Rockway Days

[English_Ray]

G.J. 'Mulligan' Bartley - businessman and baseball club owner - on the origins of baseball on Rockway.

"1883 was the year. I wasn't personally present, you understand. No, I have to base my recollections of that famous event on the various newspaper chronicles that were to be printed in the following days. One can read so much about the contests though, that one almost feels as though they were themselves there to witness history in person.

I had been fortunate enough to visit the United States some few years previously on a buisness adventure. Whilst I was there, I had the opportunity to view a game of baseball in the so-called 'National League'. It was, I can tell you, an impressive spectacle of athleticism.

I have no doubt that those lucky fellows who saw the touring teams of professionals play on Rockway in the autumn of '83 were similarly impressed. It was a fortunate happenstance that the games occurred - in order to earn some extra monies, a group of National Leaguers had arranged a tour across some of the western states. However some problems with the railroad lines forced them to cancel their plans at the last moment and instead they turned northwards to Canada. A likeable contemporary of mine, a Mr Archie Farthing, offered a not inconsiderable sum to them on the proviso that they would make the voyage further northeast so as to end their tour on Rockway, which they did.

When they arrived, several thousands lined the edge of the specially-created field in Johnstown for each of the games. I cannot recollect the outcome of the contests - I do not believe it is dreadfully important in the grander scheme of events. However, one cannot but argue that those games changed Rockway.

The following year, the first ever games between local Rockway players occurred. The game was very much centred about Johnstown in those early days. I myself regularly made the short rail journey into the smoky capital, and, being a veteran of the American game, took the opportunity to watch the conversion of my fellow countrymen to this new 'national pastime'. One could only marvel at the enthusiasm with which the game was played. I felt certain that this new recreation would not be simply a passing fad for the masses."

[English_Ray]

Hey all. So, after not playing v14 much (and being away from the boards for a while), I figured that v15's arrival must mean that it's about time for my semi-biannual attempt to get a dynasty report up and running... This year I've gone über-ambitious - a fictional league (hopefully later to become fictional leagues) on a fictional island nation, making my way from the origins of baseball until...well, until as far as I can get up to really. And if that wasn't enough, I've taken inspiration from DreamTeams ever-amazing Metro Leagues and have created an entire mini-website for my league - The Rockway Times - which I intend to keep as up-to-date as possible after the end of each season.

My country is called Rockway. You can read a bit about the islands and their history HERE, and check out a timeline of key events HERE. The league is starting out in the year 1889 with just six teams, although I already have big plans for future expansions and changes in the years to come. If we get there.

As for my plans for this dynasty - well, I intend to put season reviews and other bits of news up on my site. This thread is going to be reserved for the real story of Rockean baseball, as told by the people who were there. Think The Glory Of Their Times. You know, if it was all made up. Hopefully we'll meet some interesting characters along the way.

To help you get your bearings, here is a map of Rockway. If you're so inclined, there is plenty of background information on the teams, league, towns and cities and the country itself on the league's website. Rockway might look a little familiar to some of you - it is a re-worked and re-imagined version of a map I made for a dynasty about 3 or 4 years ago now. I'm pretty pleased with the way things have taken shape, and I'm excited to get playing. I hope you enjoy reading along!

[Tyke]

This looks great, English_Ray! The Rockway Times website is excellent and really gives a flavour of the islands. I'll be following this [like you, I'm a huge admirer of DreamTeams' Metro Leagues]. BTW, surely there must be a story behind the town name of Kninghdon - it sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch! Do tell.

[English_Ray]

Originally Posted by Tyke

This looks great, English_Ray! The Rockway Times website is excellent and really gives a flavour of the islands. I'll be following this [like you, I'm a huge admirer of DreamTeams' Metro Leagues]. BTW, surely there must be a story behind the town name of Kninghdon - it sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch! Do tell.

Thanks Tyke. I actually do have bit of a backstory in mind for Kninghdon - but as for the name itself, its from a random generator. You are right though, it does have a Monty Python-esque quality to it!

[English_Ray]

G.J. 'Mulligan' Bartley - businessman and baseball club owner - on his role in the advent of professional baseball

"Over the course of the following year, 1884, there were a large number of baseball nines that were formulated in order to participate in baseball fixtures. A good deal of those teams played but a handful of exhibition games before disbanding, never to be heard from again. A small few are still with us today.

By 1885, there was still no team had started playing in my adopted home town, Stovepipe. I had not been keen to take the initiative, being a considered businessman, and having no previous involvement in any sporting arena. However I could not but feel that the hard working fellows of the town ought not to miss out upon the opportunities that an athletic club might provide to them. I had rather more selfish intentions as well, of course - the chance to watch baseball on a more regular basis was one that I could not help but be enthused by.

That being the case, I set aside a portion of the land I owned for creating a ball field, and I contacted an acquaintance of mine named Sadie Aird. Always a sporting chap, I suggested he would be well positioned to assemble a team of local gentlemen who could learn the game and challenge some of the other teams in the area.

It was all very enjoyable, I have to confess. I paid from my own pocket for equipment and travelling expenses, and in return pocketed the few pennies we asked of the local populance who wished to attend the games. And enthralling games they often were!

Things changed, somewhat, though in the summer of 1887. The Empire Club - that old Johnstown institution - was revealed to be offering payments to some of the best players. It was quite the scandal at the time to many, although I myself saw the logic. I recognised that, if one could ensure the best players represented one's team, then in turn more spectators would attend the field - and so more money could be earned. I even foresore the opportunity to run a baseball club as a profitable business.

I eventually made the decision later that year to follow the Empire model myself and took about recruiting players over the winter ahead of the 1888 season. There were, at the start of that year, five professional clubs on the island, all told. We had many complaints, but one thing could not be denied - the professional squads soon begun to dominate the baseball competition."

[English_Ray]

Sir Henry Wickham - First Minister of the Dominion of Rockway (1886-1892) - on the founding of the Clubs League

"When I entered the sphere of politics on the island, Rockway's status within the Empire was very much the greatest matter on my mind. We were granted dominion status in 1878, but it is fair to say that, even ten years later, our islands' status in the world was very much the overriding concern. I had been fortunate enough to ascend to the leadership by that stage, although little had I suspected that electoral success would place me in the middle of a disagreement over sporting activities.

It may surprise more than a few Rockeans if I were to confess that I was never much of a baseball fan. I had witnessed the occassional game as I walked home from the Council buildings, but I could not see its appeal. However, I have always strived to make myself a man of the people, and one could certainly see that the people were rather keen indeed on this import from the Americas.

Anyhow, the controversy over the payment of professional players was not - truth be told - an imediate priority of mine in the summer of '88. But a First Minister has advisors, and I was indebted to my own for outlining that if this baseball, the most popular of pastimes on Rockway, was allowed to descend into chaos and scandal about the issue, it would reflect poorly on her government. I therefore resolved to tackle the issue at once.

I remember now that convening of baseball dignitaries at the Council House. Various gentlemen from about the islands, representing the professional and amateur squads alike. It was a most fractious affair from the outset, yet it was to be a productive one.

The compromise agreement that we reached was simple, and elegant. From that day on, there was to be no baseball contest on the islands wherein a professional team was permitted to take to the field against a team of gentlemen players. Further, the professional squads who so wished were to join together to participate in a fully-sanctioned annual league competition, comprising of an equal number of games against each other, the winners of which would be declared the baseball champions of Rockway.

And so was formed, in that small meeting room, the Clubs League."


The Clubs League, beginning play in 1889, will be contested by the following 6 teams: Ironfox Light Blues, the Johnstown Empire Club, Johnstown Professionals, Moontree Moons, Stovepipe Mulligans and the Tond Union Club. More background on the founder members of the Clubs League can be found here.

[English_Ray]

Memories of Opening Day - Saturday April 20th, 1889

Fraley Wachtel - Catcher, Johnstown Professionals

"I don't recollect there being a great deal of fanfare before the game. I believe that the First Minister, Mr Wickham, may have been in attendance, but there are no special announcements or celebrations that remain in my mind.

The game itself was a contest against the other Johnstown squad, the Empire Club. They were widely regarded as the best team in the new league - I am certain they were the ones that most of the baseball spectators in the capital were rooting for. I was born in Johnstown myself, and had grown up here. I certainly recall seeing the Empire Club playing cricket when I was a young boy. But they were now the opposition.

If I am truthful, there is not a great deal about that first contest of the league that remains in my mind. I was not playing you see - I was reserve catcher, the first choice at my position was Levi Pennington. I remember that we won, and that a great deal of satisfaction was taken from the result - our squad had played but a few games of baseball the summer prior, whereas the Empire Club had taken part in the first of all first games back in 1884.

Jack Pemberton circled the bases for an inside-the-park homerun in the first inning. Yes, I do recall that. My memory might be failing me, but I don't think he was the fastest of gents, so I suppose he must've found a gap."


Dan Biggin - Manager, Ironfox Light Blues

"Yes, the first game of the Clubs League. I was by the side of the field, directing operations for the Ironfox Baseball Club - and I was proud to be doing so in that first professional league contest on Rockway.

I would be lying, I must confess, if I were to say that it was my ambition. I was but 33 years old at the time - the prime age for playing the sport, one might suggest. Sadly my injuries from the building vocation with which I occupied myself in my formative years had precluded me from taking to the diamond myself. Managing a ballclub, when the opportunity arose, was the next best alternative.

It was not, however, the best of beginnings. There was - I am told - over 5,000 people in attendence, an impressive statistic for this new league. Sadly we sent them home rather disappointed, as the Stovepipe squad bested us by a score of 5 to 3."


G.J. "Mulligan" Bartley - Owner/Founder, Stovepipe Mulligans

"One had hoped, naturally, that the first game of our new Clubs League might take place at the grounds in Stovepipe. Sadly, the officials who orchestrated the schedule for the league did not comply with that hope. Never-the-less, on opening day I made the train journey to Ironfox with our players, intent on enjoying this new creation.

I watched, rapt with attention. The grounds at Ironfox were splendid - twice the capacity of my small field. And they had a generous facility for invited guests, among which the opposition owner was, of course, to be counted!

Come first pitch, a sizeable crowd of people had taken up every available position, and I looked on in joy as my fellows scored a run in the very first inning. A player named Tom Huston, our centrefielder, batted the runner home. Young Huston had a productive day with the lumber in his hands. He rapped out three base hits and chased home four runs in total.

It was an exciting contest, a most satisfactory opener for the professional league venture. We built an early three-run lead, only for the Ironfox Club to tie the game by the fourth inning. But our fellows did not give in, and scored two further runs as we collected the first win of the year. It is - I still believe it - one of the most marvellous things about the professional game. That our team representing a town of just seven- or eight-thousand people could compete with, and indeed outscore a team from the city of Ironfox. It was splendid."

[English_Ray]

Kid Mitchell - Centrefielder, Johnstown Empire Club - on race relations in the Clubs League

"It's not something that I had even questioned at the time. I was told, some years later, that 1889 was the year in America that black players were banned from all professional ball. Yet at the same time on Rockway, it was the startings of the professional game - and black players were welcomed along with all others in kind.

Rockway was - it still is - a fair sort of place. Perhaps it's because it's a small island, remote from the big places like America, Canada and Britain. We've always accepted one another. We had white players, black players, players of arabic descent. Everyone got along together.

I worked hard for my team. Swung the bat hard, played the field wherever I was asked to. Showed up to the ballfield on time day upon day upon day. If I did that, why would the colour of my skin matter? No, I for one never heard no call of racism in the game. Never heard no problem from anyone not wanting me on their team. I feel sorry for them boys in America who couldn't play the game. Don't wish to think about if I'd never been given the chance."

[edtheguy]

Interesting and very well done so far, I will definitely follow. I have a pre 1900 league that I've tested twice and haven't quite found settings I like for yet, so I'll probably have to take notes too....

[English_Ray]

Fraley Wachtel - Catcher, Johnstown Professionals - on a memorable batting performance

"I think it was about a month into that first season. I, myself, had still not gotten into a game as yet - my colleague Levi Pennington was doing a sterling job behind the dish. I admired his play very much, although I have to say I was itching to get to swing the bat in earnest.

After our win in the opening match, we were having a rather middling time. Results were acceptable, but we had fallen well in arrears of the record of our cross-town neighbours, the Empire Club. Indeed, if I remember correctly, there was just a solitary other team who had played that first month with more victories than defeats - and remarkably it was the small club from Moontree.

In any respect, it was to Moontree that we had travelled that Saturday. It was a chilly day - as it so often is in these parts in the month of May - though I don't believe that we were troubled by rain showers at all. The train trip was not the longest of those early days - that was the hour and a half ride east to Ironfox - but time on the train away from home could be a chore given I had no great expectations of playing.

That day, however, my journey was rewarded. Not by entering the diamond, but by dint of being a spectator with a seat exceptionally close to the action.

My club, the Professionals, lost the game, I should say. But I admired the chief hitter for the Moontree team. He was a small fellow called Pat Butterworth, their second baseman I think. If I remember rightly, he had not been hitting very well early in the season, but he bested our hurler that day. In the third inning he stepped to bat with the bases full of runners. He swung his bat at the pitch and the ball fair rocketed over the fence in leftfield, a majestical home run.

Then, later in the game he came back to bat and swung for another one in the same direction. This one rapped against the fence between our fieldsmen, and Butterworth dashed round all the bases for a second home run of the game. We had no answer for him, we lost 10 to 1."

[English_Ray]

Joe Malone - Pitcher, Stovepipe Mulligans - on his early days in the Clubs League

"I took no nonsense. I worked hard for all my life - I didn't get much schooling. I took a job working in the mines near Kninghdon when I was a boy. Long hours every day. You had to earn your living.

When baseball arrived in the islands, I found I had an ease with it. I could throw a ball a decent lick, make it hard for hitters to hit. I kept working at it, I needed to make myself better at it, so I kept working.

In the winter of '88, I had a try-out for a scout from the Stovepipe professional team who had made the trip down to Monda. He offered me a contract for £1,500 if I would come up to the main isle and play baseball for them. It was more money than I had had in my entire life. I had never left my home town before then, but I upped and left without a second thought.

I got in some trouble. A few weeks before the first game of the season, I got into a fight with my new next door neighbour over some firewood that had gone missing. Got my elbow hurt pretty good. Mr Aird, the manager of the team, had some stern words for me when I recollected for him what had occurred. And he was right too.

It was a tough thing, playing professional baseball. Not work as it was down the mines, don't misunderstand me, but there was pressure, doing your job with a thousand people watching on. Our team was in the middle of the pack. Not outstanding, but not the worst. I made ten starts in the first month or so of the season - I won five of them and lost five of them. That was the sort of team we had.

I didn't have good help from the fielders behind me. We were one of the poorest of all at stopping hits. Right up the middle was ok - we had Tom Ray at second base and Lou May at shortstop. "May! Ray! Double Play!". That was the shout from our fans. One game, Horace Wojcik started at shortstop. Made six errors. It was a good job for him it was my day resting. Can't say what I would have done it that kind of unkeen play was taking place behind me."

[English_Ray]

Kid Mitchell - Centrefielder, Johnstown Empire Club - on some mid-season excitement

"Right around the middle of that 1889 season we had a run of games in a row that were a little out of the ordinary. We had been off to the best start of everybody, we'd bested maybe 20 out of 30 games that far, and were two or three wins ahead of the next team, Moontree.

We had a game at The Empire Grounds against Stovepipe, who were right in the middle of the pack. We made out to a good start, maybe 7 to 1 up we was after a few innings. Then things didn't go so much to plan. Them Mulligans had an 8-run inning, then a 6-runner. It was looking bad. We'd had to put our backup catcher, a fellow named Sam Carter into the game. He'd not had a bat all season, then the first time he swings, he knocks the ball all the way over the fence in centrefield, a four-run four-bagger. Not enough though, was it? We lost 16 to 13.

Anyhow, next day Ironfox was in town. There must have been something stayed in the air though, because we just kept scoring. Won 14 to 1, and I myself hit a round-tripper. Lovely swing it was, if I do remember myself rightly.

We thought that the excitement would be done, but two days later we went across town to play the other Johnstowner team. I had another good day - picked me up two three-baggers. We ended up scoring five runs in the top of the last and winning 12 to 8. Never known me three so crazy games in a row. And I've been round a while, son."

[English_Ray]

Memories of a championship-deciding game - Tuesday July 30th, 1889

Joe Malone - Pitcher, Stovepipe Mulligans

"I had missed a week or two injured in the middle of the season, but I was back on the hill for one important game near the sharp end of business.

Our Stovepipe team was established in the middle of the field. We were not to win the championship, but there was a possibility of collecting more wins than losses for the season. That would have seemed like a credible effort for Mr Bartley's limited outlay.

This particular day, we hosted the Moontree nine. They were the only challengers to the Empire Club. By this game's time, they were just a single half game trailing the Johnstown team. It was, then, a chance for them to move atop the standings.

Unfortunately from their view, I pitched one of my best efforts of that 1889 season. The game needed addtional tiebreaker innings to decide a victor. I threw all eleven innings, and they got at me for just six hits. We bested the Moons by a score of 6 to 5."


Enoch van der Nat - Pitcher, Moontree Moons

"I was a part of the Moontree squad throughout that first Clubs League season; however I had the role of our third pitcher - set to start a contest only when my two colleagues were unable.

The first - and only - occasion I took to the hill that year was in our 50th game of 60. We had been on an exceptional run and were a victory away from going ahead of the Empire Club to top the standings. I tried to get that win at Stovepipe.

I gave it my best. We stayed run for run with the Mulligan fellows. It took into the eleventh inning, more than I had ever pitched before, and finally the opposition hitters outfought me. We lost by a single run, dropped back further behind Johnstown, and that was that for our hopes of winning the championship that year."

[English_Ray]

The review of the 1889 Clubs League season is now up! Click HERE to read about how the Empire Club sealed the first ever Rockean professional baseball championship. The Rockway Times stats pages have also been updated.

Before we move on to 1890, here is a quick review of our narrators' years:

Kid Mitchell won the championship with the Johnstown Empire Club. He hit .286 for the season (68-238), with 5 homeruns and 51 runs scored. His 43 runs batted in led the Clubs League.

Enoch van der Nat's only appearance was in the Moontree club's fateful loss to Stovepipe. In his 10+ innings pitched, he gave up six runs (four earned) and struck out five.

G.J. 'Mulligan' Bartley's Stovepipe team finished a credible third in the league, just two games under .500 with a 29-31 record. Bartley made a loss of £1,500 on the season.

Joe Malone, the Mulligans' star pitcher, finished with a 12-14 record, a 3.72 earned run average and 90 strikeouts. He missed two weeks of the season injured.

Dan Biggin kept his job as Ironfox manager despite a disappointing year. The Light Blues finished 5th with a 26-34 record, but are showing some promise - and were the best fielding team in the league.

Fraley Wachtel was on the roster all season, but didn't get into a single game for the Professionals. They finished dead last with a 24-36 record.

Prime Minister Henry Wickham enjoyed a surge in popularity, attributed, at least in part, to his role in the Clubs League formation. He prepared his party's manifesto for the 1890 general elections upon the platform of greater autonomy for the Dominion of Rockway.

[English_Ray]

Dan Biggin - Manager, Ironfox Light Blues - on his first season managing in the Clubs League

"It was an exceptionally frustrating season. Our squad had high expectations, and yet we finished but fifth out of the six teams. We had 26 victories and 34 defeats.

It was not a season without some small successes. Our third baseman, George West, had a superb year. He batted nearly .300 - and hit 7 homeruns. Best of all, he chased 43 runs back home, equal tops in the league.

Our fellows had some successes in the awards that were given out by the Rockean news services at year's end. West was the runner-up for the Champion Hitter trophy, and no fewer than five Light Blues were named as recipients of the Quality Fieldsmanship medal. That number included old Mox Emerson, our first baseman. Mox was a big chap - he was 260 pounds if he was an ounce - but if you had seen him dive for a hard slapped ball towards the foul line, well, it was a sight you'd not forget."

[English_Ray]

Annie Day - noted Rockean historian - on Johnstown in the late 19th century

"Old Town may always have been Rockway's biggest city, but there is little doubt that the capital, Johnstown, was very much the hub of island life as our nation moved into the final decade of the 1800s.

The docks were a major focal point of town life. Steam ships bustled in and out of port, the works by the water's edge belched out smoke, and hundreds of people every day thronged the dockside. Old Town may remain the biggest fishing and cargo port on the island - as well as having been the calling port of the British Navy - but Johnstown has long been the main port of arrival for passengers coming to the islands for the first time.

From the Docks, ran - as it does today - Atlantic Avenue, down to the old Town Square at the junction with Main Street. By the late 1880s, the endless horse and cart traffic had been joined along the avenue by the main line of Johnstown's motorised tram system. The trams carried hundreds of people each day to work, to the docks, to evenings out, and back home again.

Atlantic Avenue and Main Street itself were lined with businesses of all types - from the industrial centres and warehouses nearest the docks, through the town's main financial district and even the island's first department store - Hollister's. Further down Main Street sat the Johnstown railway station, newly connected all the way to the east coast.

Branching off from Main Street, the cobbled Topsfield led the way to Council House. The seat of Rockean government since the 17th century, Council House had been rebuilt substantially in the lead up to the granting of dominion status in 1878. Sitting behind the old Town Square, meanwhile, Lime Park was not the welcoming urban oasis that it is today. First laid out some hundred years previous, it had become neglected and overgrown, and was regarded as a place to stay away from after dark.

Around the coast from the docks, at the top end of Main Street, the Promenade - first constructed in the 1850's - had become the centre of entertainment in Johnstown. Parlour games, theatre and vaudeville were the dominant attractions, and the whole area was already lined with the street food kiosks that are a staple of the area even now."

[English_Ray]

Joe Malone - Pitcher, Stovepipe Mulligans - on a coming of age performance

"I entered the second season of the Clubs League at age 24. Perhaps I was more mature and ready for the rigours of a season of professional baseball. I felt in myself that more was to come. My debut season had been adequate, but I felt I could have performed better.

Early in the season, we hosted the Professionals team from Johnstown. We had begun the year with an even record. I had lost three of my first five starts, and I was not best pleased, I don't recall. In this game though, I finally achieved my potential. I completed the game from the start, and I let those Johnstown hitters onto the basepaths with just three base hits. None scored.

It was an important moment for me. Dealing a shutout showed I could achieve things in the game. My pitching colleague at the time, Jack Hewitt, was 14 years my senior. He gave me some advice that I wouldn't never forget. He told me that thowing hard and playing hard didn't count for nothing if you didn't work hard and think hard as well. Jack was a smart fellow - smarter than I. Yes, old Jack Hewitt helped me a lot at bettering myself in that year."

[English_Ray]

Jack Martin - Third Baseman, Tond Union Club - on his team's remarkable turnaround

"The season prior, we had been poor. More was wanted of us. Yet we began that year of 1890 with good spirits.

It was an unexpectedness [sic] for them supporters around the league. It started that, when Tond came to town, you was likely as not to see your club lose. By the start of June, we had won twice what we had lost. We were atop of the standings, above even the Empire Club. My friend Bill Reeves - he was the same age as me, 23 - was pitching like a demon. He was counting up win after win after win - and he threw it right past so many hitters.

I'd been out to a terrible beginning actually. It hadn't mattered, but I wanted to be better. I think in them first 20 games, I'd gotten but maybe eight base hits. It was no good. But if I wasn't holding us back from winning, then I supposed I couldn't mind too much then, could I?"

[English_Ray]

Enoch van der Nat - Pitcher, Moontree Moons - on getting hurt

"Though it was my loss to the Stovepipe nine that had ruined our best chance to gain the advantage for the pennant the previous year, our manager Robert Thomas had good news for me ahead of the 1890 season. I was to take the spot as Monntree's second pitcher. I felt for Jawhar Ala' al din, whose position I was to take. He had a splendid 1889. But I was thrilled to get my chance.

The year started off in a positive manner. We hadn't been winning as many games so easy as the year before, but we were near the lead of the standings. I had been pitching quite satisfactory, although I seemed to be getting a little of the poorer luck when it came to whether my colleagues were hitting the ball well on the days I took to the hill.

In any case, we had, in lateish June, a contest against the Empire Club at our own North Park Fields. I was throwing for us, and excited to take the chance for a victory ahead of the mighty Johnstown team, the champions who had bested us the past year. The game started well, I had allowed but four hits into the fourth inning, when all of a sudden my shoulder came across all peculiar. I struggled to continue, but I had to remove myself from the game.

Being injured was a blow. It was not serious, but missing games is not what a baseballist wants to be doing. I wanted to help the team - and I was wary of losing my place in the throwing order.

As for that game? If I recall, our popular backup pitcher Red Brown replaced me and ended up taking home the victory. At least my problem didn't lose us that match."

[English_Ray]

G.J. 'Mulligan' Bartley - Owner/Founder, Stovepipe Mulligans - on the financial pressures of running a baseball club

"Running a ball club, as it transpired, was not the easiest of business ventures. It seemed that, perhaps although in the pre-league years it was sufficient for the paying spectator to bear witness to the sporting spectacle, now there was a competitive angle to proceedings, only victory would suffice.

During the 1889 season, the attendance at my grounds reduced as the season progressed and our fellows fell further behind the Empire Club. Our final home contest of that year drew fully 1,000 paying attendees fewer than our first.

Foremost, before my enchantment with the game of baseball, I am a businessman. I must look to make business decisions. In 1890 I took the decision - that we must look to win more games in order to turn a profit. And if that meant not cutting our costs, then that was as may. I had made a personal loss of some £1,500 on my venture already. That was a not inconsiderate sum for the time, although I trust that your readers will not think me vulgar if I were to say that, materially at least, such a loss was of little consequence to my overall standing. A loss, however, is still a loss.

"If I recall, I was paying three of our players more than £1,000 each for their work over the 1890 season. Tom Huston, our outfielder, and messrs May and Ray, the shortstop and second baseman. But money alone cannot purchase success. Our play was, perhaps, a little better than in 1889, yet we were no closer to winning the pennant that our would-be fanatics desired."