Baseball In Sheffield

[vox]

British baseball and the West Ham club: history of a 1930s professional team

[vox]

1937

Source

[DaveH]

1937

Source

I thought it was Derby that was big on baseball in this country.

Wasn't the old Derby County football ground called "The Baseball Ground"?

And isn't baseball just an American version of the British game of rounders anyway?

[vox]

Wasn't the old Derby County football ground called "The Baseball Ground"?

Yes it was

And isn't baseball just an American version of the British game of rounders anyway?

I like to remind my American sister in law that 2 of the 3 National Sports of America are "Rounders and Netball."

[DaveH]

Yes thats right vox,

The American national games are Rounders and Netball.

In America they are played by supposedly big rough, tough blokes but in Britain they are considered to be "girls games" which are played mainly by schoolgirls.

To hide their embarassement over this the Americans have renamed them Baseball and Basketball.

Also to keep it simple for the Yanks, notice that they like any game played with a ball to end with the suffix "ball"

So why then do they insist on calling Football "soccer"?

And why does their version of football (called, for simplicity again, "American Football" so everyone will know it is theirs) have more in common with the game we call Rugby? as in American football you can pick the rugby shaped ball up and run with it.

Main differences seem to be, -

A )

Our lads play rugby in normal kit, American footballers have to wear a suit of armour so they don't get hurt (big rough, tough blokes again )

B )

A rugby match lasts 90 minutes of solid action, an American football match lasts about 4 hours.

But when you take out the big entrance, the cheerleader girls dancing, the stoppage time and the victors finale there is barely an hour of action left.

As you can tell I am not a big fan of American sport, - after all it's just not Cricket! lol

[dunsbyowl1867]

Excellent & interesting Vox - I noticed this other match at Owlerton (I didn't know it was known as the "Ascot of the North"

http://www.projectco...lor/1938f_1.jpg

That made me laugh - perhaps Yorkshire should have made it's own bid for the World Cup?!

[vox]

Excellent & interesting Vox - I noticed this other match at Owlerton (I didn't know it was known as the "Ascot of the North"

http://www.projectco...lor/1938f_1.jpg

That made me laugh - perhaps Yorkshire should have made it's own bid for the World Cup?!

Didn't spot that one.

That's an expensive program dunsby - 2d

The other was only 1d

Doesn't sound much but it's a 100% price hike.

[dunsbyowl1867]

Didn't spot that one.

That's an expensive program dunsby - 2d

The other was only 1d

Doesn't sound much but it's a 100% price hike.

Shocking!

Here's the modern version - not sure about the name though?

http://www.sheffieldbladerunners.co.uk/

[DaveH]

Shocking!

Here's the modern version - not sure about the name though?

http://www.sheffieldbladerunners.co.uk/

Yes Bladerunners does seem an unusual name for a local baseball team.

Especially when one of the local football teams is also know as "The Blades"

[THYLACINE]

So why then do they insist on calling Football "soccer"?

Probably the same reason they insist on calling football "soccer" in Australia. The national sport here is a game called Australian Rules Football run by a body called the Australian Football League or AFL for short. If you add the letters W and U to the acronym, it spells AWFUL which is an apt description of the game.

Hearing about Baseball being played in Sheffield brought to mind a famous quote by Craig Johnston, one of the first Australians to make his mark on British Football for Middlesborough and Liverpool. He said 'playing football for Australia was like surfing for England.'

Yes, leave Australian Rules in Australia and Baseball and Gridiron (what has grid or iron got to do with anything?) in the USA. They are welcome to it.

[DaveH]

Probably the same reason they insist on calling football "soccer" in Australia. The national sport here is a game called Australian Rules Football run by a body called the Australian Football League or AFL for short. If you add the letters W and U to the acronym, it spells AWFUL which is an apt description of the game.

Yes I have heard of "Australian Rules Football2 as about 20 years ago they trialled showing some matches on British TV as "American Football" had already become a success on TV over here.

As I remember it "Australian Rules Football" only has one rule, variously interpreted as, -

"There are no rules"

or

"Do whatever you want"

or

"Score as many goals as you can"

[THYLACINE]

Yes I have heard of "Australian Rules Football2 as about 20 years ago they trialled showing some matches on British TV as "American Football" had already become a success on TV over here.

As I remember it "Australian Rules Football" only has one rule, variously interpreted as, -

"There are no rules"

or

"Do whatever you want"

or

"Score as many goals as you can"

The game reminds me of "Village Football" where two teams made up from the entire population of some remote moorland village battle all day to force the "ball" across their opponents boundary stream. No rules. Do whatever you want.

The difference between this scenario and a game of Aussie rules is in the scoring. The score sheet which appears in the sports pages of the morning paper requires a spreadsheet - one for each game! Also the game has become a victim of official statistic-keepers, every kick, every pass, every tackle, every mark, every metre covered by every player . . . you get the picture, reams and reams of boring, meaningless data which constitute the sports section of Melbourne daily's.

[DaveH]

The difference between this scenario and a game of Aussie rules is in the scoring. The score sheet which appears in the sports pages of the morning paper requires a spreadsheet - one for each game! Also the game has become a victim of official statistic-keepers, every kick, every pass, every tackle, every mark, every metre covered by every player . . . you get the picture, reams and reams of boring, meaningless data which constitute the sports section of Melbourne daily's.

Is that what they call "Sport Science".

You can get a university degree in it (and a lot of other non academic stuff as well) these days.

But in Britain, only if you can now afford the tuiyion fees!