Examiner The Research Journal and Newsletter of the Bobby Thomson Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research “ ” ’ by Beth Hise, Curator common misunderstandings and John Newberry’s A Little Pretty bring new or underappreciated Pocket-Book, dating from the mid- A new exhibition Swinging elements about the two sports to 1700s, that shows a vignette and Away: how cricket and baseball the fore. poem for 12 games including Base- connect has opened at the MCC It is now clear that cricket Ball, Cricket, Stool-Ball and Trap- Museum, Lord’s Ground, London in and baseball have no direct evolu- Ball. time for a busy summer of cricket. tionary relationship and the exhibi- Today both sports are profes- This exhibition sees the MCC sional and commercial enterprises embarking on a new with highly paid elite initiative. By reaching players, corporate out to another sport, sponsors, television baseball, the MCC coverage and passion- museum - home of ate fans, seemingly the famous Ashes urn further apart than and an internation- ever. Most cricket ally significant cricket countries do not play collection is endeav- much baseball, and ouring to see cricket vice versa (with a few today and cricket’s important exceptions history in a new light. where both are The National Baseball played, such as Hall of Fame and Australia or South Museum in Africa). Thus as Cooperstown, New potential players grow York collaborated on up around the world the project and lent a they are rarely faced significant number of with choosing be- objects to the exhibi- tween these two tion. This is the first sporting cousins. Yet, time any artefacts tion looks at baseball and cricket’s for a short time in 19th-century from their celebrated collection have origins and touches on stool-ball America these two sports were far been displayed in England. They will and trap-ball as well. Of particular more inter-related than many today also host the exhibition in interest to Examiner readers will be realise. Cooperstown in 2011, mirroring the companion handkerchief to continued on page 15 MCC’s initiative to better under- stand baseball by seeing it in relation to cricket. The exhibition and accompa- nying catalogue examine cricket and Our Patron Saint, Bobby Thomson, passed away on 16 August this year. baseball across a number of themes What can I say about Bobby Thomson that hasn’t already been said? He from the games today, equipment, gave baseball its supreme moment in 1951, in a home run that capped grounds, laws and rules to interna- off probably the most exciting pennant race in MLB history. Bobby was tional tours, professionalisation born in Glasgow, and moved to the U.S. with his family at the age of 2. and origins. The focus is limited, He never completely forgot his British roots; in fact, one of our mem- with a few exceptions, to the bers, Barry Winetrobe, got to meet him when he was on a golfing trip to relationship across the Atlantic Scotland - photo on page 16. Rest in Peace, Bobby, and thanks for the between the nations claiming these incredible memories. sports as their own – America and - Martin Hoerchner England. It seeks to clear up a few
by Martin Hoerchner In this light, the con- The bottom line is We are standing at clusion must be made that we need people to the crossroads in a cru- that we need to change or step up to the plate. We cial time for the Bobby die. need a new Chairman, Thomson Chapter. We No one can deny that and a new Secretary (to have been active since there is a huge interest in replace Michael Olenik, 1992, and have received baseball in the United who has been doing stel- worldwide recognition, Kingdom. Channel 5 lar duty from 3000 miles largely but not solely due showed weekly live base- away). As Publications to our prestigious journal ball for many years, right Editor, I will be glad to The SABR UK Examiner , from its launch in 1997. work with a new regime, which I hope I’ve proven They had two hosts who and I’m sure the Head of is still very much alive. read email upon email the Historical Committee We were prominently from viewers between will too. featured in the Major innings. It was only re- We need a Chairman League Baseball docu- cently cancelled due to who will help us build Baseball Discov- mentary the presence of ESPN our membership. The ered . We have been bat- America (also in HD!), duties are light; he/she ting way above our weight which shows live baseball only needs to organize (to mix a couple of meta- practically every day. The the AGM, act as a liaison phors). British Baseball Federa- between members, and But those who have tion has a membership between the Chapter and stayed with us can’t deny numbering in the thou- the media, file an annual that our numbers have sands; unfortunately we report, and come up with been shrinking. Our re- have neglected to build ideas to make being a cruitment of new mem- bridges with them. Most Chapter member interest- bers has been abysmal; of this interest is home ing. Possibly most im- our last AGM had attend- grown, but we also have portantly, we need a ance in single figures. the American expat com- Chairman who can reap When we add to that the munity. a harvest from the fields fact that a) Chairman Not only are there a of baseball interest in the Mike is retiring, and b) we lot of baseball fans out U.K. are losing our esteemed there in the UK, but I’m SABR UK will not venue, The Kings of sure there are more than survive without this Clerkenwell pub, which eight who are seriously leader. And after all we’ve has been sold to an inter- interested in the history accomplished, it would national consortium. and study of baseball. We be a shame to let it die. need to reach out to them.
by Joe Gray, baseball in the mid-1930s, became British Baseball (Project Cobb), a Chair of Electors the first inductee in the “Game body which has the dual aim of builders” category. restoring the game’s past where Last October saw the an- The Board of Electors com- possible and preserving details of nouncement of the inaugural class prises individuals with an interest the sport today. of inductees into the British Base- in the history of baseball played At the start of this year, ball Hall of Fame (BBHoF). The first under modern rules on British soil. Project Cobb was accepted into thing to note about the BBHoF is This includes an esteemed SABR UK SABR as its fifth chartered commu- that the focus is not on British- representative, in Patrick Carroll. nity, and the first with a primary born individuals who have excelled There is also a spot for a repre- focus away from North America. in North American pro ball, for sentative from the British Baseball Chartered communities differ from these figures can be recognized Federation, in acknowledgement of traditional SABR chapters in that through other means (as is exempli- the BBHoF’s endorsement by the their principal means of communi- fied by the naming of the UK national governing body. Electors cation and collaboration is through chapter for SABR after Bobby put forward nominations for each an online community. With this
class and vote on whether each development, baseball in Britain is Thomson). Instead, election to the candidate should be inducted or now served by a pair of SABR BBHoF is for superlative contribu- not. Nominations are also put groups, and Project Cobb’s focus on tions to or performances in the forward by Regional Experts, who the more modern aspects of the game of baseball in Britain. have been appointed to assist the game’s history means that the two The three inductees in the BBHoF with biographical details. bodies have remits with a neat inaugural class handily illustrated The idea of founding a Hall of combination of dovetailing and the breadth of potential candidates: Fame for baseball in Britain has reinforcing overlap. Ross Kendrick, Great Britain’s been discussed on a number of The announcement of the stand-out player in their triumph in occasions in the past, but one of 2010 BBHoF class is planned for the 1938 World Championships, the barriers to its formation was the the second week of October. Full was inducted as a “player”; Norman paucity of historical details to details can be found via the Wells, Sr, a pivotal figure in the properly evaluate candidates’ BBHoF’s webpage Merseyside baseball scene from 1946 worthiness for enshrinement. While (www.bbhof.org.uk). Further infor- to the present day, went in under it would be overly ambitious to hope mation on Project Cobb, including the “Coaches, managers, umpires, to fully repair the patchy record, the contact details, can be found on and other officials” designation; and BBHoF aims to overcome this that organization’s website Sir John Moores, the principal barrier through its alliance with the (www.projectcobb.org.uk/ backer for Britain’s golden era of Project for the Chronicling of cobb.html). by Patrick Carroll or a dozen, would show up. We changed names or were otherwise practiced and played rotation – a fairly fluid. game in which each player gets Throughout its existence our The ancient Som- three outs at bat and then moves team was called the Crewkerne erset market town of around the field playing each Cutters – a name reflecting both the position in turn by box score cutter class of maritime craft, and Crewkerne, like many number. Some of the gang had the town’s historical connection such places, lies in a played a bit of cricket while others with various textile industries. For had never touched a ball or bat in reasons of geographical distance bowl, its main roads their lives. Most had a hard time and the costs of registration, it had rising from its centre adjusting to fielding with baseball been agreed that, for the time-being gloves. Eventually we had the at least, Baseball South West would to the approximate nucleus of a softball team and not affiliate with the British Base- began looking around for someone ball Federation; thus, in the eyes of points of the compass. to play against. There wasn’t the BBF, we were an outlaw league. There is a particularly abrupt anyone. The nearest we got was a However, since the governing body elevation to the east at the top of team of GB junior champion (which included several people with which, overlooking the town, is a rounders players who were sched- whom I was on friendly terms), had, majestic line of venerable trees uled to go to Ireland and play apart from excluding us from known as the Bincombe Beeches. If against teams there. Their manager various national competitions, no one walks east on Bincombe Hill for asked us to give them a game as effective sanctions to impose, and several hundred yards the woodland they had been told that Irish (or could scarcely stop us from playing, opens on a space of several acres base) rounders was not unlike we carried on with impunity. The comprising the playing fields of softball. Despite having lived in league featured in the regional press Wadham Community School. Dublin for most of ten years, this and scores and standings were Moving across this expanse toward was my first conscious exposure to carried each week on Teletext. the school buildings one encounters the Irish version of the game that, Between BSW’s first and a seemingly incongruous hump in curiously enough, is recognized by second seasons it became urgently the ground. A few have taken it to the Gaelic Athletic Association, apparent to the team and to myself be some vestige of an Iron Age along with hurling, Gaelic football especially that we needed a proper tumulus or barrow. It is, in fact, the and handball, as an authentically diamond. In pursuit of this wish, I remnant of a pitchers’ mound. Gaelic game. It differs from round- opened negotiations with a wonder- When I moved to Crewkerne ers as played in England, using fully able and estimable woman, in 1990 my son was eight-years-old bases rather than posts and most Rusty Jackson, who was Commu- and among the many things and markedly in the pitching, which is nity Liaison Officer for Wadham people he reluctantly left behind in underarm fast-pitch from 30 feet School. She was also a sports- London was the HyPisco Sunday with a run up. Not sedate. minded individual, married to a morning softball game in Hyde Park. With no softball opponents noted local Rugby Union player. For a future Great Britain middle- handy we began to consider playing Rusty not only readily allocated a infielder and professional baseball baseball, as I knew that there were section of the playing fields to us coach a substitute was needed. In some clubs spread around the but also seconded to our service the time I became acquainted with the region. I first made contact with a school groundskeeper. He was a landlord of a local hostelry, The fairly well established team that grizzled and laconic countryman to Swan. His name was Joe Morano, was then based in Wedmore and whom I outlined the measurements and he hailed originally from would later move to Street and and general layout of a full-sized Bridgeport, Connecticut. Joe was finally to Cheddar. They played in a baseball diamond. Working from the sports-minded, having been a loose league with clubs ranging corner of the fields nearest the champion Golden Gloves boxer and from Plymouth, up along the south town, I pegged out the 4x90’ dia- high school and college football coast to Exeter and then more or mond and the 60’6" distance to the player. During his time in the U.S. less straddling the M5 corridor as pitching rubber. It was not possible Air Force he had been stationed in far north as Bristol. We organized a to completely level the field, which East Anglia where he married a few friendlies against some of these, had a slight slope toward left- local woman whose family were in still playing when at home on the center, nor was it feasible to cut an the licensed trade, and after leaving RedGra hockey pitch. A winter entire skin infield, so we resorted to the Service he became a publican. meeting of club representatives was the cookie-cutter design for the base We, naturally, talked a bit of convened at a motorway services areas. These shapes, along with the baseball and soon hit on the notion area near Taunton and it was regulation circles around home of taking some bats, balls and agreed that a new league would plate and pitchers’ mound, were cut gloves – of which I had a good basic form for the 1994 season. and cleared by the groundskeeper collection - up to the Wadham In its first incarnation using a hedger and an angled turf- fields on Sunday mornings and Baseball South West consisted of lifting spade. It was he who sug- playing a bit of ball to fill in the teams based variously in Bristol, gested that some of the lifted turves hour or two before opening time. We Crewkerne, Exeter, Norton be piled in the centre of the dia- played at first from one corner of a Radstock, Plymouth, Teignmouth mond as a base for the mound. The RedGra field hockey pitch and and Torbay. Over the three years of areas denuded of grass were then within a month or so a bunch of the league’s existence several of covered with several inches of Swan regulars, usually around ten these teams moved, dropped out, RedGra. This material, for those unacquainted with it, is a mixture he married a Devon woman. He an idea. Geoff Webb developed into of sand and fine gravel. The nearest became a successful manufacturer a dependable outfielder and goodish thing I could locate to proper clay of sportswear and was a director of hitter. He did have a penchant for was pulverized brick dust, which Plymouth Argyle Football Club. He hitting pop ups so high that you was quoted to me at over £1,000 per also bankrolled the development of could brew a pot of tea before they tonne. RedGra was good enough, baseball in the city. He died in 1994 came down. His older brother, although one needed to be pretty and there was unanimous agree- Keith, was our regular starting Pete Rose-style gung-ho to slide on ment among the clubs with the pitcher. He was universally known it. The next requirement was a Plymouth Pirates suggestion that as Skelly – short for ‘skeleton’ – he backstop. Attacking this problem I the BSW cup should be named in having been quite skinny as a child, enlisted the aid of Singleton & Co. his honour. On the day, which was although he’d filled out consider- a local metal fabricating firm. They a fine one, the top four teams in the ably with maturity. Skelly, techni- soon produced five 20’ poles – rather league’s final standings came to cally speaking, couldn’t throw a ball like scaffold poles but heavier and Crewkerne with their supporters. properly, but could be effective as a with a larger bore – each There were to be four games played: pitcher. His fastball had a little pop cantilevered at one end with pulley two semi-finals, a final and a and he threw a zen slider that wheels soldered to the top and consolation game. The crowd was occasionally broke three feet. He anchor bolts five feet from the base. augmented by a good complement of had been cashiered from the With the aid of a good friend of local people attracted by some Coldstream Guards for having mine, D.K. “Bill” Browne, who was publicity, curiosity, the barbeque beaten up one of his officers and a time-served stonemason and stand and a general carnival atmos- was literally covered in tattoos. I general builder, we dug a semi-circle phere. once asked him what his body art of five three-foot deep holes and When batting practice was had cost him over the years. “About lined them with cement. With the finished and the first game – which £10,000, give or take a K,” he aid of a combination of netting I was to umpire - about to com- replied. What Skelly had was the (acquired from a long-established mence, I looked out over the geom- pitcher’s temperament. Most pitch- company in Bridport) and cord, two etry and colour of the freshly mown ers not only want to get the hitter people could plant the poles in their and manicured diamond and beyond out, they want to humiliate him. footings and raise the netting to the the outfield where a whole sweeping Skelly had that streak of meanness. top. Voila. The backstop worked vista of countryside was visible, I studied him closely as I was his pretty well although high pop fouls rolling away below the hilltop catcher. The reason I caught was did sometimes disappear into the across the Hamstone country that, at the outset at least, I was trees, bracken and scrubland behind toward the Somerset Levels and the the only one who knew what the home plate. I expect there are still Mendip Hills. I looked at the 50 or game was supposed to look like, or some lost balls in the thickets, so suited-up ballplayers and the had any idea of what the fielders unless the rabbits have eaten them. 200-plus crowd of spectators and I should do in a given situation. We were also allowed use of the thought to myself: “Mother of Catching took its toll, although school’s line-marking machine and Mercy, Patrick, what have you anyone who catches at baseball into grounds-keeping gear, along with done!?” their mid-50s deserves everything storage space for backstop poles and And who were the Crewkerne they get. Taking up the squat 150- bases. Our original bases were Cutters who played their home 200 times a game (our pitchers ran produced by my wife, using dense games on this diamond on a hill? to long counts) has left me with a foam rubber encased in heavy-duty Like the clubs in the Baseball permanently wonky right knee. The canvas. South West league, our personnel overall level of play in our league All in all, when the whole came and went with some fluidity. can be gauged by the fact that kaboosh was ready for a game: lines Among those who were regulars during three seasons as an over-50 freshly limed; dirt areas smoothed, throughout the club’s existence player/manager of very modest pristine bases, home plate and were Alan Padgett, Jimmer ability I hit .422. pitchers’ rubber in place and Templeman and the Webb brothers. For personal and family backstop raised, it was, without Alan was a chunky second baseman reasons I had to give up active doubt, the premier baseball facility who, starting more or less from participation in baseball after the in the South West. All the other scratch, became a solid performer 1996 season and, as no one was teams in the league looked forward for the level at which we played. prepared to carry on running it, the to playing there and it was the first Jimmer was a feisty little character club collapsed. Sometime later I choice venue for games requiring a whose natural bellicosity almost moved with my family away from neutral field. precipitated a mass punch up on Crewkerne to Bristol. For several Certainly the high point of the occasion when we travelled up years afterwards, during my occa- Cutters’ Diamond history was the to London to play the HyPisco sional passing visits to the town, I Manny Rubin Cup tournament that softballers. At one point he yelled at avoided climbing Bincombe Hill to took place on 25th September 1995. some football players from a neigh- the site of the old diamond. By the The cup was named for an American bouring pitch who were chasing time I did nerve myself up to do so who had been based in Plymouth their ball loudly urging them to get the field was complete grown over. I while serving in the U.S. Forces the hell off our field and things couldn’t even find the backstop during World War II. He had been a looked like they might kick off until stanchion holes. The only sign was witness to the infamous Slapton the football players decided a brawl that seemingly anomalous hillock Sands debacle and after the War he with a bunch of lunatics swinging that was once a pitchers’ mound. returned to live in England, where softball bats might not be much of
by Barry Winetrobe North Americans will be at best baseball but not for social policy. bemused or indifferent about Like many, Howard appreciated cricket, with many British fans the wider cultural attractions of Howard & US baseball similarly disposed to baseball. baseball, describing it to me as being One aspect of that phenom- “woven into American history”. He Michael Howard was for enon is that the media will treat specifically mentioned the importance many years a leading Conservative with incredulity (if often manufac- of Jackie Robinson.8 politician in the UK, rising to tured) instances of celebrities become leader of his party from professing a love for a ‘foreign’ The Mets 2003 until 2005. He was a contro- sport. Howard clearly has felt that versial figure, associated with the reaction. See, for example, this Many media biographies and Thatcherite wing of conservatism, extract from an Independent profiles of Howard, even in the BBC helping to introduce the poll tax in interview in May 2003:5 and the Independent, describe him as the late 1980s, and had a stormy Mr Howard would rather a fan of the Boston Red Sox. Pre- time as Home Secretary in the mid- keep his musical tastes private, sumably these emanated from a 1990s. He stood down as an MP with his following of Liverpool common source, as they generally prior to the 2010 election, and has Football Club, his decision to went something like: “After graduat- been appointed to the House of take time out of politics to be ing he spent a gap year in the US - Lords. with his young family and his love developing a lifelong love of baseball In the early 1960s, Howard of baseball. “I am a baseball fan. and the Boston Red Sox…”9 Unfortu- was a student at Cambridge Univer- So what?” he says defensively. “I nately, all this Red Sox stuff is sity, and in 1963 he was part of a don’t watch it the whole time. I “completely wrong”, according to university debating team that quite often watch it when I am in Howard, who told me that he has toured the United States. After- America.” never seen the Red Sox play.10 wards, he stayed on, working for a Of course, the baseball In New York, Howard supported time at a leading New York law firm, connection gave the media some- not the mighty Yankees, who were 1 Lord, Day & Lord. He fell in love thing new to latch on to, a break coming to the end of their astonish- with America - and with baseball. from the standard ‘something of ing 15-year dynasty, but the awful After being taken to an MLB game the night’6/Count Dracula carica- Mets, the new NL team in town, who for the first time in New York in ture. It provided the excuse for were setting records for futility, but 1964, baseball “has remained a many baseball-related clichés and who had just moved into their new 2 passion of mine to this day.” puns, like a headline in the state-of-art facility, Shea Stadium. Many politicians like to International Herald Tribune during Perhaps it was true British ‘love of publicise what Denis and Edna the 2005 general election when he the underdog’ spirit that made him Healey memorably described as their was the Conservative party leader: disdain the Yankees. When he saw ‘hinterland’, i.e. those other inter- “Tories’ heavy hitter is failing to his first game at Yankee Stadium, he ests beyond politics which can make connect.” The article ended:7 was, according to his biographer, them seem more human and sympa- A few years ago, I had lunch Michael Crick, bored - in favour of thetic to their public. Sometimes in London with the Conservative Casey Stengel’s ‘lovable losers’. He these ring true and can boost the leader, then an out-of-office kept Mets pennants on his bedroom politician’s image, as with John former home minister. walls in the 1960s.11 Major and cricket; sometimes the I remember enjoying He described to me his experi- opposite, as with the long-running Howard’s company, although ence of games at Shea, going once doubts over the extent of Tony being a bit nonplused to hear him with an English friend and sitting in Blair’s childhood support for say he was a serious fan of the the bleachers, where a nearby 12- 3 Newcastle United football club. sometimes raffish New York Mets year-old fan disgustedly called the Michael Howard generally and their baseball ups and downs. Mets “the worst team in the history of had a negative public profile, This week, there were these the National League”.12 Despite the despite the fact that his hinterland related thoughts: A Howard poor quality of play, Howard was included popular music – he saw election whiff is at hand. The day transfixed by the terrific atmosphere the Beatles live three times, includ- after, May 6, the Mets play Phila- of a baseball game – something which ing once at Madison Square Garden delphia at home with a 1:30 p.m. to a British youngster in the early - and sport – including football (he start, and the promise of a couple 1960s would, no doubt, have seemed is a Liverpool fan), and baseball. of glorious hours in the sun. A light years ahead of sporting facilities There is a strange, often footloose, true-blue fan could take and presentation back home. And it contradictory, relationship between the first plane of the day from would be so easy to follow baseball sports fans on one side of the Heathrow to Kennedy, and not over there on a daily basis during the Atlantic and the professional sports miss a pitch. season on TV, radio and in print. of the other side, with baseball and The most obvious baseball Crick’s biography describes how his cricket being the obvious example. cliché which stuck with Howard friends at the time were astonished at While there are many who do in politics was the so-called ‘three how passionate he became about genuinely appreciate the joys, strikes and you’re out’ sentencing baseball, and when one colleague intricacies and skills of the respec- policy proposal, which cynics asked how he could spend a whole 4 tive sports across the ‘Pond’, many denounced as appropriate for Saturday at a double-header, he
son-in-law, taking in the game with was deeply involved in the early replied that it was the “spirit” of the them and then back to JFK for the tentative moves towards civil rights, whole experience that he enjoyed.13 flight home. Sadly the game itself including participating in the Howard recalled watching the was a disappointment, with the landmark 1954 school desegregation Mets play the Giants in 1964 in Mets succumbing 4-2 to the Florida case before the Supreme Court, “the longest double-header ever”.14 Marlins, a loss which finally de- Brown v Board of Education, and in This must be the 31 May double- prived them of the chance of a play- its enforcement in the South. Less header at Shea which lasted a off place. The Marlins had also laudably, he was also at the fore- combined 32 innings and nearly 7½ beaten the Mets on the last day in front of the anti-Communist hours of game-time, over a period the previous season to cap an even hysteria of the time, such as the starting around 1pm and not more dramatic Mets collapse. execution in 1953 of the Rosenbergs finishing until nearly midnight. Despite the outcome, Howard for espionage. In the official pro- While the first game was a fairly described that day as a “very memo- gram for the 1954 Little League routine 5-3 defeat for the Mets in 9 rable event.”19 World Series, he wrote: “The young innings over 2 hours and 29 min- Some have derided Howard’s Americans who compose the Little utes, the second was far from preference for the Mets over the League will prove a hitless target for normal. It lasted 7 hours and 23 Yankees. In 2003, for example, the the peddlers of godless ideology.”23 minutes over 23 innings with the American satirist, Jackie Mason, Of more immediate relevance, Mets, who had been down 6-1 after advised the new Tory leader:20 he was a consummate backroom 3 innings, finally succumbed 8-6. Ditch the Mets. Mr. Howard politician, managing many impor- Howard and over 57,000 others saw is a fan of American baseball but, tant post-war Republicans cam- Willie Mays fielding at shortstop for unfortunately, he picked the New paigns, including those of presiden- three innings (10th-12th) before York Mets who have about the same tial candidates, Thomas E. Dewey returning to his rightful center field; chance of winning the champion- and Eisenhower. Central to this Orlando Cepeda of the Giants lining ship as does Yasser Arafat of going work was his entertaining of influ- into a triple play in the 14th, and to a burlesque show with Ariel ential politicos and supporters at Gaylord Perry pitching 10 innings of Sharon. Support the other New his Yankee Stadium box.24 Time scoreless relief for the win, in what York team, the Yankees. When they appropriately described him in a was, he claimed, his first use of his lose, they lose with class. Their 1953 profile as the ‘cleanup man’ of infamous spitball. To cap it all, Ed losing gets more press than other the Eisenhower Cabinet.25 In 1952, Kranepool of the Mets had just teams winning. Even Hillary he took Eisenhower’s Vice-Presiden- returned from the minors having Clinton, who obviously thought tial candidate, Richard Nixon, to a played a DH the day before for that the Yankees were a bunch of Yankees game “where the crowd Buffalo, to play all 32 innings at people who won the Civil War, obviously enjoyed his enthusi- Shea.15 disturbed her hairdo enough to put asm.”26 Howard also recalls going to on a Yankee cap for the photogra- When a Member of the New the 1964 All-Star Game, played at phers. York State Assembly in the mid- Shea on 7 July. He refused a lunch Now that Howard has retired 1930s, Brownell “visited the old engagement with one of his firm’s from the House of Commons, prior Ruppert Brewery on the upper East senior partners, because he already to the 2010 general election,21 let us Side and learned from Colonel had tickets for the game, which was hope he has more time to indulge Ruppert, of Yankee baseball fame, due to begin at 1pm.16 Rather a his love of Major League Baseball, about the place of organised sports brave thing to do for a young foreign whether, like most of us, by watch- in our society.”27 intern! He saw a beauty, with the ing it here on TV or online, or by The then Yankees co-owner, NL 4-3 down scoring 4 runs in the attending games - including a Mets Dan Topping, was a law client of 9th, including a walk-off 3-run World Series, perhaps - across the his. “I remember I was able to homer by Phils’ Johnny Callison. Atlantic. untangle enough governmental red Crick’s biography claims that tape to get Billy Martin, the famous Howard travelled to Baltimore in Herbert Brownell: a baseball second baseman out of the marines 1969 to see the ‘Amazin Mets’ play postscript in time to play in the World Se- the hotly-favoured Orioles in the ries.”28 Presumably this is a refer- World Series,17 but Howard told me In 1964, Howard was taken to ence to 1955, when Martin left the that that was not true; that, sadly, his first MLB game, at Yankee service late in the season, and he had never attended a World Stadium, by Herbert Brownell, a played in the Yankees’ defeat to the Series game, though he did stay up senior member of the New York law Dodgers in the Series. According to all night for the unsuccessful 2000 firm where he was working tempo- Brownell’s memoirs, “Topping even Subway Series with the Yankees rarily.22 wanted to propose my name for (presumably watching the UK Brownell was a fascinating baseball commissioner at one point, Channel 5 coverage).18 character in mid-20th century and he and George Weiss, the He went to New York just to American politics, and deserves a general manager, and Hank see the last Mets game at Shea brief baseball-related postscript Greenberg urged me to change Stadium on 28 September 2008, here. As the Attorney General to careers – but instead I remained a describing it as “literally a flying the Republican President, Dwight Yankee rooter from our family box visit” - flying to JFK Airport, brunch D. Eisenhower in the mid-1950s, he at Yankee Stadium”29 with his daughter and American
1 According to Howard recently, the firm “had been founded by one Herbert Lord Jnr. There was no record of a Herbert Lord Snr and when asked why he called himself Herbert Lord Jnr the founder of the firm was wont to reply ‘To distinguish myself from the Almighty.’” : Pilgrims ’ Reflections Lecture, March 2010 (transcript)
2 Pilgrims’ Reflections Lecture
3 On the latter, see, for example, “Blair football ‘myth’ cleared up“ BBC News, 26 Nov 2008: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ uk_politics/7749778.stm
4 Possibly the most readable account of Major League Baseball from an informed and first-hand British perspective is that of Ed Smith, the professional cricketer, in his excellent Playing hard ball, 2002.
5 “The Monday Interview: Michael Howard”, Independent, 26 May 2003
6 His fellow Tory MP, Anne Widdecombe, had ruined Howard’s chances in the 1997 Tory leadership election by declaring (though in a newspaper report, not, as is often misreported, in a speech in Parliament) that she thought there was “some- thing of the night in him.”
7 “Tories’ heavy hitter is failing to connect“ International Herald Tribune, 19 April 2005
8 Interview
9 Unfortunately, I repeated this in a posting to an American-based British politics online list at the time of his election as Tory leader in November 2003, ending with “He must be hoping that his political career is more successful at reaching the ultimate prizes than the Red Sox he supports.” The Sox, of course, ruined the thrust of my comment the following year by winning the World Series after 86 barren years.
10 Interview
11 M Crick, In search of Michael Howard, 2005, pp90, 96
12 Interview
13 Crick, In search of Michael Howard, pp90-1
14 Interview
15 As Roger Angell wrote, “Welcome home, Eddie!”: The summer game, 1972, p63, footnote
16 Interview
17 Crick, In search of Michael Howard, p96
18 Interview
19 Personal information, June 2010
20 J Mason & R Felder, “What’s a nice Jewish boy doing in a place like this?”, World Jewish Review, 12 Nov 2003. A version of this article also appeared in the UK: J Mason, “What sort of job is this for a nice Jewish boy?”, London Evening Standard , 7 Nov 2003
21 He was nominated for a peerage in the May 2010 Dissolution Honours List. At the time of writing, he has not yet been introduced in the House of Lords.
22 Pilgrims’ Reflections Lecture; Crick, In search of Michael Howard, p89-90
23 L & R Van Auken, Play ball: the story of Little League baseball, 2001, p64
24 See e.g. M Cohen et al, The party decides: presidential nominations before and after reform, 2008, p131. It was also deployed during the 1953 World Series, when Brownell was Attorney General, in securing the agreement of California Governor, Earl Warren, to be nominated as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
25 Time, 16 Feb 1953
26 H Brownell, Advising Ike, 1993, p121. This presumably is the same incident described more graphically in Jonathan Aitken’s biography of Nixon, where he quotes from an interview he had with Brownell in January 1991: “‘Someone hit a home run … Nixon jumped up, stood on a chair and yelled his head off, waving his arms about and screaming as if he was a high school kid. This was in my own box at Yankee Stadium, and frankly I was embarrassed to put it mildly. I could hardly believe that a man who was a Senator and a vice-presidential candidate could be so raw and brash.“ J Aitken, Nixon: a life, 1993, p206
27 Brownell, Advising Ike, p 31
28 Brownell, Advising Ike, p329
29 Brownell, Advising Ike, p329 …
by John Russell There was also teams from Allens indifferent Yankee fan. Then, joy of joys, along came the New York The odyssey began just after Cross, Bromsgrove and Bordesley Metropolitans. I had found my the end of the Second World War in Green, so they were spread out team! In more ways than one as it Birmingham, England where base- around the city. I do not ever recall transpires because as history shows ball was being played in Witton hearing an American accent and they became the archetypal team for Lakes Park on Sunday afternoons. this has now been born out by now any true blue Englishman with a My father, who had his hopes of being told that apart from a couple love for gallant loser. cricketing glory stolen from him by of Canadians all the players were By now I had discovered the the Great War, and may have hoped local. So quite how and why they international editions of the New I would take over his mantle had came to be playing baseball re- York Herald Tribune and the New already taken me several times to mains, to me, something of a York Times which were published in watch Warwickshire play cricket but mystery. No disrespect but I now Paris. Unlike home grown US this involved a cross city journey so know that they were playing some- newspapers they consisted of about I was never going to be able to go thing akin to Triple C baseball but ten pages but it was the back page unless he took me. But here was as a boy in short trousers I was which mattered most. They cost an equally enthralling game being ignorant of such things. fifteen old pence each (1/3) at a played out a few hundred yards from Then as the 40’s turned into time when our papers were 3 old our front door and I became fasci- the 50’s for whatever reason there pence each and came a day late. nated by it. I would sit enthralled was no longer any baseball. Eventually the cost meant that I on a grassy knoll just out of harms That might have been for me opted for only the Herald Tribune. way beyond a flimsy netting that except that my brother did his The only Fleet Street paper that ever had to be erected by the players National Service in Germany. He included any baseball results was before the game could commence came home one leave with tales of the Times and never the league and be dismantled afterwards. I broadcasts on the American Forces tables (standings). occurred to me that perhaps they Network. (Who can ever forget Then came the Telstar Satel- only played baseball because it Sergeant Sam, the exercise man, lite and the first ever live transat- would have been impossible to find every morning at 7.30?) lantic broadcast. It began with an a level stretch on which to play Every Saturday evening at a oh so grainy black and white image cricket on the stone strewn ground. time when it was afternoon in the from something ‘uniquely Ameri- Ground that was deemed too States there was baseball commen- can’, a baseball game. I had wit- dangerous even for football as these tary. Reception was to say the least nessed nirvana. pitches were across the park on spasmodic. But for something Joy was unalloyed when the sloping ground.. called the World Series the authori- New York Mets won the World The home team was The ties upped the power for the benefit Series in 1969. I rushed excitedly Pirates. I never knew them as of the thousands of US Forces in around the office telling all and anything else but it transpires they East Anglia. sundry only to be met with the were officially Erdington Pirates. I still distinctly recall that expected total indifference. But the The pitcher was always a Mr. one of the earliest games I heard triumph also coincided with two Bailey. Again I never knew him by was Don Larsen’s Perfect Game so things which brought about a any other name nor I suspect did with an introduction like that it is decline in my interest in all things any of the other players because he little wonder that I have stayed American. One, I got married and seemed to be a ‘father figure’, hooked ever since. Even though for we all know what that can do to always in charge. some unaccountable reason I had idiosyncratic hobbies, and two, The other teams included become a Brooklyn Dodger fan. night games. No more listening to Austin British Legion, Valor and Perhaps it was an ‘under-dog’ thing. baseball broadcasts because the Dunlop. Three teams with famous I was at a total loss to time difference meant they were now pedigrees that presumably were understand how a team could up in the middle of the night. sponsored or supported in some way sticks and move three thousand It was to be another thirty by the famous companies whose miles. Feeling I would now never years before I was to set foot on the sports grounds they used. Doubt- get to see them play in the days of road to Cooperstown. less smooth, stone free diamonds. piston engine aircraft I became an Base Ball:
by Larry McCray, from those working at the research Town Ball Takes Off in Philadelphia Chairman of the SABR frontier. Authors can refer to early drafts essays by John and others, or 1830c.2 J. Hulbert Thoreau Origins Committee further guidance. and Holiday Ballplaying The Plan Schedule 1837.1 R. Brown Wheaton John Thorn, editor of the We ask contributors to and the Gotham Club journal Base Ball, has asked that I submit drafts this summer for serve as special-issue editor for the editorial panel review and that they 1839.1
Some Initial Notes on Editing and notes, etc. Each essay will start Material from the Protoball Website: Format with an epigram that describes the For some entries, I may send along (Version 1.0) subject event in two or three sen- material posted at the Protoball tences, and that will appear in bold site. If I do, this is meant simply Review Panel: David Block, Richard face. This text may draw, in part, for you to evaluate as additional Hershberger, and John Thorn have on direct quotations from a suitable supporting data for your essay. In agreed to join me in providing historical document. the final version of the issue, such comments on draft essays. If you material may prove useful as are interested in reviewing some or Gaps and Overlaps in Thematic sidebar material. all draft entries, let me know: such Coverage: We hope this volume twill reviews can materially tighten the touch on the major themes in the Images and Graphics: Keep an eye special issue. evolution of American ballplaying in open for suitable images that you the pre-professional era (that is, up think will complement your essay. Submission Mode: Kindly provide to 1870). Some themes will likely Space for such images is not unlim- your draft in electronic form. If this arise in more than a single essay; in ited, but they can make the entries is not feasible, or if you use an such cases, we ask that the authors much more attractive. uncommon word processing pro- are aware of one another’s points of gram, kindly let me know in ad- view, and we may ask for cross- Other Guidance Needed? I am new vance. references in order to help readers to this business of editing, and have form an overall idea of current likely omitted answers to some of Format: The text will appear as a understanding of current views. your questions about how to suitably-referenced essay, and will proceed. Let me know such omis- use the journal’s usual format for sions, and I’ll add material to a version 2.0 of this page. ’
by Abbott Katz (Data source: Sean Lahman’s freely Average Pitchers Per Game, 1910- The man got it right: you downloadable database at http:// 2009 can’t go home again. Let a manager www.baseball1.com/, a fabulous put the eraser to a player’s name on tool. He’s not averse to contribu- 1910-1914 3.21 his dog-eared lineup card, and he’s tions, either.) 1915-1919 3.26 never to return – at least until the The incline is gently sloped, 1920-1924 3.53 next game. but points determinedly upward. 1925-1929 3.70 Baseball’s substitution rules Remember of course that the 1930-1934 3.79 impart a door-slamming finality to two-team PPG baseline stands at 18 1935-1939 3.88 a player’s exit, a stricture you won’t (or 20, as per the latter-day AL 1940-1944 3.86 find in other major team sports (I’m configuration); and so we see that 1945-1949 4.22 thinking in States terms; soccer teams nowadays each garnish their 1950-1954 4.39 isn’t quite major over there, is it?). lineups with about 5 extra rein- 1955-1959 4.85 It’s a stipulation that persuades forcements per game. 1960-1964 5.02 deep-thinking managers they’re Moreover, the structural 1965-1969 5.19 earning their salaries by having to change wrought in 1973 by the 1970-1974 4.96 contend with it. designated hitter in the American 1975-1979 4.90 On the other hand, of course, League has, attendant controversies 1980-1984 5.25 nowhere is it written that a man- aside, exerted virtually no statisti- 1985-1989 5.62 ager has to replace anyone among cal effect. PPGs that year stood at 1990-1994 6.36 his default nine (or ten, in post 25.77 in the AL, and a near-equiva- 1995-1999 6.96 1972-American League lineups). It’s lent 25.88 in the senior circuit, as 2000-2004 7.29 perfectly legal to stand pat and go the sportswriters are wont to say; 2005-2009 7.75 with the players you started with all and that stand-off has basically game through – but the game’s remained in force ever since. How The trajectory is clear and vicissitudes have a way of angling a then should we account for the remarkably pronounced, but the manager’s gaze toward the bench, or continued parity between the data need to be drilled down a bit. the bullpen, in search of a new face leagues? An educated guess: even as Note the 1970-1974 tranche, record- or two. AL teams nowadays entitle them- ing a pullback in pitcher deploy- Or three. Baseball history selves to an extra player at game’s ment - a clear correlate to the attests to a slow, but appreciable inception, the DL serves as a de implementation of the DH. In fact, and strikingly orderly, uptick in per- facto pinch-hitter for the pitcher, AL per-game pitcher appearances game player usage. Grouping the thus obviating the need to recall his have consistently fallen beneath the past 100 years into five-year halting bat in mid-game. Whereas NL averages since 1973, but both tranches, the average number of the NL may need to import a PH to leagues nevertheless exhibit sub- players per game (PPG) looks like the default lineup as events require, stantial movement upward, as seen this (note: these data record average the AL has that guy in place al- above (and concomitant with a player appearances for the two ready, thus preempting the need for mind-blowing decrement in com- teams per game): at least one pitching change. One plete games. Only 2.30% of starts more starting player, one less were finished in 2007, though that Average Number of Players Per pitcher, and the effect is a wash. percentage skyrocketed to 3.13% Game, 1910-2009 And that surmise delivers us last year. The comparable number in turn to the pitcher’s mound, the in 1980 was 20.37%). 1910-1914 21.70 place atop which so much of the Now while it’s true that most 1915-1919 21.81 head-counting here is hinged. You of the conclusions I’ve loosed upon 1920-1924 22.13 won’t be astonished to learn that this learned readership are more 1925-1929 22.86 the spike in player usage tracked confirmatory than revelatory, a 1930-1934 22.72 above is overwhelmingly pitcher- couple of additional thoughts 1935-1939 22.68 related; even baseball tyros will tell remain to be voiced that aren’t 1940-1944 22.86 you that these days nearly all quite as obvious. 1945-1949 23.80 starting pitchers have showered, First, because nearly all the 1950-1954 24.34 dressed, and updated their blogs by increase in PPGs can be accounted 1955-1959 25.64 game’s end, having been sup- for by a step-up in pitcher traffic, it 1960-1964 25.64 planted innings earlier by a medley then follows that other substitution 1965-1969 25.84 of pin-their-ears-back, heat-throw- contingencies – decisions whether 1970-1974 25.78 ing relievers. Revisiting the 1910- to insert pinch hitters, pinch 1975-1979 26.25 2009 span, the pitchers-per-game runners, defensive replacements, 1980-1984 26.91 numbers look like this (again, these and the like – have changed little. 1985-1989 27.08 are two-team per game figures): In fact, the non-pitcher players per 1990-1994 27.74 game average first reached 20 in 1995-1999 28.23 1953, and has merely oscillated 2000-2004 28.27 between 20.20 and 21.85 ever since 2005-2009 28.40 – with the exception of last year’s 19.95, a decline I can’t explain, apart from the standard recourse to ’
“random” variation. In other words, as a result. Face a pitcher during tionship. There seem to be too many these additional opportunities to that one inning, when his fastball other variables that get in the way – circulate personnel haven’t stirred is pushing a take-no-prisoners the ball, improving hitters (maybe), the managerial mindset for decades. triple digits and pacing himself is night games, and who knows what It’s basically pitchers, then, not an option, and you’re standing else? The disquieting thought is who’ve padded the PPG – and that – or quaking – 60 feet away from that managers may – may - be brings us to our concluding point. one tough hombre – and the guy taking their vocation a mite too The principal – if not the only – coming in after him is going to be seriously, getting carried away with reason why one pitcher gives way to no less nasty. Put statistically, you their prerogative to mix and match another is the obvious belief that wouldn’t be blamed if you hypoth- the pitchers on staff. I can’t prove the insurgent has a better chance of esized a negative correlation be- that, but if managers made fewer getting batters out than the guy tween batting averages and number pitching substitutions, would it he’s about to replace. And because of pitchers per game. More pitchers, really matter? Common sense tells ours is an era in which about 4 lower averages. me it would, but consider that - pitchers per game per team come Yet it doesn’t work that way. .165. and go, most of whom are throwing The 100-year correlation between What I do know is that, if as hard as they can for their inning aggregate major league BAs and you’re scoring at home, make sure or two, it might stand to reason pitchers per game is a paltry -.165 – your pencil has enough lead in it to that batting averages should relent that is, basically little or no rela- write 28 names. by Bill O’Hara
We were underfoot, my two But that is all prologue, as it PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE older brothers and I, and just had is what happened after the following PENNANT, I DON’T BELIEVE IT, to hear the ballgame. This was in years baseball season that you are THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT. 1950 and I was only seven years old. interested in. And what a season. In The Dodgers gloomily left the field But I can still remember running up mid-August with over 100 of the 154 as Thomson circled the bases; all to the barbershop, because they game season finished, the Dodgers except Jackie Robinson, the Dodg- would have the game on the radio. had an insurmountable 13 1/2 ers second baseman, who made sure What made it so important I did not game lead over the hated New York that Thomson touched every base. find out until years later when I Giants. The Bums played good ball As Thomson rounded third on his read a book by Pete Golenbock - the rest of the way but the giants way home Eddie Stanky rushed out BUMS - which was an oral history caught fire and overcame the 13 l/2 of the Giants dugout, jumped on of the Brooklyn Dodgers from the games so that on the last day of the Durocher’s back, and was piggy- mid-thirties until 1957. It seems season, they were tied for the backed to home with Thomson next that the Dodgers had been so many pennant, necessitating a three game to him as Hodges screamed THE games behind the Philadelphia playoff for the flag. The Dodgers lost GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT. It Phillies in 1950 that they had no the first one at home, won the next became known as The Miracle of chance to win the pennant. Lo and one and were leading the third one Coogans Bluff, or The Shot Heard behold in September they kept in Coogans Bluff, that spot in Round the World - take your pick. winning while the Phillies kept Manhattan where the Giants played Gloom spread over Brooklyn, but I losing until they arrived at the final their home games in the Polo was only eight so went out and three games of the season, three Grounds. It was the last half of the played. games behind with three to play in last inning of the last game with Some weeks later on a Satur- Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn’s home the Dodgers leading 4 to I and a day afternoon we kids were playing park. They won on Friday which is tiring Don Newcombe still pitching on Maple Street when the news got why my brothers and I were rushing for The Brooks. Before you knew it to us that Ratph Branca was up Maple street to hear the end of there was a run in, two other getting married in St. Francis of the ballgame on Saturday. I can runners on base and only one out. Assisi church, a half block from my remember being delirious with Still two outs to go - for either side. house. Up we rushed over there; I happiness as The Dodgers won. All Don Newcombe was a guy who was not so young that I could not the adults were slapping each other pitched all the big games for the be there or so old that I could not on the back that the Dodgers, their Dodgers and lost all the big games worm my way through the crowd. I Dodgers, just needed one more for the Dodgers. Whether it was I to was in a ring side seat when Mr. victory to force a playoff. 0 or 11 to 10, Don would be so near and Mrs. Branca walked outside. I know what happened the and yet so far. Not knowing anything about mar- next day but I don’t remember it. This time he was saved that riages, I thought all the Dodgers The score was tied in the last inning ignominy. Newcombe was spent, so would be there and was looking for - the 9th - on a bad play; a Dodger the call went to the bullpen for a my hero Pee Wee Reese, who wasn’t. runner was thrown out at the plate. relief pitcher. Carl Erskine and I recognized Branca’s best man It went into extra innings and the Ralph Branca were warming up and Eddie Mixsis as he walked out of Bums lost. Oh how it must have the bull-pen coach saw “Oishk”, as the church to the grumblings of the killed the Flatbush Faithful, as the some Brooklynites called him, uninvited guests. Mr. and Mrs. B fans were called, as Ebbets Field throw a pitch in the dirt so gave the came out to be met by a chorus of was located in the Flatbush section nod to Branca. Ralph put his jacket boos, you stinks, you bum and of Brooklyn, just 6 l/2 blocks from over his shoulder and walked the other catcalls but no cursing. This where I lived. Brooklyn, one of five few hundred feet into fame or was 1951 and gentlemen did not boroughs that make up New York infamy, depending on your point of curse in front of ladies and chil- City, loved, worshipped, respected - view. Bobby Thomson, nicknamed dren. “Why isn’t Thomson your best you name it- the Dodgers. World The Flying Scot as he was born in man, you stiff”, someone said and I War two movies invariably had a Scotland, was at the plate. Branca shouted it out to be met by hair character who talked in a “des and threw one pitch for a strike and the tousling and “You tell him, kid.” I does, toitty toid and toid accent” next one was hit into the stands for remember how bewildered he looked that Hollywood associated with a home run, clearing the bases and as he walked down the steps into Brooklyn, but Arthur Miller, George providing the hated Giants with a 5 the limo as hisses and boos rained Gershwin and Lord Haw Haw were to 4 victory. Improbable? Russ about him. all born in Brooklyn, so not every- Hodges, the Giants play-by-play Six years later the unthink- one fit the stereotype. man and normally the most profes- able happened. The Dodgers aban- sional of announcers could not stop doned Brooklyn for Los Angeles. screaming THE GIANTS WIN THE ’ This story is not entirely Many conventional baseball histo- stop in England for AG Spalding’s confined to history either. It seems ries take only passing interest in touring Chicago and All-American the tables have now turned, and to the dual cricket and baseball baseball teams. Spalding had agreed see how the relationship between th careers of many players in 19 to a game of rounders and a very the sports continues today we need century America. Not because, on large, very animated crowd turned look no further than a game of reflection, the games don’t share out at the Police Athletic Club Twenty20 cricket anywhere in the similarities - after all, it must be grounds to see English players take world today. Cricket seems to be in more than coincidence that both on the Americans. After the obliga- the midst of an astonishing meta- sports use words like run, umpire, tory, but shortened, baseball game morphosis. While several decades of inning(s). It is rather that so much between the Chicago and All- cricketers have benefitted from the has changed around the games American teams, a picked eleven baseball-like precision fielding since then. Because cricket hasn’t from the Crescent, Union, Cranmer, actively brought into the game by featured significantly on the Ameri- Crown and Derby clubs, all part of coaches and players, it is in this can sporting landscape for such a the Liverpool Rounders Association, newest version, a short and fast long time, it is difficult to imagine took on a picked eleven of the form of the game, where the influ- anyone playing both sports today, American players, including AG ences of American baseball are most or even to appreciate just how Spalding himself, at the English evident: a three-hour game with prevalent and popular cricket was in game. The American press, inter- explosive action, bravado, bright America in the mid-19th century. ested in the game that baseball was lights, coloured clothes, packed But the relationship goes deep and so often measured against, predict- stands and a winner at the end of people like Harry Wright, simulta- ably judged that ‘so far as skill is the day. neously an amateur member of the concerned, any comparison with the As guest curator to the MCC, Knickerbocker Base Ball Club and a American game is absurd’. But the this project has been a highlight of professional employed by the St Liverpool players had the last laugh, my museum career. As I write in the George Cricket Club, and Henry coming out strongly as the Ameri- acknowledgements for the accompa- Chadwick, the English-born sports cans struggled with an unfamiliar nying catalogue (published by Scala writer credited as the ‘Father of field, differences in equipment and Press), some of the strongest memo- Base Ball’ both brought elements of no foul territory. Next the Liverpool ries of my youth are of the old cricket directly into the developing players tried the American game, Cleveland Stadium in the 1980s game of baseball. with much less success, as the where I cheered on the Cleveland The work of scholars Melvin Americans ‘trifled at will with their Indians. And watched them lose as Adelman, Tom Melville and George opponents’. Showing off, they often as not. Unlike many baseball Kirsch laid the groundwork, and walloped their hosts 18–0 when the fans, I have just as vivid recollec- more recently other baseball histori- game was called off halfway through tions of the Sydney Cricket Ground ans have begun to appreciate this the third inning – an ‘easy victory’, in the early 1990s where I barracked early influence, albeit often ham- but perhaps not one to encourage for Australia. And watched them pered by a poor understanding of Liverpool ball players to switch win as often as not! For twenty cricket. On the other hand, cricket sports. years, as I built my museum career histories all but ignore baseball. Yet Baseball tourists returned to in Australia and visited family in the story of cricket in America does England in 1914 and 1924 and America, I took every opportunity I help to illustrate some of the ways among several highlights are the could to get to cricket grounds and that this ‘English’ sport contributed original jersey’s worn by baseball parks and spent endless to the development of America’s centerfielder Sam Crawford for the hours following both sports on game. To those playing and watch- Chicago team in 1914 and by radio and television, never imagin- ing both sports at the time, this outfielder Casey Stengel for the New ing that such private obsessions would seem unremarkable. It is only York Giants in 1924. A colourful might one day pay professional with the passage of time, and the character, Stengel later built a dividends. subsequent popularity of many somewhat mediocre reputation as a Throughout this whole baseball myths, that we’ve lost sight baseball manager before his glory project SABR UK has been a con- of the natural, albeit short-lived days managing the New York stant source of encouragement and overlap of these two sports. Yankees from 1948 through 1960 assistance. Mike Ross has been a The story doesn’t end there, with such superstars as Joe great supporter and I’ve benefited for cricket’s influence continued in DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. In his greatly from the work of Allen Synge more subtle ways as baseball seventies he managed the bumbling and Patrick Carroll in previous professionalised and undertook but beloved new franchise, the New issues of the Examiner, and the several international tours in the York Mets. The 1924 baseball teams work of the chapter and Martin late 19th and early 20th centuries. can be seen in action in a moving Hoerchner on baseball’s origins in American baseball’s fascinating footage newsreel and their uniforms England. history in Britain is the focus on an re-appear in photographs of players entire section of the exhibition, and in the 1920s and 30s baseball (Batting Away: How Baseball and yet, there is so much more to tell! It leagues in England. Some of the Cricket Connect” is on exhibition at is a thrill to be able to include gems Americans must have left behind Lords until December - see http:// from the Hall of Fame collection their touring uniforms – complete www.lords.org/latest-news/news- that underline some great stories. with special arm badges – that were archive/new-cricket-baseball- Like the rounders ball from a game still being worn (no doubt with exhibition,1564,NS.html) - ed. played in Liverpool in 1889, the last many repairs) years later!
In August of 1992, Barry Winetrobe of the Bobby Thomson Chapter, met Bobby Thomson at Gleneagles (Hotel and Golf Course) in Scotland. Bobby was always very gracious and grateful to his fans, and we will miss him.
OFFICERS Chair of Bobby Thomson Chapter: Mike Ross, Tel: 020 7723 9848, Fax: 020 7724 0929, E-mail: [email protected]; Secretary: Michael Olenick, E-mail: [email protected]; Treasurer: Andy Parkes, Tel and Fax: 0161 865 5859; British Baseball History: Patrick Carroll, E-mail: [email protected]; Publications Editor: Martin Hoerchner, E-mail: [email protected]; Procedural Advisor: Hugh Robinson, Tel: 0161 286 7012; Honourary President: Norman Macht; Honourary Vice- President: Monte Irvin; special thanks to Patrick Morley, Graham Winterbone, Will Fulford-Jones