British Baseball Stories, 1950-

[dynaboyj]

An offshoot of my player-snapshot thread, Albert Patterson and the Road to Recovery, this thread is a place to put anything notable about my British baseball league, established in 1922.

The league is a closed, two-tier pro-rel system, with 20 teams in the top flight and 24 teams in the bottom division. Every season, three teams go up and three teams go down. Every team has a Reserves affiliate (est. 1943) and an Under-21s system (est. 1947), and these teams get promoted/relegated as well. All 44 major-league teams compete in a postseason tournament.

Rather than providing a detailed introduction of the teams and history of the last 29 years of the league, I would rather just set the scene where I am right now, at the close of the 1950 season--a truly exceptional one.

[dynaboyj]

What made the 1950 season of the English Baseball League so special? First of all, the home run record--set in 1947 by Liverpool's Perry Tucker--was absolutely smashed open after having been tied the previous year at 29. This year, three players hit over 30, with leader Josh Clarke of Oxford hitting 9 a month for a total of 36.

The home-run craze was already expected, though, as players got beefier and power and pop overtook small-ball acumen. The story of the year was the incredible Luton Seadogs, who became just the second team to win Division One after being promoted that same year. The first one, Bradford in 1926, came in just the fifth year of the system's existence--Luton had been playing under Division Two finances and rules for the past five years. Their win was rarely contested--throughout all four months of the season, they stayed upwards of three games ahead of their opponents. And impressively, Luton's trophy was, unlike Bradford, not even their second consecutive one. They had been promoted as the third-place team, behind Norwich and Chesterfield, who finished 11th and 17th.



While every team member worked hard for their run, Luton's rise was due in large part to two incredible performances from previously primary players who nobody would have mistaken for superstars until now. Their best hitter, right-fielder Andy Jones, was one of the three players to hit over 30 home runs, topping out at 33. While he didn't nab the home-run crown, he led the league in RBIs and every slash category. It was an unexpected performance from a solid batsman who ranked third or fourth compared to Luton's offense in previous seasons. Jones, a fairly slight, well-liked 25-year-old from the village of Weston Turville, wasn't prepared in the least for his surge--he was earning a few thousand dollars a year for Luton, and was unlikely to get a pay raise until 1953, when his contract expired. For now, he could look forward to radio interviews and delivering Luton a postseason victory.

The other star was expected to play well upon his introduction to the top flight, but nobody expected him to secure possibly the best pitching season in EDO history. 26-year-old Edmund Chen, in the conversation for Luton's ace before this year but missing the latter half of their 1949 campaign with an oblique strain, proved himself incredibly capable, leading the league in wins (18) and ERA (1.67). His shutouts total, 7, was the most in the league since the record of 9, set in 1944 by Albert Patterson. Boasting a killer changeup, the affable "Chenny" is still in his arbitration period, expected to earn nearly $15k next year and hoping to bring Luton one or two more respectable finishes before a big payday.

Prior to their promotion, Seadogs enjoyed a nearly-unbroken initial top flight spell from 1922-1937, with a small blip of immediate relegation and then promotion in '28-'29. They were never favorites in an often crowded field, though, and their best placement was fifth in 1932, led by smart-hitting shortstop Alfie Stockdale and EDO all-time hits leader Lefty Rippin (true to his name, a lefty who ripped, though he was never a prominent power hitter in the bleary 20s and 30s). Their last year before this season at the top of the power rankings was a generation ago in '33. After a brief period of obscurity, Luton was promoted again in 1943 and finished a respectable 6th, before dwindling and being relegated in 1945. Notably, both Jones and Chen had no top-flight experience--they debuted for Luton in 1946.

Luton overall has a young, spry team that knows how to hit and pitch among the best. The dominant question, however, is whether they can hold together their core and not regress--as high-finishing promoted teams are known to do--in 1951. Their staff, GM John Robertson and manager Vernon Stuckey in particular, are young and recent arrivals to the league, with little experience running a team in peril. The annual postseason tournament, documented since 1943, will show a preview of how Luton might further their chances.

Elsewhere in the top flight, Tamworth flailed in their sophomore season and finished 36-78, clear below every other team. They accomplished this despite gaining the previous title-winning manager, the ex-Shrewsbury Julian Durham, who will likely face accusations of fraud from bitter fans unless he turns it around quickly in the next few years. Also relegated were legacy teams York and Blackpool, both former title winners (1944 and 1943) whose continuous top-flight terms went back 17 and 23 years. Blackpool now faces their first ever relegation, but it's hard to feel bad for the current iteration of these teams. Both are roiled in feuds among their everyday players and played clear worse of most winning teams this season.



For the 1951 season, they will be replaced by teams including Southport, a regular mid-table Div 1 team until 1933, then an up-and-down side until 1939, their last sniff at the premiership. Bengals convincingly earned a promotion spot this year thanks to ace Bryce Johnson and the leadership of longtime Northampton first baseman Sebastian Limbrick, now in his fourteenth year and 35. Cardiff, the league's only Welsh team and long restricted by the rules of 4 foreigners (in this case, Englishmen) to a team, gets their fourth chance since 1940 to prove they can contend with major teams, a test they have failed every promotion. In third place is Nottingham, a team who won the EDO title in 1941 but were relegated in 1944 and have been aching for a return to victory ever since. Fans will get a look at their teams, and how they match up to the top flight, in the annual tournament, kicking off on Aug. 30.

[Archelirion]

I have to ask, having lived there for a very happy 5 years before moving recently: has my dear Portsmouth ever been a good team or have they always been a bit of a basement dweller?

[dynaboyj]

Originally Posted by Archelirion

I have to ask, having lived there for a very happy 5 years before moving recently: has my dear Portsmouth ever been a good team or have they always been a bit of a basement dweller?

Sadly, Rascals have never had much success. They spent the inaugural season, 1922, in Div 1, and were immediately relegated where they have remained ever since.



That said, their market is strong and they pull good attendance. Southend-on-Sea was also a team relegated from the EDO in 1922 who seemed unlikely to ever rebound, and they managed a return to the top in 1949, albeit only for one season.

Portsmouth also made it to the quarterfinals of the 1947 postseason tournament (English Baseball Cup).

[dynaboyj]

The first round of the 1950 English Baseball Cup, featuring the lowest-ranked 24 teams by regular season win percentage, went as expected. Two matchups were between two EDT teams, one was between two EDO teams, and the other nine were cross-league. All EDO teams won against their opponents save for the previously-discussed York and Blackpool, who lost against the fairly unsuccessful but at least equally-matched EDT sides Bournemouth and Coventry. Chesterfield also lost to the notoriously difficult but successful Beeston & Stapleford Motors. Tamworth, the last-place team, pulled off an upset 2-0 series against the moderately successful D2 team Manchester.

Four matchups saw a third game (the entire tournament is best-of-three). Notably, Poole, an EDT team established this year after a scandal involving the league's London and Leicester teams, won a game 11-5 at home against the EDO side Norwich before losing on the road 3-5. Poole 3B Noah Grey, a former Leicester player, splashed four hits and a grand slam in the win. Poole went 44-94 in the regular season.

[dynaboyj]

The second round of the Cup is always a time for upsets, and this year, a few notable ones were handed out and high-profile teams were sent packing.

With the entire field at play, the star Luton team nearly collapsed to last-place EDO team Tamworth, but pulled off a tenth-inning victory with a score of 7-6 in a third game after going down 6-0 in the first two innings.

Sunderland and the to-be-promoted Nottingham were EDT teams that defeated their EDO opponents of Kingston upon Hull and Liverpool. Norwich, the 11th-placing team, defeated contenders and 1947 title winners Newcastle upon Tyne. And most shocking of all, Bradford Battalion roundly defeated Shrewsbury, a team built for postseason success who had made it to three consecutive finals from 1947-49 and had last seen a second-round exit in 1945. Battalion outscored Barnstormers 16-10 and landed home runs from three hitters, Andy Jewitt, Joey McShane, and Virgil Williamson, who are probably too skilled and popular to suit up for the relegation threat for much longer.

[dynaboyj]

Round 3, the last before the quarterfinals, seemed to return some of the normal feel of Cup proceedings. In four matchups between Div 1 and 2 teams, the Div 1 team won all of them, knocking out the overperforming Sunderland and Southampton (the latter still reeling from a surprise relegation in 1949 after 7 EDO championships in 27 years) along with the to-be-promoted Nottingham and Cardiff.

Other knockouts included fabulously rich EDO contender but as of yet perennial runner-up Northampton and the straggling Huddersfield by champs Luton, along with Bristol, who always seem to get far despite not being a team with many memorable faces. The only EDT team left is Ipswich, who finished sixth and owe their cup success so far to a favorable draw. A continued run is unlikely, but any extra revenue would be nice for a team whose fans would like a first-division run longer than two years, their highest so far.

QUARTER FINALS:
Luton vs. Bradford
Ipswich vs. Norwich
Stoke vs. Oxford
Walsall vs. Reading

[Nzsftbl]

Originally Posted by dynaboyj

An offshoot of my player-snapshot thread, [URL="https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/showthread.php?t=315707"]

Every team has a Reserves affiliate (est. 1943) and an Under-21s system (est. 1947),

How did you set this up, so that the U21 worked? As a minor league team of the parent club? Or...

[dynaboyj]

Originally Posted by Nzsftbl

How did you set this up, so that the U21 worked? As a minor league team of the parent club? Or...

Yes. The U21 system has a maximum age of 21 and serves as a rough Rookie League equivalent. Both the Reserve and U21 sides of the major league teams who go up/down year-to-year are promoted/relegated manually.

[dynaboyj]

The two quarter-final matchups expected to be the most competitive, given league standings, ended in two games. Walsall handily beat Reading, with Louis Renner, a late-season trade from Manchester, providing both valuable offense and defense. In the first game he managed a one-handed catch in shallow center field to seal an 8-6 game with Reading men on second and third, and in the deciding game, he went 3-4 with a home run. Renner has dwelled in Div 2 until now his entire time in the major leagues, but at age 30, his profile could land him a starting spot with another EDO team this offseason. Stoke handily defeated tournament regulars Oxford 6-5 and 8-2, despite having zero homers to Oxford's three.

After a comfortable 6-3 win for Luton, with a complete game from star pitcher Edmund Chen, their bats were stymied against Bradford in a 7-0 shutout. Luton barely eked out a 5-4 win in the final game with an eighth-inning RBI from center fielder Rik Tucker to move on, and extend the chances of a double. As Luton keeps going up against the wall with increasingly-better teams, the impetus is on Andy Jones to step up in their semi-final; the likely Batsman of the Year's postseason OPS stands at .789 with no home runs so far.

And, shockingly, Ipswich upset Norwich in a matchup they looked certain to lose, possibly assisted by a rivalry that, in football, has been called the second-fiercest in England. Ipswich took the first game 4-3, lost the second game 5-4, and then unloaded on their opponents, winning 13-2 on Sunrays' home field. Twelve of those runs were scored in the first four innings against Norwich's hapless starter Joseph Peters and starter-in-relief Quincy Keogh. 34-year-old Ipswich third baseman Bob Rees was carried home as Player of the Game with two home runs.

SEMI FINALS:
Luton vs. Walsall
Stoke vs. Ipswich

While the plucky underdogs are separated across the bracket, English fans could see a fresh and exciting cup finals no matter the matchup. Stoke took the trophy in 1941, but have not seen the last series since. Walsall made it in 1947 after a league title but were handily beaten by Shrewsbury. And Luton and Ipswich, before this strange year, have never seen this stage.

[dynaboyj]

Both underdog stories were quashed in the semi-finals. Luton, the more expected of the two to reach the finals given their league win, went down first. Both teams played to a 2-2 first game in the tenth, but Edmund Chen lost the pitcher's duel to Walsall's Nate Davidson, allowing a walk-off solo home run to Walsall fan favorite Frederick Andre with just one out. (Curiously, Luton never had home field advantage in the tournament.) In the second game, a demoralized Luton took a 1-2 loss at home, and the run was over.

Ipswich, also playing without home-field advantage, at least forced a third game against the heavyweight Stoke. The entire series was blowouts--Stoke led 5-0 for most of the first game before a ninth-inning sac fly made it 5-1; Ipswich steamrolled Stoke's starter Blaine Watt and regular-season starter turned relief man Keith Evans for 13 combined runs in a 14-7 routing at home; Stoke answered back with a 15-4 game excoriating the remains of Ipswich's pitching staff.

This means the 1950 English Baseball Cup final will be contested between Stoke and Walsall. These two teams have only met once since the tournament has been recorded, in last year's quarterfinals; Stoke won 2-0. They split the 1950 EDO season 3-3, and I would not be surprised to see a third game on hand.

[dynaboyj]

Well, it's over. Walsall, with home-field despite the worse regular season record, took the championship over Stoke in just two roughly-equivalent games.

In the first, Walsall team captain and big power-hitting first-baseman Luke Brodiff smashed a 3-run homer in the first inning off former Southampton ace and 1945 title/cup/Hurler of the Year winner Ken Donohoe. Stoke briefly made it 3-2 in the third with doubles from Donohoe and star shortstop Bernard Roy, but a solo home run from six-year second baseman Dara Gibson, and a combined triple/single effort from Gibson and Brodiff, went unanswered the rest of the way. Walsall's Nate Davidson, injured much of the regular season, pitched a whole nine innings with those two runs on just four hits to successfully prevent a Stoke comeback.

With Stoke at home, both teams played some slappy singles ball in the second game to make it 3-1 Stoke through the second. From there, Walsall's Roman Gillespie and Stoke's Blaine Watt battled pitching-wise for a few scoreless innings before Walsall broke Watt open in the sixth. Gibson homered to make it 3-2, Brodiff walked, left-field darling Frederick Andre singled, and the relatively anonymous third-baseman James McIntyre--who only received significant starts after the team traded away star Anton Garner to Newcastle in July--turned a double into a triple and scored in the two runners to give Walsall the lead. A sac fly sent him home and the team led 5-3. With Watt out of the game, Walsall scored an insurance run in the eighth off some slap singles and a wild pitch off of starter-reliever Keith Evans to make it 6-3, but Stoke had one more chance to take it to a third game. In the bottom of the ninth, with Gillespie tossed after a ten-pitch walk and 118 pitches, Roy and the aging Peter Bramble hit singles off of Walsall closer Baron Daly (another pitcher plucked from the recently-relegated former champs Southampton) to load the bases with just one out. Down three, Stoke's eight-year second baseman Ajax Vaughan had the chance to make a meal of his situation, but instead he hit a hard grounder to third right into an easy double play, silencing the Stoke fans before he even made it to first base. Stoke has suffered legendary cup ignominy before (most famously, one of my favorite players, the sharp reliever Trent Kenton, single-handedly ended a semifinal run in 1948 due to a blown pickoff throw that forced in a run) and did so again, continuing the once-heralded team's stifled path back to the forefront of English baseball.

Meanwhile, Walsall--the only team to spend all twenty-nine years in Division One--took home their first Cup trophy after a fairly middling season run. Hooray for the plucky underdogs?