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

[Tigers84]

Love this dynasty! I really like the writing which is spot on for the time period with a cultural British flare! Keep up the good work, and go Clarets!

[chucksabr]

Baseball: 1907 Season Starts To-Day

The twentieth programme of the Baseball League will commence to-day. This is a momentous occasion that should provide great satisfaction to the founders of the League, particularly to William McGregor and Sir Francis Ley who, while they have frequently been on opposite sides of any business discussion that has arisen regarding the League's operation, they have also served as “linchpins” upon which the strength and stability of the League has been built.

This is not a small point, as Messrs. McGregor and Ley have been largely responsible for establishing firm fixture lists, helping secure funding for baseball grounds some of which hold tens of thousands, holding fast baseballers’ wages, and implementing the system of promotion and relegation that provides hopes to thousands of club supporters that their favoured team might too make it to the top tier, making September a very exciting proposition for more than just the two clubs heading for the EOI Cup series.

As attention moves towards the pitch on this cold, cloudy May Monday, expectations are that the Sunderland club will prevail as First Division champions, and likely Cup winners as well, strengthened as they are by the winter acquisition of pitcher William Graham from the faltering Leeds City club. Current Cup holders Newcastle United and Jesse Morgan can never be counted out, but ascendant are Alistair Bolton’s Liverpool Reds, long a struggling club who have had some success in past two seasons and who have signed the Kingdom’s top amateur baseballer in Armstrong (“Klondike”) Smith; Blackburn Rovers, led by the amazing Bobby Arscott; the newly renamed Port Vale Valiants led by Harold Hind; and the surprising Bristol City Robins.

In the lower level, Chelsea look to make a bid to be the latest London club to make its escape from the nether regions into the light of the top level. That would leave Woolwich Arsenal as the only one of the six London leagues clubs in the Second Division, as they are freshly promoted from non-League ball and not expected to make any headway towards the top. Other top clubs to watch include Birmingham; Bolton (just relegated); Manchester City; Chesterfield Town; and new League side South Shields.

Despite lengthy discussions taking place at the League meeting in Stoke-On-Trent January last, as well as expectations to the contrary, no significant rules changes have been made for 1907.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907: Clubs

<<<<< All updated uniforms courtesy of forum member No Pepper >>>>>

.
.

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907: Club Locations


First Division




Second Division

[chucksabr]

Long No Hitter For Phillips

Frank Phillips, the middle-aged starting pitcher who has toiled unremarkably for the Valiants of (the no longer Burslem) Port Vale club up in Stoke-On-Trent for the past eight years, found his very best for the 6th of July match against top tier newcomer Sheffield United and showed the Blades how difficult life at the top of the game can be.

Phillips easily got out the first seventeen batsmen he faced, only to have a fellow Valiant err on a simple ground ball from his opposite number to yield a base runner and spoil his perfection. One more error in the seventh innings allowed another base runner, and that was all after nine frames during which the Blades acquired no runs, no hits, no bases on balls, and could not manage even to get hit with a pitch. Unfortunately for Phillips, his fellow Valiants matched their defensive ineptitude on the attack and thus could not score, and the game went to the tenth innings with Phillips holding onto both his no hitter and a draw.

Valiants did score one in the top of the tenth on two singles, a hit by pitch and a sacrifice, and Phillips came out to slam the door on the Blades in the bottom of the innings, taking the victory, preserving his no hitter, and serving final notice to the Sheffield United club that the First Division is decidedly not the Second Division.

[chucksabr]

Parker Gets 300th Victory

One of the old lions of the Baseball League has scored a tremendous achievement by attaining his three hundredth victory as a starting pitcher, the first League pitcher ever to perform that feat.

On 26th August, Edmund Parker, a reliable starting pitcher for all twenty League seasons for the Blackburn Rovers, turned away the Fulham Cottagers for a nine runs to three victory. It was not an easy accomplishment as Parker was losing three runs to two going into the bottom of the seventh innings, but Rovers scored three in the bottom of that frame and then four more in the eighth to ease the path to the momentous win for Parker.

Parker leads Sunderland's William Turner in career victories by forty five, so Parker should remain alone on his plateau for at least a couple more years, even if he wants to return after the end of the season, although all indications are he will not.

Congratulations on your achievement, Mr. Parker!

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Results

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
Emperor of India Cup Series

Liverpool defeated Sunderland
Four Matches to Two

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
Emperor of India Cup Winners




Liverpool Reds

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Champions and Emperor of India Cup Runners Up

Sunderland Black Cats

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Final Table

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Team Batting and Pitching

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Award Winners

Batsman of the Year: Robert Arscott




Baseballer of the Year and Pitcher of the Year: Sidney Crisp




Newcomer of the Year: Armstrong Smith

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division League Leaders

Batting Leaders




Pitching Leaders

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Top Game Performances

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Top Systems

[chucksabr]

Baseball League 1907
First Division Financial Report

[chucksabr]

No Game Is Won Or Lost Until The Last Out Is Recorded

One of the beautiful things about baseball, as opposed to football, is the absence of the clock. When a football match is two-nil with ten minutes left, it is, for all intents and purposes, finished. It is difficult enough to score two goals in a match; it is insuperably difficult to score two goals in ten minutes. Not so with baseball. No matter how many runs behind a club may be, they still have a chance to come back and draw level, take the lead, or even win, so long as they have any outs left.

As if to underscore this very point, the woeful Derby County club were leading by ten runs to four against The Wednesday on the 6th of July, and the game proceeded to the bottom of the ninth innings for the latter’s last licks. In the vast majority of cases, the victory is assured, and the tabulation of the remaining outs seems a mere formality.

Ah, but “vast majority” is not the equal of “all”. And in this specific case, the Owls undertook a stunning innings that not only put the Rams “on the ropes”, but actually pushed Rams completely over and through said ropes.

It began with Owls’ top of the order batsman Pemberton wringing thirteen pitches out of pitcher Davies, fouling the first two, taking three straight balls, then fouling six more before coaxing ball four out of Davies’ hand. Taylor followed with a fly out, but Hodder doubled home Pemberton for the first run. Bevan drew a walk, then Ivory singled home the second run. Smith cleared the bases with a three baser for two more runs, and that’s four so far.

Bird then walked; Harney reached first on a wild throw to first by second baseman McGhee on the grounder to him, scoring Smith for the fifth run and moving Bird to second. Rams manager Willie Nixon had seen enough, and summoned relief pitcher Kelly to “put out the fire”. Wilkinson bunted a sacrifice and was barely thrown out at first base by Kelly for the second out, Harney and Bird to second and third. Pemberton came up for the second time in the innings and hit an easy ground ball that should have ended the game, but instead third baseman Driscoll booted the ball allowing Bird to plate the sixth run and draw the Owls level. That did not last long at all, as Taylor hit a small pop fly ball behind McGhee at second base. McGhee flopped in desperation to grab the ball before it touched the ground, and he barely got his glove on it, but the ball squirted away for a single, scoring Harney for seventh and final run, taking the game out of Derby County’s hands and putting it in The Wednesday’s back pocket.

Baseball is a beautiful game, although it has an ugly side, too—especially if you were a Ram on the 6th of July.

[PhillieFever]

Count me in as a Wednesday fan! Really cool idea you have here, and very well done.