in 1907. Left fielder Colm Catlow led the batting race with a .377 average, and center fielder Henry Mackaness was tops in the circuit with fourteen home runs. They were a big part of an offense that paced the League with a .308 composite average and 489 runs scored. On the mound, second-year hurler Algernon Swarbrick, obtained in a pre-season trade with Belfast, stunned the baseball world by compiling a 16-3 record, while unheralded left-handers Jude "Happy" Caswell and Brodie "Stubby" Thirwall combined for a 21-10 mark at the top of the rotation. Defending Cup holders Liverpool had trouble getting started as a result of the pre-season injury to pitching star Ken Drummond. He returned in June just as the Argonauts were getting back on track and won three-straight decisions before suffering a partially torn shoulder muscle that will sideline him for the rest of the campaign. Liverpool managed to overcome this latest hurdle, with rookie Euan Riach and journeyman Luc Martin ably picking up the slack in the starting rotation behind Nick Fernyhough. The formidable offense was spearheaded by infielder Michael Bligh, who hit .348 with sixty RBI, and "Tacky" Fraser MacInnes, who hit twelve home runs despite spending five weeks on the DL with a groin injury. Westminster hovered around the edges of the pennant fight until a late spurt boosted them into third place. Once again, Dave Sledge carried the pitching staff, compiling a 15-5 record in the early going, although injuries struck down half the rotation when Jerry Parker and rookie Michael Hakin went on the sixty-day DL. At the plate, rookie outfielders Bobby Langdon and John Wearne played well despite both of them spending time on the injured list.
Leicester's Rugg Field played host to the Alliance's annual All-Star Game. The Dominions broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fourth when they scored four times against "Stubby" Thirlwall, with the rally capped off when Sheffield catcher Adam Rowde lashed a bases-loaded triple into left-center field. Rowde later added a solo home run off Nick Fernyhough, and Manchester's George Kirkman hit his own bases-empty homer against John Olivant. Meanwhile, eight Dominion pitchers held the Empire all-stars to seven hits and a single run en route to a 8-1 victory. Rowde, with two hits and four RBI at the top of the order, was awarded the MVP honors.