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

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Baseball League 1897
First Division Results

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Baseball League 1897
First Division Champions

Sunderland Black Cats

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Baseball League 1897
First Division Final Table

Promotion and relegation between the two Divisions was again decided by a series of Test Matches, but there was a change of format from that used in the previous three seasons. The top two clubs in the Second Division and the bottom two in First Division met in an abbreviated “second season”. Each club played eight matches: two home and two away matches against each of the two sides from the other division. At the conclusion of the matches, the first and second sides in the second season league will play in the First Division, and the third and fourth sides in the Second Division.

Following the end of the Test Series it was agreed that each division would increase by two places. This was achieved by two more clubs moving from the Second to First Divisions and four new places being added to the Second Division. A vote was taken to decide which additional two clubs would move to the First Division. Voting (with number of votes):

27      Wolverhampton     Voted into First Division
18	Grimsby Town	  Voted into First Division
10	Liverpool	  Remain in Second Division
4	Walsall	          Remain in Second Division
3	Sheffield United  Remain in Second Division
2	Doncaster	  Remain in Second Division

So as a result of the changes all four clubs who played in the Test Series secured a place in the First Division for 1898.

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Baseball League 1897
First Division Team Batting and Pitching

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Baseball League 1897
First Division League Leaders

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Baseball League 1897
First Division Top Game Performances

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Baseball League 1897
First Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

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Baseball League 1897
First Division Financial Report

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Baseball League 1897
Second Division Results

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Baseball League 1897

Second Division Promoted Team: Manchester City Citizens

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Baseball League 1897

Second Division Promoted Team: Notts County Magpies

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Baseball League 1897
Second Division Final Table

Promotion and relegation between the two Divisions was again decided by a series of Test Matches, but there was a change of format from that used in the previous three seasons. The top two clubs in the Second Division and the bottom two in First Division met in an abbreviated “second season”. Each club played eight matches: two home and two away matches against each of the two sides from the other division. At the conclusion of the matches, the first and second sides in the second season league will play in the First Division, and the third and fourth sides in the Second Division.

Manchester City Citizens and Notts County Magpies are promoted to the First Division.

The three clubs facing re-election came up against four non-league sides in the vote for League membership. Voting (with number of votes):

21 	Lincoln City	   Re-elected to the League
18	Glossop	           Elected to the League
16	Derby County       Re-elected to the League
15	Darwen*	           Not re-elected to the League
13	Chesterfield Town  Not elected to the League
3	Middlesbrough      Not elected to the League
1	Bristol City	   Not elected to the League

Subsequent to the above vote four new places became available in the Second Division with the re-organisation of the League. No vote was taken but Darwen regained their League place along with newcomers Glossop North End, Chesterfield Town and Middlesbrough, along with the return of Burslem Port Vale.

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Baseball League 1897
Second Division Team Batting and Pitching

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Baseball League 1897
Second Division League Leaders

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Baseball League 1897
Second Division Top Game Performances

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Baseball League 1897
Second Division Top 20 Batsmen and Pitchers

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Baseball League 1897
Second Division Financial Report

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The 1897 Season Almanac For The Baseball League is Now Available

http://goo.gl/AbAwKe


The almanac for the 1897 Baseball League season can be acquired here, to be perused at your leisure. (WinRAR required to unzip the almanac.)

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1897 News & Notes

Run scoring dropped in the Baseball League in 1897 versus 1896. Runs dropped by -2.5% in the first Division (7,794, down from 7,992) and by an astonishing -6.5% in the Second Division (7,717, down from 8,294), to the point where run scoring is more even between the divisions than ever before, separated by a mere percentage point. How they got there is still a matter of divergence, however: the top tier had slash stats of .289/.344/.383, while the second tier finished up at .280/.346/.375.

As before, the different divisions had far different levels of offensive events. Versus the Second Division, the First Division had +6.5% more doubles, +11.6% more triples, but also -24.7% fewer homers. The top flight also had 7% more stolen bases. As you might expect, too, First Division pitchers were much more effective working the hitters, as they struck out 13% more hitters while walking them only one-sixth the time.

As history proceeds, there are naturally fewer newly-set single season records to report. In the First Division, William Clark of Sunderland set a single season stolen bases record of 73 (while also extending his career record of 443), while Charley Brewer of Newton Heath set a record for singles with 131. On he other side of the ball, Levi Glover, picked off the free agent rolls by Newton Heath prior to the season, set a single season mark for fewest walks per nine innings, giving up a mere 0.90. Indeed, in no game did Glover walk more than two hitters at all.

In the Second Division, 23 year old Alistair Bolton had been making quite a name for himself with the Liverpool Reds, and continued to make his name known by slugging .608 in his first full season, including hitting fifteen home runs to match Charles Doyle’s Second Division record from last year. Ernest Lane will join Manchester City in the First Division next year, but not before leaving behind newly-minted Second Division records for both singles (131) and total hits (147). As in the First Division, a record was set on the second level for fewest BB/9 with 0.89 by Fred Armstrong in the service of Man City as well.

The only significant team record set in the First Division include stolen bases by Bolton (for an incredible fourth straight year). The Wanderers swiped 249 in a mere 90 game season. On the second level, Manchester City’s offensive records set include batting average (.318) and total hits (1,018, or an incredible 11.3 per game), while striking out the fewest times as a team (106).

In single game record, Ben Peers of Newcastle United and Marcus Wheeler of Burton United tied the single game records for hits with six; Charles Parker of Blackburn and Clark of Sunderland each tied a record for swiped bags with five. On the second level the runs record of five in a game was tied by both Solomon Beresford of Notts County and William Johnston of Burnley; William Coombes of Woolwich Arsenal tied a doubles record with four; and Horace Clarkson of Blackpool socked three triples to tie a record.

In the top tier, Sydney Holdsworth of West Bromwich Albion tied the hitting streak record this year, with 34, and William Walters of Newton Heath went 4-for-6 with a cycle against Nottingham Forest on 25th June.

Maurice Slater of Nottingham Forest, obtained in trade for the very same Marcus Wheeler who tied the single game hit record mentioned earlier, twirled a no-hitter against Sunderland on 7th August, walking five and striking out one in a 2-0 victory in front of 4,451 in Sunderland.

Frederick Stanley, one of the famed Three Fredericks of the Burley Clarets, called it a career after suffering through three injury-plagued seasons. He leaves the League after hitting .296 with 40 home runs in 450 games. Long-time Crewe Alexandra pitcher William Bennett retires after eight seasons, five in the League at the second level, and leaves with a record of 91-97 and a 2.92 ERA, with sixty-four of those victories at the League level.

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Trades Continue Apace

The new rage of trading player contracts, in lieu of transfers of player registrations, is bringing the Baseball League more in line with her American baseball league cousins rather than her sister English Football League. Because the BA broke ranks with the FA and relaxed the onerous registration requirements of baseball players prior to the 1896 season, after much discussion with the professional clubs who persuaded for it, the trade of contracts became considerably easier, and clubs are taking full advantage.

While no restriction is placed on the timing of contract trades, clubs have so far refrained from indulging prior to the season progressing well into July during the practice's first two seasons, as it has taken that long to see how the arc of the season establishes the needs of the various clubs, thus auguring either interest or none in modifying their squads.

And indeed, some interesting trades did occur during and after the 1897 season. One intriguing early action involved the exchange between Nottingham Forest and Burton Wanderers in July. Forest sent a solid yet fragile first baseman in twenty three year old Marcus Wheeler for a bag of four players in return, among them the undistinguished pitcher Maurice Slater, at the time labouring rather poorly by losing seven of nine starts. Wheeler did quite well for Burton, batting to a .424 hits average with two home runs and even tying a single game hits record by socking six against his former club in a 17-8 trouncing two weeks after the trade, before going out for the season with a sprained knee. For his part, Slater revived his 1895 season good form by no-hitting the eventual champion Black Cats of Sunderland a mere week later. Whether this is a case of both clubs benefiting greatly remains to be seen, but our money would be on the Wanderers to win out on this trade.

Joshua Reeve is a player in his prime and of some repute, a stealer of bases and batsman of long hits. That the Rams of Derby County would let him and his star £80 wage go to Burnley Clarets for three young players of no distinction in return shows how far the front office in Derbyshire have fallen, which led them to the brink of banishment to non-League loops. The rejuvenated Reeve rewarded the Clarets with a .360 hits average in the final twenty three matches of the season. In exchange, the Rams hope to salvage something out of Wilfred Clements, Kieran Macartney and especially Jude Fenwick, a starter of average talent for Burnley who was slotted into the bullpen at the Baseball Grounds and coughed up fourteen runs and twenty one hits in only eleven and a third innings during six appearances. What the Rams see in them is beyond most observers, but there can be no dispute that this is all their problem and theirs alone.

One more trade of note included one of the early stars of the Association in Theophilus Hurley, having been an important party as a young man to Derby County's three BA championships over a decade ago. Now he is a broken down old man of thirty five, and has been largely ineffective from his 1893 season. He will now apparently be playing his last matches for the Bolton Wanderers, if he plays at all, since the Wanderers have become serious contenders for the top of table, and Hurley is no better than a bench player to-day. It would be wonderful to see him receive an injection of youthful vigour and relive his best days from the Association, and help the Wanderers to their first ever Cup of any sort. We shall see whether 1898 brings us that.