What about the Villa? Forgotten figures from Britain’s pro baseball league of 1890 by Joe Gray (Fineleaf, 2010), 204 pages
There is no getting away from the fact that most people in Britain share a hard-headed view of baseball. They see it as a game played solely by Americans and of little relevance to the UK’s sporting past or present, aside from the idea that ‘we invented it and called it rounders’.
The existence of a professional baseball league in Britain in 1890 would come as a great surprise to those doubters. Indeed, it would probably be a surprise to some British baseball fans too.  Â
‘What about the Villa?’ chronicles this fascinating chapter in British baseball and sporting history. It is the first book by Joe Gray, founder of the Project for the Chronicling of British Baseball (Project Cobb). Joe is also a valued contributor to BaseballGB, but no personal bias is needed to admire the achievement of producing this book and to enjoy its contents.
The book covers all aspects of the league in impressive detail. This begins with a useful guide to how baseball was played in 1890 and goes on to investigate the sport’s early links with Britain, how a professional league came to be formed in 1890, who was involved in the league, how the competition played out and the league’s legacy. Continue reading
During 2010, my posts on BaseballGB have been a little fewer and further between than I would have liked, but there has been a good reason. For the past 14 months, I have been researching and writing a 100,000-word history of Britain’s pro baseball league of 1890. The result was my first book.