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

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Baseball League 1898
Second Division Team Batting and Pitching

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Baseball League 1898
Second Division League Leaders

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Baseball League 1898
Second Division Top Game Performances

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Baseball League 1898
Second Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

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Baseball League 1898
Second Division Financial Report

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Brown Sets Home Run Record

Rupert Brown, a twenty three year old right fielder for the Gainsborough Trinity Holy Blues of the Second Division, did something no other League player had ever done, which was to clout three home runs in a single game against the Blades of Sheffield United on the 29th of July. The home runs were his only three hits of his day, but he sure did make them count!

The left handed batter went to work straight away by clubbing a three run job in the top of the first innings, to give Trinity the early three-nil lead. Coming up again in the top of the third with two more runners on, Mr. Brown socked another home run to put his club up seven-one. Then his next time up at the bat, in the fifth, he walloped yet another home run, although this time with no one on base. That made the score eight-one, with young Mr. Brown accountable for seven of Trinity’s tallies.

Afterwards, even with the game safely salted away for the Holy Blues and starting United pitcher Frederick O'Neill freshly removed, replacement hurler Frederick Reading thought the better of challenging Mr. Brown any further. In the seventh, although the Home Run Hitter took a mighty hack at a bid for his fourth homer, he instead took a base on balls and made Mr. Reading pay by scoring his fourth run of the day later in the frame. In the ninth, Mr. Brown finished his amazing day with another base on balls but, alas, not a fifth run. Trinity waltzed to an eleven-two romp of the Blades, but none of the scant fifteen hundred or so United supporters in attendance will remember their side’s losing score before the mighty feats of rival Rupert Brown come to mind.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Have you ever explained how you get the financial reports to show pounds instead of dollars? If you did, I must have missed it. That has been a longstanding gripe of mine - if OOTP can switch to metric for measurements and weights, why can't it switch to foreign currencies when a league is based in a foreign country?

I compiled a special version of the game for Chuck which replaces the dollar signs with pound signs. Maybe I'll add the feature to use different currency symbols for OOTP 15

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League Gate Down in 1898

Bad timing to extend during bad economic times has cost the Baseball League and their constituent clubs a lot of money this past season. Unemployment is running high among the working and lower middle classes, who make up the bulk of spectators for baseball games, especially during the week. One might think that such people would have more time to spend at baseball matches during the week, but then lack of steady wages puts a crimp in a man’s leisure budget, even when the price of admission is a paltry 6d. That’s a sum that can feed a man's family for the whole day, and that’s clearly what our man is choosing to do.

In the First Division, attendance is down by some 225,000, even though there were some 200 more home matches played by teams during the season. Average number of spectators decreased by exactly one thousand per match, from 3,479 to 2,479. Ten clubs anticipated the drop and cut wages accordingly, and yet the balance sheets of thirteen of the eighteen clubs suffered. Aston Villa took the brunt of the force as sources within their office maintain that the club lost some £3,000 this season alone.

The outlook is even grimmer in the Second Division. Overall gate dropped by 400,000, average gate was down by thirty-nine per cent to 1,700 per match, and no fewer than eight clubs are well into the red. Two such clubs, Darwen and Lincoln City, have been dispatched from the League, at least for 1899. Others, such as Derby County and Woolwich Arsenal, appear to be in mortal straits, playing for their very survival. Interestingly, all four of the new League clubs on the second level are quite solvent, and the champion Doncaster Rovers are said to be the financially healthiest entity not only in the Division, but indeed in the entire league.

The economic forecast for Britain is for improvement, which one can only hope accrues to the League’s fortunes as well. The situation might get direr before it improves, but the essence of the League is to reflect the strongest clubs on the Island both financially and competitively. We are confident the League will eventually be the stronger for it.

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McNurr Retires

One of the top pitchers in Baseball League history has retired from the game. Gearróc McNurr has played since the Spalding contingent passed through Birmingham back in '79. He was one of the original Hawthorns from its origins in 1880, pitching WBA to the BA Cup semifinals in 1883 and 1885. He joined the club in their initial foray into the League in '88 and stayed on with them for another nine brilliant seasons, winning twenty in 1891, the first League pitcher ever to do so, and twenty two in 1894, the club's only season in the lower level, missing nary a start all the while. After having the temerity to age into his fortieth year, he was dispatched to the Magpies of Notts County, where he had a tremendous June in 1897, winning six of six starts for his final accomplishment, which was pitching the Magpies back into the top flight for 1898. McNurr will be well remembered, and equally missed.

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The 1898 Season Almanac For The Baseball League is Now Available

http://goo.gl/HpTc7O


The almanac for the 1898 Baseball League season can be acquired here, to be perused at your leisure. (WinRAR required to unzip the almanac.)

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The 1899 Baseball Season Starts To-day

Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley Expected to be Strong Again

With the warm, gentle winds of May also blows the beginning of yet another baseball season, the twelfth annual episode in the saga of the Baseball League. Though League baseball matches sputtered at the gate somewhat last year, the performances of the players themselves seem to improve with time. As the game is played more throughout Britain, the players become more proficient, the pitching sharper, the batting more powerful, the fielding surer handed. Mistakes are becoming fewer and farther between. The games are becoming crisper. All in all, English professional baseball is becoming a more enjoyable experience.

The business climate is still struggling, but with signs of spring comes signs of hope of improvement in that area as well, with more employment, and more spectators to support this grand game.

In the First Division, we still see Bolton remaining strong, and anticipate a return to form of the Blackburn Rovers and Burnley Clarets as well. Burnley especially have a talented young core of players, including fielders Reginald Bass, Charles Dickson and Reuben Allen, and pitchers Harold Gamble and Edward Stewart, all of whom save Dickson are twenty years of age and younger, but all of whom should also see action on the pitch and contribute to a Clarets revival. Sunderland and Notts County are dark horses who are likely to challenge enough to throw a scare into the favourites, if not usurp them entirely by season’s end.

The Second Division favourites include Preston North End, Middlesbrough and Burslem Port Vale all vying for an opportunity to rise to the top flight. A interesting new entrant into the race comes from Bristol, whose City team of Robins constitute the second southern club to play in the League, the hapless Woolwich Arsenal club being the first. Bristol field a strong side led by third baseman William Smith, who has batted .392 in the Lancashire league over six seasons, centre fielder Archibald Hill, who has batted over .400 three times for the Robins, and second baseman William Heaton, a slick fielding second baseman. All are top tier talents, but all are past their prime, and the pitching of the Robins squad is nothing to write home about. Their time is short, and they must make the best of it while they can.

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Baseball League 1899: Clubs

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Baseball League 1899: Club Locations


First Division
Small Heath (Birmingham) Hidden




Second Division

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Baseball League 1899 Top Prospects

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Meet Harold Gamble

From the coastal town of Felixstowe, the sleepy seaside town in Suffolk, home to 4,000 people, nestled away from hustle and bustle of the big cities where important affairs are conducted, comes a pitcher aged one score years who is likely the most fully-formed baseball player of his age to date.

His name is Harold Gamble, and appropriately named as that what the Clarets of Burnley engaged in by signing him to the richest contract in Baseball League history, at least until Stoke’s Willie Watkins deal last month. Young Mr. Gamble is £108 richer, and well worth it according to the baseball men in the know who have seen him pitch. Several clubs were said to have been pursuing him, which drove his price to unprecedented heights.

Already, Gamble’s control is said to be the best in the game and could scarcely become better. He can throw the ball exactly where he wants to with little effort, and with spectacular movement that will certainly flummox the batsmen of the League. His catchers, William Simms and Charles Dickson, had better be quick with the glove, else there will be many passed balls in their future.

The Clarets think enough of young Mr. Gamble to give him the Opening Day start against the Red Devils of Newton Heath to-day. With the money they are investing in him, it’s no wonder, and the young pitcher had best bring his best to the mound to justify his rich salary.

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Baseball League 1899
First Division Results

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Baseball League 1899
First Division Champions

Newcastle United Magpies

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Baseball League 1899
First Division Final Table

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Baseball League 1899
First Division Team Batting and Pitching

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Baseball League 1899
First Division League Leaders