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ABSTRACT
British baseball had two periods when it developed professional leagues, in 1890 and the 1930s. A key element of the emergence of a professional game was transnational linkages provided by business, individuals and religion. Social and industrial links between the United States and Britain facilitated professional baseball. In the 1930s the enthusiasm for baseball by the industrialist John Moores saw the game rapidly develop from an amateur base in Liverpool to professional leagues in Lancashire, London and Yorkshire. It has been argued that, faced with hostility from elements of the media and established sports, especially cricket, establishing baseball as a professional spectator sport was challenging. The hiatus caused by World War Two left a shallow-rooted sport particularly vulnerable and it failed to re-emerge as a professional game. But the professional leagues inspired an amateur game, most notably in the city of Hull, which developed a substantial amateur league, encompassing four divisions and a women’s section by 1939. In Hull amateur baseball survived the conflict, it re-emerged with a multi-divisional format that continued into the 1960s. However, as the generation enthused by professional baseball retired from active involvement, the game receded to minuscule levels of participation.
KEYWORDS:
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The Guardian, June 25, 2023.
2 Daniel C. Beaver, ‘Baseball, Modernity, and Science Discourse in British Popular Culture, 1871–1933’, The Historical Journal No. 65 (2022): 1325–30.
3 Daniel Bloyce, ‘“Just not Cricket”, Baseball in England, 1874–1900’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 14, no. 2 (1997): 211; Tony Mason, ‘When Professional Baseball Nearly Came to Britain’, Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique 10, no. 4 (2000): 38–9; Harvey Sahker, The Blokes of Summer (Ontario: Freelance, 2011), 3.
4 Catherine Budd, ‘A Sport for the “Yankee-like Enterprise and Energy of Ironopolis”: Baseball in Late Nineteenth Century Middlesbrough’, unpublished, 4.
5 Bloyce, ‘Just not Cricket’, 211–2; Josh Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, a Country by Country History, Second Edition (Jefferson: McFarland, 2019), 82–3; Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 1–7.
6 Daniel Bloyce, ‘John Moores and the Professional Baseball Leagues in 1930s England’, Sport in History 27, no. 1 (2007): 64–87.
7 Josh Chetwynd and Brian A. Belton, British Baseball and the West Ham Club, History of a 1930s Professional Team in East London (Jefferson: McFarland, 2007), 12.
8 Bloyce, ‘Moores’, 64–87; Daniel Bloyce, ‘Glorious Rounders’, International Journal of the History of Sport 25, no. 4 (March, 2008): 388–90; Ian Smyth, ‘The Development of Baseball in Northern England, 1935–39’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 10, no. 2 (1993): 252–3; Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 41.
9 Smyth, ‘Baseball in Northern England’, 252–3.
10 Paul Jennings, ‘Life at Lister’s, Sport, Sociability and Culture at Lister's Mill, Bradford’, Bradford Antiquary no. 77 (2016): 73–4; Stephen G. Jones, Workers at Play: A Social and Economic History of Leisure, 1918–1939 (Routledge, 1986), 69–70.
11 Dave Russell, ‘Sport and Identity: The Case of Yorkshire CCC, 1890–1939’, Twentieth Century British History 7, no. 2 (2003): 215–6.
12 Bloyce, ‘Moores’, Sport in History, 68; Mike Huggins and Jack Williams, Sport and the English, 1918–1939 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), 64; Dave Russell, ‘Sporting Manchester, from c1800 to the Present: An Introduction’, Dave Russell, ed., Sport in Manchester, Manchester Regional History Review 20 (2009); Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 1–7.
13 Christopher Devine, ‘Harry Wright’, in Boston’s First Nine: The 1871–75 Boston Red Stockings, eds. Bob LeMoine and Bill Nowlin (SABR, 2016).
14 Christopher Devine, ‘Harry Wright’, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Harry-Wright/ (accessed November 23, 2023).
15 Beaver, ‘Baseball, Modernity’, 1325–30.
16 Mason, ‘Professional Baseball’, 38–9; Josh Chetwynd, ‘Great Britain: Baseball’s Battle for Respect in the Land of Cricket, Rugby, and Soccer’, in Baseball without Borders: The International Pastime, ed. George Gmelch (University of Nebraska, 2006), 263–288; John Bauer, ‘Summer 1874: New Game in the Old Country: U.S. Teams Tour England’, in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century, ed. Bill Felber (SABR, 2013).
17 Tony Collins, Sport in Capitalist Society, a Short History (Routledge, 2013), 79.
18 Beaver, ‘Baseball, Modernity, and Science’, The Historical Journal, 1325–30.
19 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 4; Peter Levine, A.G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball: The Promise of American Sport (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 97–123; Chetwynd and Belton, British Baseball, 12.
20 Leeds Mercury, March 21, 1889. The American’s travelled on from Bradford to Glasgow on board a pullman sleeping car train, which had become essentially ‘their hotel’ for the tour.
21 Beaver, ‘Baseball’, 1316–19.
22 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 4.
23 Martin Johnes, ‘“Poor Man’s Cricket”, Baseball, Class and Community in South Wales c.1880–1950’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 17, no. 4 (2000): 154. Mason, ‘Professional Baseball’, 40–1; Bloyce, ‘Just not Cricket’, 211; Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 3.
24 Derby Daily Telegraph, 10 Oct. 1889; Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 1.
25 Bloyce, ‘Just not Cricket’, 211–2; Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 1–7. Thirty Birmingham schools also formed a league playing on football grounds in West Bromwich and Wolverhampton among others.
26 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 82–3.
27 Budd, ‘Yankee-like Enterprise’, 4; Mason, ‘Professional Baseball’, 43. In London teams were: Clapton Orient, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and Woolwich Arsenal; in Middlesbrough: Bishop Auckland, Darlington, Eston, Middlesbrough and South Stockton.
28 Budd, ‘Yankee-like Enterprise’, 3–11.
29 Bloyce, ‘Just not Cricket’, 212; Johnes, ‘Poor Man’s Cricket’, 154.
30 Noreen Branson and Margot Heinemann, Britain in the Nineteen Thirties (St Albans: Panther), 270.
31 Huggins and Williams, Sport and the English, 64; Mason, ‘Professional Baseball’, 44.
32 Mike Huggins, ‘Football and Gambling’, in Routledge Handbook of Football Studies, eds. John Hughson, Kevin Moore, Ramon Spaaij, and Joseph Maguire (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017), 64. Australian football was first used by the pools in 1947, but it did not become general until 1951.
33 Bloyce, ‘Moores’, 64–87; Bloyce, ‘Glorious Rounders’, 396; Smyth, ‘Baseball in Northern England’, 252–3; Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 41.
34 New York Times, 23 Aug. 1936, in Chetwynd and Belton, British Baseball, 32.
35 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 88.
36 Chetwynd and Belton, British Baseball, 33.
37 Wendell J. Ashton, ‘Baseball and Mormons in England’, Improvement Era 38, no. 10 (October 1935): 598–600; 644–649.
38 Bloyce, ‘Moores’, 67; William Morgan, ‘The Professional Leagues’, Baseball Mercury no. 7 (1981).
39 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 4.
40 Liverpool Echo, May 4, 1935, in Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 89.
41 Bloyce, ‘Moores’, Sport in History, 69; Huggins and Williams, Sport and the English, 64. The eight clubs of the Manchester Senior League was originally to be composed of Swinton, Oldham, Salford, Hurst, Drolysden, Manchester North End, Belle Vue, and Hyde Grasshoppers.
42 Leeds Mercury, April 17, 1935. Green was said to have gained considerable experience of the game in Wales. The American’s were F. Solomon of Brooklyn, Cyril Wood, a former US Marine and W. Briggs who hailed from Philadelphia.
43 Yorkshire Evening Post, April 16, May 2, 1935.
44 Telegraph & Argus, 8, July 15, August 6, 1935. Terry Frost, Bradford City, A Complete Record, 1903–1988 (Derby: Breedon, 1988), 372; Malcolm Hartley and Tim Clapham, The Avenue, The Pictorial History and Club Record of Bradford Park Avenue (Nottingham: Temple Nostalgia, 1987), 98. There are no reliable figures for average attendances for the Bradford Cricket League, or Bradford Northern RLFC.
45 Smyth, ‘Baseball in Northern England’, 253.
46 Yorkshire Evening Post, 1 Aug. 1935.
47 Mike Harrop, ‘North of England Baseball League 1935’, http://www.projectcobb.org.uk/misc/mharrop/mh1935.pdf (accessed December 19, 2018).
48 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 90.
49 Halifax Courier, August 9, 1935. The meeting at the Mechanics Institute in the city centre was organised to develop the game in Yorkshire and outline the association’s plans for the county.
50 Yorkshire Post, September 7, 1935.
51 Halifax Courier, November 23, 1935.
52 Leeds Mercury, October 23, 1935.
53 Yorkshire Post, November 28, 1935.
54 Leeds Mercury, November 29, 1935.
55 Huddersfield Examiner, December 21, 1935.
56 Halifax Courier, January 28, 1935.
57 Yorkshire Post, April 17, 1936; Baseball Mercury, May 27, 1981, 3; Telegraph & Argus, April 16, 1936.
58 RFL/CP/3/1: Rugby Football League Management Committee Minute Books 1935–36; RFL/CP/2/1: Rugby Football League Committee Minute Books, 1935–36; RFL/CP/4: Minute Book of Yorkshire County Committee 1935–1947. Heritage Quay, University of Huddersfield.
59 Shipley Times & Express, January 23, 1937.
60 E.L. Roberts, Yorkshire’s 22 Championships, 1893–1946 (Edward Arnold, 1949), 156–220. YCCC won the County Championship in 1931, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1938 and 1939.
61 Russell, ‘Sport and Identity’, 207.
62 Ibid., 215–6.
63 Bloyce, ‘Glorious Rounders’, 400.
64 Johnes, ‘Poor Man’s Cricket’, 156–7. It is worth restating that Welsh baseball was British rounders and differed from American baseball.
65 Hull Daily Mail, May 27, 1948.
66 Smyth, ‘Baseball in Northern England’, 252–3.
67 Halifax Courier, June 23, 1939.
68 The Rugby League News, March 1960. Grogan died after returning to his native Australia on February 29, 1960.
69 Telegraph & Argus, April 17, 1936; Baseball Mercury, 27, May 1981, 3. Craven Park was home to Hull KR Rugby League club and a greyhound track. Leeds would later play at rugby grounds in Headingley and Meanwood. The Wakefield Cubs rented the ground from the rugby league club, whereas the Dewsbury baseball team was financed by the rugby league club as hoped for summer income.
70 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 90.
71 Bloyce, ‘Moores’, Sport in History, 68; Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 1–7. We can add Bradford, Hull and Sheffield to that list.
72 Jack Williams, ‘“A Wild Orgy of Speed”. Responses to speedway in Britain before the Second World War’, Sports Historian 19 (1999): 1–15, 2. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lamb was elected to be the Yorkshire Baseball League’s delegate to the National Baseball Association.
73 Huggins and Williams, Sport and the English, 114. ‘All-in’ American wrestling was another inter-war sport which became popular from the mid-1930s.
74 Russell, ‘Sporting Manchester’, 9; Huggins and Williams, Sport and the English, 113.
75 Mike Huggins and Jack Williams, Sport and the English, 1918–1939 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), 1.
76 Mike Huggins, ‘“Everybody is Going to the Dogs”? The Middle Classes and Greyhound Racing in Britain Between the Wars’, Journal of Sport History 34, no. 1 (2007): 408.
77 Branson and Heinemann, Britain in the Nineteen Thirties, 269.
78 Ibid., 275.
79 J.B. Priestley, English Journey (Heinemann, 19334), 401.
80 Huggins and Williams, Sport and the English, 113.
81 Ibid., 72.
82 Leeds Mercury, January 23, 1937; Smyth, ‘Development of Baseball’, 255. Dewsbury could not afford to employ many professionals and were outspent by their rivals. Poor form led to low attendances, which led to closure. Smyth stated that York played at the city’s rugby league stadium, they actually played the 1937 season at Bootham Crescent, home of York City AFC.
83 Mason, ‘Professional Baseball’, 44.
84 Sheffield Independent, May 25, 1938; Hull Daily Mail, May 10, August 14, 1937.
85 Leeds Mercury, May 8, 1937.
86 Smyth, ‘Development of Baseball’, 255. In the 1937 season Leeds only had one English-born player.
87 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 92.
88 Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 94–5.
89 Smyth, ‘Development of Baseball’, 255. The League consisted of: Bolton, Greenfield (Bradford), Halifax, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Oldham, Rochdale, Sheffield, York. A short-lived International League was also formed by: Halifax, Hull, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Newcastle.
90 Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 115–7.
91 Smyth, ‘Development of Baseball’, 256.
92 Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 135–6.
93 Johnes, ‘Poor Man’s Cricket’, 162. An attempt to form a league in South Wales was still born.
94 Bloyce, ‘Glorious Rounders’, 388.
95 Ibid., 399.
96 Sahker, Blokes of Summer, 125–8.
97 Shipley Times and Express, May 14, June 11, 1938; Bloyce, ‘Moores’, 75.
98 Smyth, ‘Development of Baseball’, 257.
99 Ibid.
100 Shipley Times and Express, May 14, June 11, 1938; Bloyce, ‘Moores’, Sport in History, 75. The Bradford Amateur League 1938: Bolton Woods, Bradford ‘M’ Men, Butterfield’s Tanks, English Electric, Grey Giants, Hunsworth, Rigby’s Wire Works, Sedbergh Boys, Spenborough, Tyersal Tigers.
101 Telegraph & Argus, May 25, 1936.
102 Ashton, ‘Baseball and Mormons’, 598–600; 644–649.
103 Halifax Courier, May 10, 1938.
104 Bloyce, ‘Moores’, Sport in History, 75.
105 Telegraph & Argus, August 17, 1936.
106 Telegraph & Argus, June 18, 1936.
107 J. Lee, ‘Life After Death’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 22, no. 11 (2007): 1494; Jean Williams, A Game for Rough Girls? A History of Women’s Football in Britain (Routledge, 2003), 33–6; Jean Williams, ‘The Fastest Growing Sport? Women’s Football in England’, Soccer & Society 4 no. 2–3 (2003): 113.
108 Judy Threlfall-Sykes, ‘A History of Women’s English Cricket, 1880–1939’ (PhD diss., De Montfort University, 2015), 244–5; Halifax Evening Courier, September 10, 1932.
109 Debra A. Shattuck, Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017), 147.
110 Jennings, ‘Life at Lister’s’, 73–4; Jones, Workers at Play, 69–70.
111 Shipley Times & Express, September 5, 1936.
112 Shipley Times & Express, June 19, July 10, 1937.
113 Shipley Times & Express, July 10, 1937.
114 Shipley Times & Express, July 29, August 26, 1939.
115 Hull Daily Mail, May 11, 1939.
116 Hull Daily Mail, February 18, 1937, December 16, 1937, August 19, 1939. There had been a women’s game at Craven Park in 1936 and a proposed women’s league in 1937.
117 Smyth, ‘Development of Baseball’, 257.
118 Hull Daily Mail, February 3, May 2, 1940.
119 Hull Daily Mail, July 21, 1945.
120 Hull Daily Mail, May 4, 1948.
121 ‘Records collected by Mr Symmes relating to baseball in Hull’, (Ref DISY/2), Hull History Centre.
122 Hull Daily Mail, May 27, 1948. Alf Grogan, then secretary of the Rugby League, was reported to be at the centre of the revival attempt.
123 Baseball (in Britain) Monthly, No. 1, May 1950.
124 Baseball (in Britain) Monthly, No. 3, June 1950.
125 Baseball (in Britain) Monthly, No. 2 June 1950. Nationally, there was: a fifteen team South Eastern League, based around Essex and eastern England; an eight team Western Amateur League in west London; a five team Nottingham League; a twelve team Midland League, based around Birmingham; an eleven team Merseyside Premier League; and a Manchester League, possibly of seven teams.
126 ‘Hull Baseball Gazette’, http://www.projectcobb.org.uk/anthony_taylor/hbg1_1.jpg (accessed June 18, 2023); ‘Records Symmes’ (Ref DISY/4), Hull History Centre.
127 Hull Baseball Gazette, No. 3 July 1953 (Ref DISY/4), Hull History Centre.
128 ‘Records of Harry Pursey MP’ (Ref U DPU/7, U DPU/413), Hull History Centre.
129 ‘Records’ (Ref U DPU/413).
130 Baseball Mercury, Issue 32, April 1983, 4–6.
131 ‘Humberside Baseball Festival’, programme, 1987, http://www.projectcobb.org.uk/artefacts/1987%20Humberside%20Baseball%20Festival.pdf (accessed June 18, 2023).
132 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 96.
133 Ibid., 97–100.
134 ‘Hull Baseball History’, https://www.scorpionsbaseball.co.uk/our-vision/hull-baseball-history/ (accessed June 30, 2023).
135 Mike Huggins, The Spectre of ‘Americanisation’: Assessing the impact of American on British leisure between the wars (unpublished paper), 19; Huggins and Williams, Sport and the English, 113.
136 Mason, ‘Professional Baseball’, 46.
137 Chetwynd, Baseball in Europe, 102.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
David Pendleton
David Pendleton is an independent scholar whose research interests include maritime, sport and leisure. He holds an MA from Leeds Metropolitan University in Northern Studies and researched a PhD entitled ‘Sport and the Victorian City’ at De Montfort University, Leicester.