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Steve Carter
1 Posted 13/09/2019 at 04:51:22
Well, according to officialdata.org, £8 in 1935 (when Dean met Ruth) is worth £564.24 today - around £29,480 per annum.
Dave Abrahams
2 Posted 13/09/2019 at 19:58:32
There used to be quite a few baseball games at Clubmoor in Townsend Lane up to the sixties, maybe an England team, based on Merseyside/ Lancashire players,

I worked with a fella in Manweb, Hawthorn Road, can’t remember his name, who played and practiced at Clubmoor, this was around 1964-66, and I’m sure there were articles in the Liverpool Echo about current baseball games around that time.

Kevin Latham
3 Posted 14/09/2019 at 00:17:15
Great piece lads, very informative. Incidentally, only last Sunday, the Liverpool Trojans won (again) the Northern Championships. I think I'm right in saying that they are the longest established ball team in Britain too, my son plays for them and I'm pleased to say that most of the team (or ‘roster' to give it the correct phrase) are Blues.

They've won the National Championship on many occasions but the Northern league have gone their own way now. The season has just ended, it starts up again next April for anyone who fancies turning up at Bootle Stadium to watch. Again, great article with the Everton FC connection.

Clarence Yurcan
4 Posted 14/09/2019 at 00:55:12
Great, informative article.
David Pearl
5 Posted 15/09/2019 at 10:07:58
Great read. All the other US sports are over here promoting and expanding. Doubt very much Goodison Park (or Bramley-Moore Dock) could host a game these days though.

I watched a lot of MLB games early '90s when the Blue Jays were top. The game only seemed to come alive during the play-offs.

Anyway, great piece of history.

Jamie Crowley
6 Posted 16/09/2019 at 00:17:57
Very neat piece. I had no idea our national pastime had any footprint in England.

I had always assumed it was simply cricket over there, baseball over here.

Baseball is an absolutely fantastic game and sport. It is, admittedly, long, boring at points, lacks action often, etc. But when you really know baseball, and especially when the games actually mean something (as David alludes to with our playoffs), every single pitch is a chess match. And it's there, in those moments, the sport is at it's best, bordering great.

I find it really neat, for lack of a more in-depth descriptor, that baseball had it's time at Everton. As an American, I love the link to our country through baseball.

Thank you for this piece Richie and Rob.

P.S. - that pic of the Everton boys playing baseball looks like it was taken in Iowa. Priceless.

Kevin Latham
7 Posted 16/09/2019 at 08:56:32
Jamie,

I couldn't agree more about what a great and absorbing game baseball is. Sadly, it used to be bigger than it is over here, although there are many clubs in and around the London area, many of which have American players turning out. As you know, many Americans think the UK consists of London and nowhere else!

Here in the north, there aren't as many clubs but the ones we have are really dedicated and keep the game going. Even more sad is that there is no youth system to speak of in the north so younger players aren't coming through.

Let's hope that there's a surge of interest next year with baseball now featuring in the Olympics. It's great that we have an Everton connection with the game and Richie and Rob have done a great job with their piece. I'd really love baseball to recover its popularity – at the moment we're behind in the count!

Pete Jones
8 Posted 16/09/2019 at 18:43:10
Really interesting article lads; I've seen fragments about Everton and baseball before but this pulls it all together.
Alan Williams
9 Posted 17/09/2019 at 12:43:44
Lovely read. I too played for the Liverpool Trojans from 1987 to 2005 with a break for two years playing for the American air base at Burtonwood. My Dad played for Everton and used to get a £5 note in his boots before the game, he played in the last game at Goodison Park, and I have a copy of the scorecard.

I with some other local lads made it into the GB side bidding for the Barcelona Olympics; I still have all my correspondents from the BOC. The Sports council sent us off to Florida in 1990 to train at the Expo training camp. Great time but I don't think we realised what an opportunity it was. One guy from Hull was offered a College Place all funded but he turned it down because his girlfriend wouldn't be happy him moving to the USA, I bet he has sleepless nights thinking about what could have been. I always had my EFC sweatband on when I played, COYB

If you go to the Liverpool Museum and look in the Silver lockers in the Sports Section, you will see Baseball in Liverpool and a picture of my late Dad.

Kevin Latham
10 Posted 17/09/2019 at 13:03:20
Great stuff there, Alan, very interesting read. And what a great experience at GB and going to the Expos training camp! My son played for GB at youth level but never got anywhere as exotic as that.

As for the guy who refused the college place – I hope for his sake he's still with the girl otherwise what an opportunity to pass up.

I did know a Hull pitcher called Gavin Marshall who played college ball, maybe after your time though. I've seen the Trojans locker at the museum, next time I'm there I'll look out for your dad's picture. But yours is a great story and something to be really proud of, well done mate!

Julian Wait
11 Posted 22/09/2019 at 02:34:19
Thanks for this great article. Very relevant history for my brothers and me.
Our dad "Macker" played in Bootle area in the 1930's, as a teenager, and he told us that lots of kids used to play back then, it was really popular (especially with us commoners who didn't have the time to play cricket).

Like the article said, war broke out - on my dad's birthday - and that put an end to it. After the war started, he got drafted into the Merchant Navy as a ship's engineer. Dad ended up getting periodically stationed in NY to wait for the ships to be ready to enter the European Naval Theater ("Liberty Ships"?); while there he'd stay with his uncle in Brooklyn, and they'd go see the Dodgers, who have since long left to play in LA.

Dave Power
12 Posted 17/03/2021 at 23:21:13
Great article. I was brought up in Anfield, and I'm a proud “Townsend Boy” having lived just off the wonderful Townsend Lane during my childhood and youth.

Baseball (the English variety) was massive in the area. There were regular international matches between England and Wales played on Breckside Park or Clubmoor.


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