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

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by Herrbear

What do you use to determine Player of the Year? Thank you.

The voters for Baseballer of the Year have steered the award toward going to players on teams that play for the EOI Cup, or in lower divisions, get promoted. Winners tend to be older players who demonstrate leadership qualities, and also perform well enough on the field to contribute wins with their play. Sometimes it's the best player in the division; probably more often, it's not. It can seem touchy feely at times, but the voters discuss this among themselves during the process, and they tend to agree on the right player before voting. So it's usually unanimous, or very very close to it.

[chucksabr]

Yankees Coast to 13 to 2 Victory
over English Team in Series Debut

Ruth Delights Hometown Crowd with Double, Triple

Baltimore, Md., October 29 (AP) - The highly anticipated first game of the 10-game series pitting the World’s Series champion New York Yankees against the English champion Walsall Swifts was a complete bust as a game yesterday afternoon, as the Yankees trounced the Englishmen in front of 22,000 fans at Oriole Park in Baltimore. The final count was Yankees, 13; Walsall, 2, but the game didn't feel even that close.

Bullet Joe Bush was the victor for the Yanks, but the obvious star of the show was Babe Ruth, who came home to Baltimore as the boy who made good in big city. While the Babe did not hit one of his patented circuit clouts, he ultimately did not disappoint, even if he did get caught swiping second base to end the first inning. Babe poked a double down the left field line to score Wally Pipp in the third, and ripped a triple to the wall between left and center in the eighth to score Pipp again. Ruth walked his other three times up, which drew a cascade of lusty boos from his ex-neighbors, but in the end the Walsall pitchers Augustus Wilkes and William Tedd could not keep the Bambino off the bases.

The brand of hurling that Bush put up looked unbeatable. He was fast and steady, and toyed with the Britons from start to finish, giving up a mere three base knocks the whole game. Only in the fourth inning were the Englishmen able to count, when they managed two runs on a walk to Moses Lowe, a triple by Richard Sherriff, and a ground out by Walsall’s star hitter Jamie Ramsay. There was nothing doing for the Swifts the rest of the game. Yankees hitters, meanwhile, could scarcely be contained. They scored in seven of the nine innings they batted, providing a steady drip of runs throughout. Walsall starter Wilkes looked weak and wild from the start, and his replacement Tedd was certainly no better. The Englishmen also coughed up three errors, one of which led directly to a run in the seventh. In short, whether hitting, pitching or fielding, the Swifts’ performance was nothing short of dreadful.

The differences in hitting style could be easily observed. The English hitters focused on making contact which resulted in their striking out only twice, but also cost them hard hits of the ball. Just about everything they hit fairly dribbled off their bats. By contrast, Yankee hitters swung from the heels which caused them to strike out nine times but also led to six hard-hit extra base hits to all the deepest parts of the field. In the end the Yankee way won the day, and if the English boys want to compete in this series, they will have to figure out a way to adjust to the American style of play.

The teams will continue the series in Washington tomorrow, at Griffith Park, at two o’clock.

[Lafayette53]

I wonder if this drubbing continues will it convince the Brits, or someone on the isles, to start hacking for the fences like the Yankees?

[chucksabr]

NOTE: See disclaimer regarding era-based commentary here.

Yankees Continue Domination of
English Team with 10-3 Thumping

Pennock Shuts Out Britons for Eight Innings

Washington D.C.., October 30 (AP) – The New York Yankees and England’s Walsall Swifts traveled to our Nation’s Capital on Tuesday where the latter team was hoping to torch the former much as the Redcoats had torched the White House over a century ago, but it was not to be. Herb Pennock, the terrific Yankees pitcher, stifled the limeys for eight solid innings en route to a 10 to 3 pounding of the Swifts at the Senators’ Griffith Stadium. That makes it two straight for the Yanks in the 10-game traveling series pitting the top two teams from each country against each other.

So far, it has been no contest between the two sides. Pennock was never in serious danger even as the Swifts put up three in the top of the ninth on a Jamie Ramsay double for one and a Sydney Bestwick single for two. That was the extent of the damage by the Englishmen. Otherwise, the second game was all Yankees, just as the first was.

The Yankees jumped out in front in the very first frame. After Walsall pitcher William Simons walked Whitey Witt to open the frame, Wally Pipp singled Witt to second, and the “Sultan of Swat” Babe Ruth let loose with a mammoth clout some 400 feet in distance to stake the Americans to the 3 to 0 lead. The Yanks closed the scoring for the session on a single by Aaron Ward, who advanced to second on a ground out by Wally Schang, and then scored on another single by Joe Dugan.

The Yanks continued their mischief the following frame as the Babe singled home Witt from second, after Witt had singled and advanced there on a Pipp ground out to first. The score was 5 to 0 at this point, and for all intents and purposes the game was over.

Meanwhile, Pennock was dealing hard as mound mate Bullet Joe Bush had the previous day in Baltimore. He allowed the Britishers singles in each of the four innings, but then slammed the door shut for the next four, retiring ten straight Walsallers before relaxing in the ninth with a ten-run lead in hand. Pennock struck out four and walked only two in his nine innings of work.

The Yankees put the exclamation point on the game in the fifth with a handful of runs coming on three hits, two walks and a hit batsman. Two of the hits were doubles, including one by the Sultan. The Babe ended up two for four with two runs scored, and he along with his Yankee teammates are clearly finding the English moundsmen to their liking.

Speaking of whom, Walsall starter Simons pitched terribly, giving up ten runs on as many hits to take the loss. Dominic Gwinnett relieved admirably, pitching a scoreless 3⅓ innings.

The teams will travel to Richmond, Va. to continue the series tomorrow.

[chucksabr]

Yankees Repeat 10-3 Crushing of
English Baseball Team, This Time in Richmond

Third Straight Double-Digit Run Game for World’s Champs

Richmond, Va., October 31 (AP) – The New York Yankees continue to deliver knockout blows one after the other, this time in front of an overflow crowd of ten thousand screaming rebels in the old Confederate capital, as they obliterated the so-called best baseball team from England, the Walsall Swifts, by the repeat score of 10 to 3.

Miller Huggins’ boys continue to make a mockery of the competition that has sailed over from the old country, putting twenty men on the bases, split equally between base knocks and bases on balls, and plating exactly half of them. The Americans took the lead with two runs in the second inning, two more in the third and a solo tally in the fourth. Walsall scored two of their own in the third to keep the game within shouting distance, but a bases-loaded Wally Schang triple in the eighth drove the nail into the English coffin.

The English boys actually outhit the Yanks by a count of eleven to ten, but without the ability close the deal with the long hit, the Swifts could only scratch out a mere trio of runs. The Swifts had two doubles to the Yankees six extra basers, three each of doubles and triples. Nevertheless, the Englishmen may be starting to get the hang of American pitching, which may bode well for the prospects of more competitive contests in the upcoming days.

The Britons continue to play chicken with the great Babe Ruth. They failed to challenge him yet again and put him on base four times via the walk, to the displeasure of the local Virginians who paid good money to watch Babe Ruth hit homers and not a bunch of limeys doing everything they can to avoid it. The Bambino did swat a triple off the top of the right field fence once the game was well out of hand in the eighth, which precipitated an excited shout followed by a mournful groan, and then the immediate and hasty retreat of most of the crowd toward the exits once the Babe settled in at the hot corner.

Sad Sam Jones was the victor for the Yanks this time around, as he scattered eleven hits and four walks. It was Frederick Moylan’s turn to take the loss for the Walsall team, coughing up nine runs on nine hits and eight walks. It is the third time in as many games that the Britishers’ starting pitcher failed to finish the job, this time yielding the slab to William Tedd in the seventh. Tedd did a creditable job, giving up only two hits in 2⅔ innings of work.

The teams will move on to Atlanta to continue the series on Thursday.

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Yankees Clobber English Champions with Twelve Runs,
Nineteen Hits for Fourth Straight Win

Walsall Showing Signs of Life, Plating Seven in Loss

Atlanta, Ga., November 1 (AP) – When the English champion baseball team, the Walsall Swifts, went into the third inning with a 1 to 0 lead, it seemed as though perhaps there might be a real game between them and the New York Yankees after all. That was until the Yankees actually showed up at the plate and reminded the limey team exactly who it was they were playing.

The World’s Champions pummeled the Swifts with a flurry of hits in the third round, many of the extra base variety and including a prodigious home run blast by the Bambino himself, his second of this tour. The round-tripper, measuring some 450 feet in length, followed up a two-run shot by the prior batter, Whitey Witt, and when the frame finally came to a close, seven Yankees had crossed the plate, thus ending any hope the Walsallers might have had of winning the game.

Or so it seemed at the time, because Walsall came right back with four of their own in the bottom of the frame. Yankees slabman Carl Mays suddenly lost the plate as he walked three straight Swifts hitters, then gave up a two-run single, on a 0 and 2 count no less, to Rupert Price, followed by run scoring singles by Sydney Bestwick and William Bramald, and just like that, Walsall had pulled within two.

And that’s not all: the Swifts scratched out single tallies in the fifth and seventh innings, and in weirdly similar ways. In each inning, Swifts star Laurence Elcock led off with a single, stole second and moved to third on ground outs by Price. Two batters later, Bestwick put the ball into play to score Elcock, one with a single and the other with a base reached on error. And so after seven, the teams were tied at seven.

Alas, the English team simply ran out of gas after the seventh inning, as Frederick Moylan, relieving the reliever Fred Curley in the fifth (starter Eli Hobbs was knocked out after three), yielded two scores in the eighth, only to be replaced by Dominic Gwinnett, the fourth pitcher, who gave up the final three, resulting in the final score of 12 to 7. The American League champs finished the day with 19 hits, including a double, three triples and four home runs, including two by the Babe, who uncorked his second wallop off Gwinnett in the ninth, a replica of the 450 foot blast he'd hit in the third. The Great Ruth finished two for three with three walks and three runs scored.

Despite yet another decisive victory against them, the Walsall team’s old-fashioned brand of baseball, which eschews the home run in favor of the running game, got the crowd on the Englishmen’s side as they worked themselves up to the mid-game tie with the Yanks. Their style was a reminder of the days before the era of the Ruthian Blast, a time when players fought and clawed their way around the bases to earn their runs, instead of standing around on the bags waiting to trot home on a teammate’s four sack blow. It was a refreshing nod to yesteryear, and if the underdog Britons can bottle up this brand of play and cart it around the tour with them, putting it on display wherever they play, they may yet add some victories to cheers such as they received from the approving Georgians during yesterday’s game. Of course, it couldn’t have hurt the Englishmen's case that they were playing a team called “Yankees”, either. Ty Cobb, the local peach who himself happened to be in attendance for the contest, certainly must have taken kindly to witnessing his style of offense being applied against his old nemesis to such good effect.

The tour continues on to Birmingham for a two o’clock tilt to be played at old Rickwood Field.
 

[chucksabr]

English Baseball Squad Steals Victory
from under New York Yankee Noses

Swifts Score Two in Bottom of Ninth to Shock World’s Champs

Birmingham, Ala., November 2 (AP) – The New York Yankees jumped out to a quick 1 to 0 lead in the very first two batters of the game yesterday, with Joe Dugan walloping a sharp line drive single on the second pitch from the Walsall Swifts pitcher Augustus Wilkes, and Wally Pipp doubling Dugan home three pitches later, and it looked as though the World’s Champions were setting the table for another delicious laugher in Friday’s matchup on a warm and wet Alabama afternoon.

But baseball can be a surprising game in its unpredictability, and this game proved that notion in spades. For after four games plus two batters of explosive offense from the World’s Champions, Yankee bats fell deadly silent for the remainder of the game. The English trio of Wilkes, Fred Moylan and Dominic Gwinnett combined to twirl a sparkling beauty, giving up just four hits the rest of the way.

But the Britons also left their lumber at the hotel as well, and they entered the bottom of the ninth smarting from a 1 to 0 deficit. Sad Sam Jones and Waite Hoyt also came to pitch, and the two had shut down the Swifts on a lone base knock which came in the seventh session of the game. But Hoyt faltered in the ninth round as he served up a screaming single and deep double to Walsall’s Sherriff and Price, sandwiching a Ramsay flyout, leaving runners on second and third and the game in the balance. Manager Huggins had seen enough and summoned Bullet Joe Bush to put out the fire, but Joe brought gasoline instead of water as he walked Knight, then walked Bestwick to force home a run, then ended the game by giving up a medium deep fly to right that scored the runner Price from third and sealed the win for the English boys, who were so overjoyed they all piled onto Price at home plate like a gaggle of delirious schoolboys.

The game itself had an old fashioned tinge, and the 2 to 1 score harks back to the days before the jackrabbit ball. The hitting itself—six on one side and three on the other—reminded of the times when pitchers always had the upper hand. It was a scene the Yankees have been wholly unfamiliar with since just about the days of the Highlanders, and in their zeal to right the ship they sent up three pinch hitters in Smith, Hoffman and Gehrig, but even though the last two got hits, it was nothing doing on the scoring front for them the rest of the game.

The Babe was a big bust this time around, going 0 for 4 and striking out twice.

The series will continue Saturday at Pelican Park in New Orleans.

[chucksabr]

Yankees Back on Track in International Series,
Steal 4-3 Win from Brawling Walsall Team

All Four Runs Come in Eventful Eighth for Champs

New Orleans, La., November 3 (AP) – Blazing away in the eighth, when 10,000 Crescent City residents were ready to count the day lost for the visiting World’s Champions, The Miller Men of New York charged into a victory over the English team Walsall Swifts yesterday. Four runs in that Garrison finish brought on the limeys’ downfall, brought on a young riot in which English Hurler Simons was the aggressor, and fittingly climaxed a stern struggle that marked the elevation of a benchman to hero heights—Mike McNally.

The Walsall team was winning a game eventful only for the shut down of the Yanks, who had not scored since the first frame of Friday’s game. Two singles, an error and a groundout led to the first tally in the first round; the top of the fourth brought them a run on two walks and an error but no hits; and single-groundout-single combination led to the third score in the sixth. All in all, a mundane game of the old order.

Then, in the bottom of the eighth inning, things started to become very interesting. With Elmer Smith at the plate and runner packing the sacks, Simons threw a darter that glanced off the glove of his catcher Eadie, and which squirted away several yards. Eadie retrieved the ball and threw to the cocky slabber covering the plate, but Simons dropped the ball. He retrieved it and touched the runner—McNally—who by that time had nicked the edge of the pan. Umpire Owens called the man safe and Simons, stinging under the lashing the Yanks had started administering to him with their war clubs, lunged at the arbiter.

Just as Simons reached Owens, Eadie came running up, grabbed the enraged hurler and shoved him back, but Simons, his arms going like a windmill, was on trouble bent. He kept trying to break away, finally hitting Eadie, and only giving up when he saw his prey well-protected by other athletes who rushed to the seat of the action.

While Simons was staging his pantomime, Owens strolled leisurely in a circle. Then the chesty hurler retreated to the mound to resume the game battle only to give up a three run homer to Smith to choke up the lead. Ruth singled and made the third out getting caught stealing, but as Simons hiked across the diamond from the mound to the dugout the “razz” came from every one of those 10,000 throats.

McNally’s deft baserunning was clearly the unravelling of both Simons and his Walsall teammates, who folded one two three in the top of the ninth to slink away to defeat, and to the approbation of a crowd insulted by their pitcher’s churlish antics. The teams travel on to Cuba for a set of four games starting Monday in the capital city of Havana.

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Huggins’s Yankees Hit English Team For Goal

Havana, Cuba, November 5 (AP) – By that old effective method of hitting in bunches, Huggins’s Yankees were able to knock the English team Walsall for a goal yesterday in the first of four games in Cuba, 7 to 0. It was one of those things where the other fellows never had a chance and outside of Sad Sam Jones’s pitching, a shoestring catch by Bob Meusel, and the fact that the game was brief, there wasn’t anything for the 35,000 Spanish fans to howl about.

Jones’s mound contribution was so high class that one run would have been ample for him to annex a win. He was frisked for three widely scattered hits, one of which was a phony, and not a single hostile advanced even as far as the third corner. Only three managed to travel to second, where they didn’t worry anybody.

The Bronx crew brought about the downfall of the visitors by applying their bats in the fifth, sixth and seventh inning, during which they obtained nine of their ten hits. Walsall’s William Stanton was the victim of these attacks. The Englishman had four strong innings and had gotten one out of the way in the fifth before a thing popped. The Yanks then strung together a walk, a single, a sac hit and another single for the run in that inning. In the sixth the barn door burst open as the great Babe Ruth led off with a double followed by the same from Meusel, then an intentional pass, a single, and then after two fly outs that scored another run, Jones himself singled home a tally and got himself thrown out at the plate trying to score on Ernie Johnson’s double. The World’s Champs wrapped up the scoring and hitting in the seventh when they plated two on a single, a walk, another single, another walk, and another run scoring fly.

The only clean blows by the Britons off Jones were produced by Fred Thomas and William Bramald. Rupert Price beat out a weak grounder in the second inning, was replaced on a fielder’s choice by Brad Knight who stole second and died there. In the fifth Thomas lined his single with two out, stole second and died there as well. And in the eighth, Bramald led off with a solid double but got thrown out being bunted over to third, and that was that. Why the limeys would bunt themselves into an out down seven runs in the eighth is anybody’s guess.

The second game in Havana commences Tuesday at two o’clock, again at the Estadio Bellan.

[chucksabr]

Ruth Nicks Homer and Yanks Beat English Team, 8-2

Havana, Cuba, November 6 (AP) – The 35,000 Cubans who showed up for a Tuesday afternoon fiesta at the Estadio Bellan got what they came for, as the Mighty Babe Ruth uncorked a Goliath blast into the coconut trees beyond the farthest reaches of the ballpark to crown a thumping of the English Walsall Swifts by his World Champeens, 8 to 2.

It was the Bambino’s fourth circuit clout of the series and it was a beauty, going some 500 feet by some estimates, although that might have been an exaggeration for the benefit of the press. Still, it had to have traveled 450 feet if it went an inch. Bob Meusel also smacked a four bagger, and Wally Schang gave his old legs a workout as he huffed and puffed a triple and a double on separate trips to the plate.

The Yankees started off the first three innings with a tally in each, including the Ruth solo shot, before turning on the fire hose and knock down the Swifts for good with a five-count in the fifth round. That inning featured a succession of six hits leading off the frame, including the Schang three-bagger and the Meusel bomb, and at that point the Britons were done for. Walsall scored their two in their top half of the third when Joe Dugan threw away a grounder and allowed two unearned to score. Walsall actually had the lead at that point, but they blew it in the bottom of the frame and never came close to getting back into the game.

Carl Mays pitched a solid if unspectacular game, a completed effort in which he allowed nine hits and two walks and struck out only one.

This was the eighth contest between the two traveling troupes and beyond a surprise come from behind victory last Friday and a game seven run scoring effort the day before that, the Redcoats have shown about as much fight in this series as their namesakes did in losing America to the underdog revolutionaries a century and a half ago. This is now the seventh defeat in the eight games played so far, and as competitions go, this one has been a dud. There are two more contests to play here in Havana after which the some of the Yanks will scatter to other cities to continue playing exhibitions while others will head back to the farm for the winter. As for the Walsalls, they will hightail it back to England after Thursday’s tilt, probably wondering along the way why they agreed to this debacle of a venture in the first place—besides the money, of course.

The game on Wednesday starts at two o’clock.

[chucksabr]

Yankees, Aided by Error-Plagued Opposition,
Beat English Champs, 8-3

Havana, Cuba, November 7 (AP) – The English champions Walsall Swifts showed some spirit early on, but then dissolved into a morass of errors and they coughed up yet another game to the Champions of the World, the New York Yankees, by a final count of 8 to 3.

It is not that the errors were directly responsible for all the runs scored by the Yanks, but they hurt early and enough that the Swifts were clearly rattled and play sloppy and lazy ball for the rest of the game, in ways that will not show up in box scores. Their pitcher Wilkes, who did a fair job given his teammates’ sloth in the back half of the tilt, could not have been happy with their efforts or the outcome.

The teams traded runs in the first, Meusel taking the role of the Babe who was out with a “tummy-ache”, to the chagrin of 35,000 paying Cubans, and hitting a clout down the left field line to stake the Yanks to the early advantage, but Walsall came back with a single scoring Sherriff in the bottom of the frame. Walsall actually took the lead in the second on two singles sandwiching a pitcher’s sac bunt, but gave up the lead on the exact same combination the next inning.

It was in the fourth when the horrors began for the Britons. After two routine fly outs by Ward and Pipp, Schang reached on an error by second baseman Elcock, and Smith followed by getting on after the ball was booted by the shortstop Bestwick. Dugan then lined a single to score Schang, and the Walsallers’ lead was lost.

The English shenanigans continued on in the sixth when, with two out, Wilkes gave up two straight base knocks, the first to Schang on a very catchable line drive, and the second by Smith past the first baseman Price who looked like he was nailed to the ground. Dugan followed up with an honest single to right, but it clanked off the rightfielder Knight’s glove and allowed Schang to score and Smith and Dugan to move up an extra base. Both runners then scored on a bloop single to left center by Mays the pitcher, who obliged his opposite number by getting himself thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. That made three runs total you can point to errors on, which the whole ballpark could see made Wilkes madder than a wet hen.

From that point on it was plain to see that the limeys were just going through the motions as they flopped around on the Witt and Ward singles in the seventh, which drove their beleaguered hurler out of the box. Curley came in from the bullpen, one of the few bright spots for the Englanders, and shut down the Americans by causing balls to be hit so easily and directly at his fielders that they could not have botched the plays even if they tried to.

This marks the eighth win in the nine games for the World’s Champs in the series, which wraps up tomorrow at the Estadio Bellan in Havana on Thursday.

[Herrbear]

Just up to the war years now. Love the posters. Looking forward to the future.

Thanks for the series.

[chucksabr]

Yankees End Series against
Tired English Squad with 6-1 Victory in Cuba

Triples Galore Mark Ultimate Game in Set

Havana, Cuba, November 8 (AP) – Playing as if they could not get out of town and on a ship back to the Mother Country quickly enough, the English champion Walsall Swifts flopped around the field in a perfunctory manner, doing little more than marking time until it was all over and the game had gone into the books as a 6-to-1 victory for the World’s Champion New York Yankees in front of 35,000 bemused spectators at the Estadio Bellan in Havana.

The affair was conducted in warm, windy and rainy conditions that sapped the energy of everyone in uniform on this day. The rains came in during the second inning and pushed back the continuation of the game by about an hour. But although it looked as though both teams were fatigued, the Englishmen took it to high art during the playing of the game, lollygagging about listlessly as though they were on a forced march through the jungle.

The Yanks scored one each in the third and fourth, then three in the fifth on back to back triples by Ward and Hofmann that both would have been doubles had a more energetic group shown up in the Swifts’ uniforms. The Champs closed the books on their offense in the seventh with yet another triple, their fourth of the contest, by Meusel and then a run scoring single by Ward to follow it up.

For their part, the Englishmen hit a lone single in the first that got wiped out in a twin killing, then it was nothing doing for them until the eighth when they managed to cobble together a single by Bestwick, who then advanced to second on a fielder’s choice and counted on a single by Sherriff. The sides went out quickly in the ninth and then went their separate ways.

The series ends with the Americans besting the Britons nine times out of ten, and it would have been ten straight had the Champs not coughed up the game in Birmingham in the ninth inning. It was evident from the beginning that the best that English baseball has to offer is not even close to being a match for America’s best. It might have been a closer contest had the limeys come to play the Phillies or either of the Boston teams instead, but even more likely, they would probably have to play the minor league squads out of Jersey City or Newark to have a fair shot at gathering up a few more wins. That being the case, it seems doubtful that an annual series between the champions of the major leagues and English leagues is in the cards for the coming years.

[chucksabr]

Vulgar English Baseball Champions
Not Ready to be Counted among the Best

(From an American Correspondent)

There was much excitement on this side of the Atlantic as the champions of the English Baseball League, the Walsall Swifts, sailed their way to America to play in a highly publicized ten-game exhibition series throughout the South and on into Cuba against our own newly crowned champions, the New York Yankees. The cranks on this side wanted very badly to see how well ball is being played on that side.

Baseball has become a very popular pastime for the British, at least during the summer, when its only serious competition is the slow and staid game of cricket. England is, and probably always will be, a soccer country, but baseball has made very strong inroads as a sport as well. The same clubs that field soccer teams in the winter also field baseball teams in the summer, and it has become serious business as the top ball clubs routinely draw 10,000 fans or more, similar to what the best American clubs pull. That fact is well known here, which triggered great anticipation for this series.

So there was no doubt to be had that the series would draw big crowds, and so it did: almost a quarter million people in two countries paid over half a million dollars to see the best of the Old World and the New World duke it out on the field of battle. The only lingering question was whether the Englishmen could stay abreast of the Yanks on the field, and at least put up a good fight. Well, that question has been answered with a resounding “No!” For the Swifts did not merely lose nine out of ten to the Yanks—they lost very, very badly. The Bronx boys scored 79 runs and batted .319 as a team in the ten games, while the Swifts could manage only 26 tallies and a puny .216 average.

The difference in individual heroics was just as stark. The ex-Red Sox tandem of Joe Dugan and George Herman “The Babe” Ruth did extraordinary damage, the former hitting .545 with 18 hits, and the latter—when he wasn’t being walked a dozen times—hitting .500 on 15 hits, with four circuit clouts to boot. Herb Pennock mastered the Swifts by giving up just two earned runs in 24⅓ innings, while Sad Sam Jones gave up only three earned in his 18 innings of work. By contrast, only one English hitter even hit as high as .300, and not a single one of their pitchers could muster an earned run average under six. It was a truly dreadful performance.

Worse yet, toward the end the English lads visibly gave up on the games entirely. Even though they were losing terribly to start with, giving up at least ten runs in each of the first four games, they still played hard early on, especially in the fourth game in which they put up seven runs, and the fifth game as the only one they won. After they dropped the sixth game late, though, and started losing badly again once they got to Havana, the competitive spirit exited their bodies entirely, and we were left but to witness only their limp bodies going through the motion. There is no more diplomatic way to put it than this: the Walsall effort in the Cuban portion of the series showed an appalling lack of the competitive pride that paying spectators deserve to see from highly-compensated professional ballplayers.

But the worst part came after the end of the tenth and final game. The Babe was holding court with the scribes as his usual ebullient self, magnanimous in victory and very complimentary to opposing players who did not perform to his lofty appraisals of them. “Those English boys are some pretty good little ballplayers,” he was heard to say. “Especially that third baseman, that Ramsay. He smacked the ball pretty good even if he didn’t get many hits. I hear he’s a big star over there. He’s a pretty good player for an English guy. I don’t think he’d be a star in America but I can see why he’s one in England.”

And Jamie Ramsay really is a big star in England, a .400 hitter in fact, and he steals 70 or 80 bases every year, which in a 126 game season is admittedly impressive. He is, for all intents and purposes, the English Ty Cobb. And Ramsay proved to have as salty a tongue as the Georgia Peach is reputed to occasionally display, but decidedly without any hint of southern charm that might go with it. For upon being informed of Ruth’s comments, Ramsay responded with the worst form of profanity he could manage in his thick Scottish brogue, and this is as close to a direct quote as can be printed: “You tell that … fat [so-and-so] that I’m not … English!” This got a roaring laugh of approval from his mostly English Walsall teammates, who obviously have a far baser sense of jocularity then one can imagine English gentlemen possessing. But the humorless Ramsay was not laughing, for he was not in a joking mood.

The terrible play on the field by the English team is one thing, for it is an honest failing which can be forgiven and practiced upon. But this Ramsay incident reflects a moral failing that should tell us all we need to know about the English baseball player, which is that he is simply not in our league, either as an athlete or as a sportsman, and if Jamie Ramsay is indeed the paragon of the English game of baseball, then we cannot foresee the day when he will be.

[chucksabr]

“English Baseball Teams No Longer Welcome Here”

Judge Landis, who is in control of the American major leagues, has decreed that in future, the champions of the World’s Series will be forbidden from engaging in practice games with any teams from the Baseball League after a Championship season terminates. Mr. Landis cited the Babe Ruth-Jamie Ramsay affair, in which Ruth couched insults to English baseball players in the guise of flattery, referring to British players as “little ballplayers” and suggesting that Mr. Ramsay would not be fit to play in America. Mr. Landis was quoted as saying quite pointedly that English baseball teams would no longer be welcome in play in America, characterising English baseballers as “vulgar”, “crude”, and “profane”, and apparently not suitable to be viewed by American spectators.

Mr. Ruth also referred to Mr. Ramsay as English, which any sane man would know are “fighting words” to the dyed-in-the-wool Scotsman. Given the nature of his comments, it is difficult to imagine an event by which Mr. Ruth would be welcomed here, as well.

[chucksabr]

On the Ruth-Ramsay Affair.

Unfounded Criticisms by American Journalists.

There is much acrimony raging in sporting circles pertaining to the series of exhibition matches recently played by the respective champions of the Baseball League and the American major leagues. Although the Walsall baseball club had been struggling to keep up with the New York Yankees baseball club on the pitch in the early going, the games proceeded in an unremarkable fashion. In fact, Swifts had received accolades from American spectators for their spirited play even in the face of rather large defeats in the early matches of the series. As has been recounted here, the crowds in Atlanta were squarely on the side of Swifts as they erased a six runs deficit with their old-fashioned hustling method of play; also, in Birmingham, Alabama, the spectators cheered lustily upon the attainment of victory by Walsall in the bottom of the ninth innings of that match, again brought about by British pluck and hustle.

So we were as surprised as any by reports from American journalists who covered the matches, and who reported on what they described as a lackadaisical effort employed by Swifts, notably during the portion of the series contested in Cuba. Bandied about were words such as “sloppy”, “lazy”, “sloth”, and that particularly uncouth Americanism, “lollygagging”. Such uncomplimentary delineations as “Walsall played as though they could not get out of town and onto a ship home quickly enough” were also common in the final days of the series.

These accusations contemplate behaviour well understood to be entirely uncharacteristic of the British baseballer, and of Britons in general, as evidenced by the valour and bravery displayed during the war, as even the Americans must recognise. Furthermore, reliable eyewitness accounts confirm that such descriptions were completely unfounded. Unfortunately, no English journalists had accompanied the club on their voyage, as one would reasonably think it would not have been necessary to counterbalance a wholly unfair accounting of events.

Nevertheless, printed in this newspaper were summary judgments levelled against British baseball by Grantland Rice, the American sports columnist, who relayed an inaccurate portrayal of Jamie Ramsay's droll response to Babe Ruth’s patronising comments regarding British baseballers, benignantly conceived though those comments might have been. Mr. Rice fairly noted that the performance of the Walsall club was inferior to that of the Yankees during this series, but he did so in a most dismissive fashion, concluding that Swifts demonstrated “an appalling lack of … competitive pride”, and implied that Ramsay in particular, but also British baseballers by association, are guilty of “moral failings” that cast them outside the American baseballers’ league as “athletes” and “sportsmen”. And to impart such inanities while employing the pejorative term “limey”, and in all seriousness, smacks of high irony delivered right up to the edge of parody.

As a newspaperman, Mr. Rice is highly esteemed as a sort of poet laureate of American sport. If this characterisation of Mr. Rice is indeed true, then it is regrettable that he saw fit to engage in such spurious nonsense that should be beneath his dignity as a dean among writers. To paraphrase Mr. Rice himself, passing summary judgment such as this on the basis of only a few ballgames shows an appalling lack of intellectual rigour on his part. After all, it is in America where player cheating was, and to some degree still is, fairly common as a way to gain undue competitive advantage over an unwitting opponent, a circumstance that would never be brooked in the British game. For Mr. Rice to reject all of British baseball based on such limited experience, and indeed wilful disregard of Ramsay’s obvious intent, smacks of dereliction of journalistic integrity. This is particularly true since it is obvious that it was Mr. Rice’s commentary that inflamed the decree by Judge Landis, the chairman of American baseball, that there would be no more close season exhibition matches played between his teams and ours.

We ourselves would never advocate dismissing from all consideration the playing of baseball friendlies between our country’s champions and those of the American major leagues. But it is clearly best at this time to take a “cooling off period” and allow tensions to recede before the idea of playing such matches again is broached in future. Then, once the Americans come down off their high horse and approach the Baseball League in a dignified and respectful manner, perhaps a rematch will be considered at that time.

[Herrbear]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

The British Game of Baseball.

(From a Special Correspondent.)

The sport of baseball was introduced to Britain by the great Albert Goodwill Spalding almost half a century ago. From that time the game has grown tremendously, and while the baseball being played here looks nearly identical to that practised across the sea, our version has retained something of its unique Britishness. For example, our baseball begins not with the “first inning”, but with the first innings. We do not watch “hitters” or “batters” as American baseball does—we watch batsmen. There are no “fielders” here—only fieldsmen; except that our “centerfielder” is more correctly referred to as the centre fielder; and short stop is properly two words, not hastily slapped together into one as though part of a linguistic efficiency exercise. And although baseballers in Britain do hit singles and home runs off pitchers, rather than one and fours off bowlers, our batsmen typically do not hit “doubles” or “triples”, but rather twos and threes.

Despite such admittedly superficial differences, the game is enjoyed equally well on either side of the pond, a testament to its great popularity on each side. As baseball has taken on the mantle of “national pastime” in the States, the game has somewhat less hubristically become the sport of the summer in Britain as well. (Although, can anything reek of hubris more than the American provincial baseball championship being dubbed the “World’s Series” while not involving any clubs of foreign pedigree in the proceedings?) At least such is true of the North, especially Lancashire, the birthplace of British baseball. For despite herculean efforts by the Baseball League to render the sport a pastime of national proportions in England, there is no denying that the crowds in the North are still larger, the supporters more knowledgeable in matters of form and technical lore, and the “fans” more attuned to the play on the pitch than are the crowds of the South. The League clubs of London have been particularly terrible, with Tottenham Hotspur, the last remaining club in the First Division, in imminent danger of disappearing the City from the top tier altogether once the upcoming season has concluded. One can surmise easily that as long as a strong foothold is not held in the Capital, the sport of baseball is unlikely to fully displace cricket, football, racing or rugby atop the Mountain of British Sport.

And yet, it cannot be disputed that the future of the sport of baseball has never been brighter in this country. The League began with twelve clubs playing sixty six matches only at the weekends in a single table competition during the maiden season of 1888. To-day, thirty-five years on, there are 88 clubs competing in four tables on three levels, playing 126 total matches, with games played six days each and every week for twenty one weeks stretching from May into October, culminating in the EOI Cup challenge contested between the top two clubs of the League after each season's conclusion. Professional baseball has become wildly popular among the increasingly leisured working and professional classes of the country. The best estimates for 1888 are that about one and a half millions were in attendance for all the games played by the League that year; during the 1922 season, a deadly accurate count of 27,147,743 spectators crossed into the various grounds of the Baseball League to take in more than 5,300 League baseball matches played throughout the season, figures which do not even take into account the thousands of non-League professional baseball games throughout the kingdom drawing millions more of supporters to the gate. The progress of the sport in these breathless post-war years has been astounding. Baseballers have been arriving to play in the League not only from the Home Nations, but from across the Commonwealth, lands such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Gold Coast, South Africa, and oh yes, from that prodigal child America herself. There is talk of floodlit games starting at ten o’clock at night, and of matches broadcast to supporters by wireless. The prospects for the sport are, by all accounts, looking quite “up”.

The system of promotion and relegation has its advantage in the British game such that does not exist in America. Regardless of whether a club begins this season buried at the bottom of the Third Division, it is still possible that in two years’ time that same club could be competing for the EOI Cup, the winning of which has become inarguably the highest accomplishment in the British game. This should be of great comfort and hope for the supporters of baseball clubs in Barrow and Halifax; in Wrexham and Wolverhampton; in Portsmouth and Gillingham; in Swindon and Reading. With a few well-placed base hits, leaping one-handed catches, and sterling pitching performances, clubs in these and dozens of other cities and towns large and small may quite possibly experience the thrill of top flight baseball played sixty three times on their home ground very soon. On the other hand, pity the poor American baseball “fanatics” of Baltimore and Hartford; of Buffalo and Indianapolis; of Kansas City and Columbus; of Los Angeles and San Francisco. For no matter how well their favoured clubs play or how many matches in a season the teams win—even if every single one of them—none of that will matter even a whit. For the American major leagues constitute a monopoly that are closed to those cities, and the supporters who live in these and a thousand American other cities and towns—indeed, supporters who live in all but only eleven American cities—understand that in the end, without the opportunity to perform on the biggest stage in the sport, the accomplishments of their teams are, ultimately, meaningless.

The home run has not captured the imagination of the British public in the way it has the apparently easily distractible Americans. While Neanderthal “sluggers” such as Rogers Hornsby, Cy Williams, Tillie Walker and, of course, Babe Ruth hold slack-jawed Americans in thrall to their stupefying exploits, the keenly discerning British fan still roars his approval for the well-placed sacrifice; the surprise bunt base hit; the double base-steal; the putout tag at home plate; and that most exciting of base hits, the legged-out three. Even if it can be fairly argued that the proficiency of baseball talent in Britain still lags behind that of the United States, it cannot be seriously argued that the American game of bludgeoning the opponent to death with home runs is, aesthetically, a competition preferable to that of the comparatively thrilling British game. We know fully well here that there is more to the game of baseball than a twenty-stone behemoth lumbering around the bases at a snail’s pace for a score without liability to be put out practically every time he bats. Perhaps the lords of American baseball will realize such before it is too late, and before their sport is overtaken in popularity and gate receipts by the bastardization of the game of football that prevails in that country.

All in all, the baseball fanatic here at home should be quite pleased with the progress his favourite sport has made within the pantheon of British leisure pursuits. The sport is as healthy as any other in this country which speaks to its ongoing viability and, indeed, growth. The 1923 season is nigh, and the baseball supporter bates his breath in anticipation as the temperatures warm and the leaves sprout onto the trees, signalling that it is time for his return to the hallowed ground of his favourite club.

Play ball!

Attachment 361280

Love the comparison to US baseball. So very British.

[Lafayette53]

Not to bog this down in too much settings talk, but are you using historical PCM's and auto-calc for this or doing something different?

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by Lafayette53

Not to bog this down in too much settings talk, but are you using historical PCM's and auto-calc for this or doing something different?

I do have "Automatically import historical player-creation modifiers" and "Automatically adjust league totals modifiers after each season for accuracy" checked on. I also have "Automatically adjust league totals modifiers for accuracy" checked as well.

However, I also use a custom modified era_stats.txt that feeds expected stats and rates into each season. I did not want the League's output to exactly mirror MLB's, with the exact same pitchers and hitters eras, and the same outlier years like 1911 or 1968 or 1987. I want the League to carve out its own historical statistical path.

[chucksabr]

NOTE: See disclaimer regarding era-based commentary here.

Start of the 1924 League Season.

The Baseball League will be begun tomorrow, when the 88 clubs forming the four divisions of the League start their long programme of matches.

The close season has been notable for its comparatively few important transfers, trades, and signings which have been arranged. While the League has appeared to have been undergoing impressive prosperity at the gate, most are reluctant to pay high transfer fees or sign on too many players at maximum wages. There were some notable exceptions. Manchester United signed the Dutch national Gerardus Vliegenthat, who has recently been graduated at the Durham University, for a maximum contract. The other top signings include left fielder Fred Gooding to Coventry City; pitcher Archie Davies to Port Vale; and first base man Horace Slattery to Newcastle United, incidentally the first coloured baseballer born in Britain to sign onto a League club. The Slattery signing, as well as that of Vliegenthat, the first baseballer signed off the Continent, is testament to spread of baseball as a major sport to men of all races, colours, and nationalities.

The only consequential trades to have been made was that of bench left fielder Tom Laurie by Manchester United to Nottingham Forest for the bench services of right fielder John McGregor and second base man Bill Haviland; and of pitcher Reg Webb by Brighton & Hove Albion, traded up two levels to Preston North End to provide the latter a solid relief pitcher, which has become more important in recent years. Otherwise, not much doing in League transactions.

Cup holders Walsall will begin the season up in South Shields to face a club that may well end up in the Second Division for 1925; thus, Swifts should have no problem taking three games straightaway. The Walsall club look strong as ever with no appreciable changes having occurred to the squad; however, Manchester United have been one of the few clubs making the moves they felt necessary to wrest the cup from Walsall’s grip. They have been established as a solid favourite among the punter class. Also to be watched are Crewe Alexandra, last season’s Cup runner-up; Chesterfield, the recent collector of young talented baseballers; and any of the group consisting of Burton United, Sunderland, and Aston Villa.

In the Second Division, Everton suffered the ignominy of relegation last season but look very strong with good young baseballers, such as infielders Sheehan, Henry, and Edwards, and starting pitcher MacNidder, standing at the ready to make an impact on their club's quest to return to the top tier; they should be considered a favourite. Other top clubs in the loop are Sheffield United, Notts County, and the London clubs of Chelsea, Clapton Orient and newly-promoted Watford. The chances of a London club re-entering the First Division seem quite good.

Third Division favourites from the Northern Section appear to be Stoke Ramblers and Liverpool, both recently dropped into the Division and each eager to beat the other out of it; and from the Southern Section, Torquay United and Swansea Town serve as the likeliest clubs to be promoted at season's end.