Guest author
Colin Allan
Summary
The author tells the story of how Hull Baseball Club won the National Baseball Association cup competition to be crowned British champions in 1937. The account includes details of all their victories along the path to their historic triumph at the peak of baseball’s popularity in Britain.
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I have the cure: The Blokes of Summer, by Harvey Sahker (published back in April, and available in print or as a PDF download).
The ailment is baseball withdrawal symptoms. For those members of the British baseball community with no great interest in MLB, the symptoms have probably already kicked in. While for the majority who do follow the Big Leagues, the inevitable is just round the corner.
This is not going to be a formal book review, but instead a casual feature. My guess is that Matt Smith will enjoy this book, and he may well wish to apply his far superior reviewing expertise to it. Additionally, his impartial standpoint will be of benefit. If I wrote positive things about the book in a review,  it would too easy for readers to dismiss it as me repaying a favour. Harvey has done some great things for the Croydon Pirates, my former club, including publishing their 30th Anniversary Yearbook, bringing in baseball gear from his native Canada for the team on many occasions, and being a loyal and skilled servant on the diamond. He has also benefited me by supplying numerous pieces of help to Project COBB.
The truth is that the book is, in its own right, fully deserving of any praise I would have bestowed in a formal review, and am about to give in this casual feature. In my view, it makes a formidable addition to the small but growing library of books on British baseball. Continue reading
There’s no doubt that the off-the-field goings on in Boston (and potentially in Chicago) are capturing the headlines so far on Wednesday.Â
However, Game Three of the NLCS and Game Four of the ALCS should get everyone back talking about the action on the field, for a while at least.
Game Four of the ALCS begins at 21.19 BST on Wednesday evening with Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd covering all the talking points live on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra from 21.00. The Texas Rangers lead the best-of-seven series 2-1 over the Detroit Tigers.
Doug Fister pitched brilliantly for Detroit to get them back into the series on Tuesday; however the Tigers know that it was only the first stage in their recovery from losing the first two games of the series in Texas.
Game Three was a ‘must win’ contest for them and you could say the same about Wednesday’s Game Four as well. A victory for the Rangers would give them a 3-1 series lead and leave the Tigers needing to win all three remaining games. That can be done, but it will be a very tough proposition against this Texas team. Game Five of the ALCS on Thursday is another early start, also beginning at 21.19 BST.Â
As for the NLCS, the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals won a game apiece from the first two at the former’s Miller Park. The Cardinals – more specifically first baseman Albert Pujols – put a thumping on the Brewers in Game Two after dropping the series opener.Â
The series now relocates to St. Louis and Game Three brings together two quality starting pitchers in Yovani Gallardo and Chris Carpenter. First pitch is set for 01.05 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday, while Game Four starts at the same time in the early hours of Friday.
All of the above games are being shown live on ESPN America and are available live and on demand to ‘international’ MLB.TV subscribers at MLB.com.
Big turnover in Boston
The Red Sox revelations are extraordinary. After parting company with Manager Terry Francona, it looks like General Manager Theo Epstein is on the verge of leaving the organization as well. Epstein is reportedly close to becoming the Chicago Cubs’ new General Manager following the dismissal of Jim Hendry in the latter stages of the regular season.Â
If he does make the move, it will be the second half of an incredible ending to what has been a successful era in Red Sox history. Few, if any, would have predicted prior to the 2011 season that Francona and Epstein would be gone by the end of the year. Everything looked like being in place for yet another World Series appearance.Â
Of course, those expectations are in part a reason for the strength of the reaction to the team’s miserable September collapse, but it just goes to show how quickly a position of strength can suddenly crumble. Francona agreed to a separation and quickly found his way to the FOX announcers’ booth, while the frustration at Fenway and the challenge of the Cubs appears to have tempted Epstein to have a crack at reversing another curse.
With the Chicago White Sox surprisingly recruiting former player Robin Ventura as their new manager and the Los Angeles Angels overhauling their Front Office and scouting department, there are plenty of changes taking place in the American League for teams that didn’t reach their goal of making it to the playoffs.
The National Baseball Championships have been played, the nights are drawing in and most players have swapped their cleats and pants for an armchair. But at least one more contest remains to be decided: the 2011 British Baseball Photography Competition.
A panel of judges convened in September to whittle the 145 entries down to 10 finalists. Now it’s time for the judging panel to turn over the shortlisted entries to the British baseball community, so that members can cast their vote on which image they think is the pick of the bunch.
During the rest of October, you will be able to have your say on which photo you think deserves to win via an online ballot. To cast your vote, browse through the 10 shortlisted entries in the specially created gallery, and then once you have decided on your choice, open up the voting window by clicking on the link in the gallery footer.
The ballot will close at 11.59 pm on 31 October, and each individual is limited to one vote.
The second Tuesday in October, now established as the traditional time for announcing the new annual set of inductees into the British Baseball Hall of Fame (BBHoF), sees three more individuals receive the highest honour in the game:
They join the eight individuals already inducted in the first two classes. Biographies for all inductees, and more information about the BBHoF, can be viewed on the official webpage:Â www.bbhof.org.uk.
The biographies for the inductees in the third class are reproduced below.
Ted Gerard-Thesingh
For more than two decades, Ted Gerard-Thesingh was Great Britain’s top umpire, working 13 national championship contests and more than 100 international matches.
Beyond his role on the field, Gerard-Thesingh also trained countless other umpires and was a dedicated administrative official at various levels of British baseball. Gerard-Thesingh moved to the United Kingdom from South Africa in 1979. Upon learning there was a dearth of umpires in British baseball he set to work recruiting and then teaching new officials.
Quickly garnering respect for his work behind the plate and on the bases, Gerard-Thesingh earned assignments in all but one national title games between 1982 and 1995. Internationally, he was also an umpiring fixture. He officiated in the 1984 and 1988 European Championship B-Pool and the 1989 European Championship A-Pool in Paris, France. A serious injury in the mid-1990s cut his umpiring career short, but Gerard-Thesingh continued to contribute to British baseball.
He served as technical commissioner at a number of national finals and at the 1996 European Championship B-Pool in Hull, England. In recognition of his many years of service, Gerard-Thesingh was made an honorary life member of both the British Baseball Federation and the Amateur Baseball Umpires Association–Great Britain (ABUA-GB). In addition, the ABUA-GB began bestowing the “Ted Gerard-Thesingh Trophy” in 2003 as an annual award to acknowledge outstanding effort by a particular umpire each year. Gerard-Thesingh also received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 national finals.
Roland Gladu
Described in the 1939 book Baseball for British Youth as “[p]erhaps the finest batter who has ever played for an English team,” Roland Gladu was the only 20th Century positional player known have to competed in a domestic Great Britain circuit and then risen all the way to the Major Leagues in the United States.
Dubbed “the Babe Ruth of Canada” by the British press during his 2 years in the United Kingdom (1936–37), the French-Canadian Gladu played primarily for West Ham in the effectively professional London Major Baseball League.
As the club’s player–manager, he led the team to top-two finishes in both of his seasons as well as to one remarkable upset: a 5–3 triumph over the 1936 United States Olympic baseball team. In that contest, Gladu connected for two hits, including West Ham’s only extra-base hit (a double). While statistics are incomplete from this era, it is known that he led the London circuit in batting with a .565 average in 1937. Seven years on from his time in Great Britain, Gladu ascended to the Majors, hitting .242 with one home run in 21 games for the 1944 Boston Braves of the National League.
Brian Thurston
Brian Thurston, who retired as Great Britain’s most capped international pitcher, was a dominating force both domestically and abroad.
Thurston appeared in seven European Championships, throwing 83.0 innings and posting a 5–4 record with a 2.82 earned-run average. He also pitched his club side to multiple national honours. The left-handed Thurston led Great Britain to promotion into the top tier of European baseball in 1988, earning the Most Valuable Player award at the European Championship B-Pool on home soil. He won two games at the event, including the final against Czechoslovakia, in which he threw a 7.0-inning shutout, striking out 12 batters. The publication First Base described the outing as “a stirring display of power pitching.” Other stand-out performances were to come.
In 1989, he struck out 25 batters in 23.2 innings at the European Championship A-Pool in France and 2 years later he posted a 3.18 earned-run average, fanning 20 hitters in 17.0 innings at the 1991 championships in Italy. Despite suffering an arm injury later in his career, he also contributed to Britain’s international success with the bat. At the 1996 European Championship B-Pool in England, his run-scoring 10th-inning hit against Lithuania in the semi-finals secured Great Britain’s promotion back into European baseball’s elite group after relegation 5 years earlier.
Equally impressive in British league play, Thurston was a long-time member of his local side, the Hull (Humberside) Mets. During his club career he led the Mets to three national titles, a silver medal at the 1992 European Cup Winners Cup qualification tournament, and three national Knock-out Cup trophies (in the 1992 triumph, he threw a 7.0-inning no-hitter).
The rain did its best to interupt Game One of the American League Championship Series (ALCS), but it was the Texas Rangers’ bullpen that took control after the starting pitchers departed and helped their team to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers.Â
There was a considerable debate in Spring Training about how best to use Neftali Feliz: whether he should remain in his closer role or go back to being a starting pitcher, as he was in the Minor Leagues. Â
A quality starting pitcher is always more valuable to a team than a closer, not least because you can expect to get around three times the amount of innings from them over the course of a season.Â
The Rangers feel that Feliz does have the pitching arsenal to make it as a frontline starter, but they had other starting pitching options this year and decided that using him as a closer made the most sense.Â
That may change over the coming offseason. If they lose C.J. Wilson as a free agent, it might make more sense to replace him in the rotation with Feliz and then spend some of the money that would have gone towards a starting pitcher on one of the premium closers that will hit the market as free agents (principally Heath Bell, Jonathan Papelbon, Francisco Rodriguez and Ryan Madson).
That’s a decision for another day. Right now, the Rangers can enjoy bringing Feliz into a 3-2 game in the ninth inning and watching him strike out the side, blowing a 101 MPH fastball past Austin Jackson in the process.
Many in the UK (including myself) will be catching up on Feliz’s flame-throwing fireworks this morning rather than having watched it live. The game started in the early hours of Sunday morning and after 1 hour 50 minutes were taken up by the two rain delays, the game didn’t finish until just gone 6 a.m. UK time.
Looking at the current schedule for the coming week – up to and including the potential Game Five in each series – we will be able to enjoy three of the contests live at a more convenient time. That starts with tonight’s NLCS opener between the Cardinals and Brewers and continues with Games Four and Five (if needed) of the ALCS on Wednesday and Thursday.Â
The schedule is stated below with start times in BST and the later games (i.e. games that actually start in the early hours of the following day from our perspective) listed in italics. Continue reading
The Division Series followed a breathless end to the regular season, but we had no reason to fear that it would be a let-down in comparison.
Fans of the teams involved would probably prefer a simple sequence of series sweeps; however the rest of us crave a postseason full of drama and excitement, series that go the distance, see-sawing and providing a rollercoaster of emotions, games being decided by the narrowest of margins.
It’s a lot to ask for and we hold onto these expectations knowing that they can’t always be met. Yet sometimes we get lucky and if the Division Series round is anything to go by, we could be in for a classic postseason.
Consider the following:
Phillies and Yankees fans won’t appreciate the final item on the list, but it has made the rest of the postseason all the more unpredictable for the rest of us.
Philadelphia came into the year with an impressive track record and a starting rotation that had many debating whether it was one of the greatest of all time. The Yankees are the Yankees. For once, they didn’t make a big splash over the offseason, but their sky-high payroll was testament to the star power and experience they possess.
Somewhere amid the annual burying of A-Rod, there was an air of disdain among some New York commentators about the Tigers’ cheek: how dare Detroit defeat the mighty Yankees. Similarly, you could look at the Cardinals and question what right they have to deny the Phillies the World Series berth that their roster and regular season performance indicated they deserved.
Well, that’s playoff baseball for you. It’s cruel when you’re on the losing side of it; glorious when you’re not. Continue reading
The Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers will all have the chance to secure a spot in the Championship Series round of the 2011 MLB postseason today.
The Rangers and Tigers both won yesterday to lead their respective series 2-1, while the Brewers take a 2-0 lead to Arizona. The Phillies and Cardinals are tied at 1-1 as they play Game Three of their series today.
Rangers-Rays (Rangers lead the series 2-1)
The Rangers get the first crack at making it through with an early start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday. Game Four of their series begins at 19.07 BST and will be broadcast live on ESPN America.Â
Texas used a four-run seventh inning to win Game Three 4-3, leaving rookie Desmond Jennings’ two homers for the Rays counting for nothing. The Rays will look to another rookie to help them stave off elimination in Game Four.Â
Jeremy Hellickson is the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year honours following his impressive season in the Rays’ starting rotation and he will aim to continue that positive form in his first postseason start. The Rangers will counter with Matt Harrison, who made a brief appearance out of the bullpen in Game One.
If the Rangers are able to win tonight, they will be celebrating in a stadium that makes for an odd setting on TV. It always seems strange when the TV broadcast shows pictures of glorious sunny Florida weather, only to then cut to the dour in-door surroundings of the domed arena that is Tropicana Field.Â
Normally I would be glad to miss the scenes of October sunshine that seem to poke fun at us Brits gathering in the impending gloom of nights drawing in and tumbling temperatures. However, our recent glorious weather has meant jealousy could have been avoided this year.Â
I’m sure the Rays’ players, fans and owners would love to be playing outdoors, but an open-air ballpark for the Rays doesn’t appear to be on the cards in the near future. Sadly it looks like they will be the ones suffering from the green-eyed monster as the Miami Marlins move into their new home next year. Continue reading
Monday is Game Three day in the American League postseason.
Both of the two AL Division Series are tied at 1-1 heading into the third game of each respective series. Teams can, and have, come back from trailing 2-1 in a best-of-five series, but winning the third game undoubtedly shifts the odds firmly in favour of the victor.
The Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays have decamped to Florida, with Colby Lewis and David Price set to take the mound today.
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra will be broadcasting the game live from 22.00 BST, giving baseball fans, and maybe a few sports fans in the UK yet to take an interest in the sport, an exciting postseason game to enjoy live during the British evening.
The Rays will be glad to head back home to the scene of their recent stunning triumph over the Yankees that booked them a playoff place on the final day of the regular season. The Rangers will be slightly disappointed to have dropped one of the two games at their ballpark, but their victory in Game Two has kept this series finely balanced.
As for the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers, Game Three of their series finally offers us the tantalising prospect of a proper pitching match-up between two of the very best starting pitchers in the sport: CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander.
We got a glimpse of this contest in the initial staging of Game One before rain cut that short after less than two complete innings. Continue reading
The excitement of the final day of the 2011 MLB regular season has carried over to the early stages of the postseason, despite a much needed day off in between to pause for breath and to catch up on some sleep.
We haven’t had a thrilling late comeback as yet, but they don’t happen quite as often as the last week would lead you to believe. What we have had are some excellent individual performances, some good competitive games and a bit of drama thrown in for good measure.
Tigers and Yankees
Yankee Stadium provided the drama on Friday night as the anticipated pitching duel between CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander was sunk by rain in the Bronx.Â
Doug Fister and Ivan Nova picked up from where those two left off yesterday and the Yankees prevailed 9-3. Robinson Cano rightfully took the headlines thanks to his Grand Slam and six RBI; however Nova’s solid ‘start’ – giving up two runs over 6.1 innings – should not be overlooked.
Verlander and Sabathia were seen as the crucial players in the series due to the question marks placed next to the names of the other starting pitchers. With the two aces now slated to start Game Three, it could well be that the series is decided by the other starting pitchers and the Yankees have to be delighted with Nova’s performance. Continue reading