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1928-29 OFF-SEASON

AWARDS

Empire League
Hitter: Jean-Louis "Rhino" Bourgeois, Newcastle (.369, 15 HR, 97 RBI, 87 R, 34 2B, .442 OBP, .557 SLG)
Pitcher: Eddie Allard, Liverpool (27-9, 3.41 ERA, 321.2 IP, 74 K, 1.26 WHIP, .274 OAVG)
Manager: Bill Jacobs, Liverpool (94-60, 1st place)
Rookie: Samuel Sluggett, Nottingham (.428, 7 HR, 47 RBI, 45 R, .466 OBP, .614 SLG)

Dominion Association
Hitter: Hogan Orme, Bristol (.338, 21 HR, 123 RBI, 125 R, 34 2B, 14 3B, 101 BB, 28 SB, .433 OBP, .552 SLG)
Pitcher: Woodrow Silver, Hull (21-14, 2.89 ERA, 333 IP, 102 K, 1.34 WHIP, .249 OAVG)
Manager: Douglas Lawley, Leicester (78-76, 6th place)
Rookie: Woodrow Silver, Hull (21-14, 2.89 ERA, 333 IP, 102 K, 1.34 WHIP, .249 OAVG)

Orme's choice as the DA's outstanding hitter had scholars scrambling for the record books to determine if the award had ever been given out to a member of a last-place team. They had to go back to the early days of professional baseball, when Hall-of-Famer Hugh Burton won in 1875 and again in 1877 while playing for wooden-spoon recipients Lambeth. Silver became only the second player to win the rookie of the year and the outstanding pitcher awards in the same year. He follows in the footsteps of Rio Minns, who accomplished the feat in 1878 while pitching for Newcastle.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

When Henry Stockill knocked a single against Portsmouth hurler Dermot Iddeson in a 4 September contest, it marked the 3,000th time that the Camberwell outfielder reached base via a hit. That makes him the fourth player to reach that milestone. In a 13 June contest at Westminster, Liverpool's Brian Johnson went five-for-six at the plate with three doubles and a three-run homer and collected nine RBI as the Argonauts crushed the Peers by a score of 18-2. Belfast hurler Carl "Beans" Kidner tied a DA record by striking out fourteen batters in a 29 July game against Glasgow. The Unions, however, lost the game 6-1, as Gaelic left hander Danny Smith pitched a one-hitter.

ALLIANCE NEWS

The owners gathered for their annual conference in Brighton, flushed with success and flush with cash after the most successful season yet for the BA. Kensington became the first club to draw over a million spectators, and attendance overall was at an all-time high. Some teams, however, continued to cause a financial drag on the rest, especially in the League, where small ballparks in Salford, Camberwell, and Portsmouth hurt the bottom lines of all the clubs. Salford, a perennial problem franchise, had to take out a loan with the Alliance to build a new ballpark in order to avoid a forced sale. Camberwell and Portsmouth, in relatively better shape, announced plans to open new facilities in time for the 1929 season after receiving financial backing from the League.

WESTMINSTER NEWS

It was a disappointing debut for new manager Bert Welford. The Peers got off to a good start, winning thirteen of their first nineteen matches, but the loss of Tad Packham, who was hitting .372 when a torn shoulder muscle sustained in an 8 May game at Newcastle ended his baseball career, halted whatever momentum the team had generated. Youngster Waldo Sizer moved up to take Packham's place in the lineup and played well, finishing the year with a .310 average in 125 games, and the team as a whole hit .291, third-best in the League, but the club played lackluster ball for most of the season. Dave Sledge, with a 22-19 record, was inconsistent, while Jerry Parker, who looked good in the early going, slipped to 21-20 by the end of the schedule. The third and fourth slots in the rotation were even more problematic, and Welford may have stuck with promising rookie left hander Joshua MacKay, who compiled an 8-14 mark in twenty-six starts, too long.

The club's sub-.500 finish -- their first since 1919 -- was cause for some adjustments in the Westminster roster. Parker was the first to go, shipped off to Dublin for minor league outfielder Sheehan Dawkes. Triple-A infielder Patrick Wisker, obtained from London last year, was dealt to Camberwell for double-A outfielder Joseph Mold. Career minor-leaguer Jeff Unruh went to Edinburgh for shortstop Michael Sherman. And finally, Devin Mabson, a career .322 hitter in fifteen seasons for Westminster and a fan favorite, was dealt to Camberwell for minor-league outfield prospect Harry Prescott. Except for Sherman, none of the acquisitions were expected to compete for starting jobs with the team. If the Peers were to improve, therefore, they would need to rely on their youngsters, especially Sizer, MacKay, and outfielder Adam "Chip" Eades, to come through with break-out seasons.

SPRING TRAINING 1929

Liverpool remained everybody's favorite to repeat as League champs, narrowly edging out surprise pick Edinburgh and Westminster. On the Dominion side of the Alliance, bettors favored Manchester over Kensington and Belfast.

Lambeth's starting second baseman Eddie Gillette, a career .304 hitter and winner of the 1925 gold glove at his position, was felled by a strained hamstring in a 13 March tune-up game against Glasgow. He's expected to miss the first two months of the season. Leicester pitcher George "Bird Dog" Fountain, who went 23-14 in 1926 but who spent most of the next two seasons on the DL, will miss much of the upcoming season with a ruptured finger tendon. Irish southpaw Brodie "Stubby" Thirlwall, a fourth-starter for London, will spend the entire campaign watching from the sidelines with his arm in a cast, courtesy of a torn elbow tendon suffered at the tail-end of spring training. Newcastle center fielder Donahue Boyle, who hit .299 in his sophomore season in 1928, will start the season on crutches after breaking his ankle in a game against Westminster. Keenan Coultman will be unavailable for the first three months of the season, as the Peers' infielder tore his ankle ligaments in the final game of the spring.

Liverpool and Westminster each grabbed a share of the spring derby by winning seventeen of twenty-four contests. It was a four-way tie in the DA, with Sheffield, Lambeth, Hull, and Kensington each winning fourteen times.