English Baseball Disunion.
1931—1934
Jamie Barras.
The American Legion has invited the English and Welsh baseball teams, who are playing at Stratford on Saturday, out to see the game at Stamford Bridge, when American baseball will be shown at its best and can be compared with the Welsh game.[1]
The 1920s and 1930s were the Golden Age of baseball under the English code. Although still largely confined to its heartlands of Liverpool and South Wales, select teams from each region did annual battle with each other as ‘England’ and ‘Wales’ in ‘baseball internationals’. In 1926, 12,000 people turned out to watch Wales beat England at Cardiff Arms Park. However, the year before, just 5000 watched the 1925 game at Fairfield in Liverpool. For the 1924 game in Cardiff and the 1923 game in Liverpool, the attendances were 10,000 and 6000, respectively. (As a comparison, the ‘equivalent’ five-game 1938 England vs America test series under the American code attracted attendances of 10,000, 5000, 1000, 5000, and 4000[2]). It is not too much to say, based on the differences in attendances between the Liverpool and South Wales internationals, that the game in South Wales enjoyed roughly twice the support of that in Liverpool, despite Liverpool having nearly three times the population of Cardiff and Newport combined (1921 Census: Cardiff, population, 200,000; Newport, 92,000; Liverpool, 802,000).[3]
This disparity, of course, reflected the diversity of the population of Liverpool, a city of many peoples and faiths, and the integration of the wider Liverpool sport scene with that of the rest of England; the conditions simply did not exist there, as they did in South Wales, with its much more homogeneous population (largely Welsh, largely Nonconformist) and strong national identity, for a single sport to corner the market.
One consequence of baseball under the English code being such a niche sport in Liverpool was that, even in the heady days of the 1920s and 1930s, when it was enjoying its greatest period of success, the EBA subjected itself to much more introspection than the Welsh association did as it searched for a way to put itself on a firmer footing. And not always to good effect.
The officials concerned themselves with important changes in the laws of the English Baseball Association. A salient feature was the desire to reduce the numerical strength of that body to what is considered a more workmanlike figure […] The changes suggested are certainly far-reaching and would alter the present laws governing the constitution of the English Baseball Association.[4]
Trouble began in October 1931 when the current leadership of the EBA, in response to conflict over whether to continue efforts to expand the game beyond its Merseyside heartland or concentrate on shoring up support locally, introduced a rule that would reduce the number of officers of the association. This, not coincidentally, would concentrate power in the hands of the men at the top of the organisation, long-standing chairman A.J. Bailey and secretary H. Deakin. At the association’s annual meeting, held just after this rule change, Bailey and Deakin, expecting to assert their new authority, instead found themselves failing to be re-elected for a further term. They were replaced at the top of the association by H. Kennard and G.A. Cannell, organisers, under the auspices of the EBA, of the Liverpool and English leagues, respectively. Within weeks, Kennard and Cannell were themselves ousted from their posts following a vote of no confidence. In response, Kennard and Cannell and their reformist supporters resigned from the EBA and, in the New Year, launched a competing association, the English Baseball Union (EBU), populated with some of the strongest teams in the EBA leagues.[5]
Liverpool businessman and head of the Littlewoods Group, John Moores (1896–1993), who had made his fortune in sports betting and then diversified into mail order shopping, became the patron of the breakaway EBU.[6]
NEW BASEBALL TROPHIES. The Lancashire Baseball Challenge Cup (E.B.U.), won by Liverpool, will be presented by the donor, Mr. John Moores, along with the medals, at to-night’s prize distribution at the Gainsborough Café, Dale-street.[7]
As an ambassador for English Baseball, when John Moores announced in the early months of 1933 that he planned to travel to the US on business (probably but not definitely related to his new mail order catalogue enterprise), he also announced that he intended to use the trip to further the cause of the EBU in the US. This trip was to have dire consequences for both the EBU and EBA.
Mr. John Moores, the popular Liverpool sportsman and patron of the English Baseball Union, sails from Southampton on the Aquitania, to-morrow (Wednesday), for New York. He is keenly interested in the possibilities of a closer baseball relationship between the two countries, and, although at present, the two countries play under slightly different rules, the main principle is the same. He will meet and discuss with the leading baseball lights of America the possibilities of international games with England, Ireland and America.[8]
The reference to games with Ireland is interesting, and reflects an interest the EBU had at the time in expanding the game under the English code to Ireland. An Irish Baseball Union had already been formed to this end, and an England vs Ireland international involving EBU players (on both sides) would be played in Liverpool in June 1933 (resulting in an easy victory for the more experienced England team).[9]
News of Moores’ trip even made the US papers.
As if major league baseball wasn't having a tough enough time nowadays, what with so many domestic problems to solve, it seems that John Moores, "patron" of the English Baseball Union, is about to interview the leaders of the American organized game with a view to promoting international relations, good-will and, most fearsome item of all, competition.[10]
These American reports made clear that the reports in British newspapers before his departure were drawing on the text of a letter that Moores was carrying from the EBU to the heads of the National and American Leagues—John Heydler and John Harridge, respectively.[11]
The reference in the letter to the two countries playing under different codes ‘at present’ is ambiguous, suggesting that this may not be the case in the future. However, we can be certain, given subsequent events, the EBU did not mean to suggest that it would be willing to abandon the English code.
We do not know the full sequence of events following John Moores’ arrival in the States. The only account we have is Moores’, which, to put it politely, leaves a lot to be desired.
When I reached New York in 1933, I had no idea of returning to England to promote American baseball in this country. A chance meeting with Mr. [Heydler] in a New York Hotel led to a discussion on Baseball. He had come to New York to see one of the big games which was being played on the following day and he asked me if I was interested in Baseball. I replied that I had never seen the game of American Baseball played and was persuaded by him to attend the game on the next day. This I did and there was no doubt that the game gripped me. I had seen the so-called game of Baseball, as played in England at the time, and considered that there was no comparison between the two games.[12]
Moores’ account, which fails to mention his role with the EBU, or the letter he was carrying to the States on its behalf, must be read through the lens of the transformation in Moores’s views of baseball under the two codes: he went to America as an ambassador for the English game but returned to England an evangelist for the American game.
The announcement that Mr. John Moores, the well-known Liverpool businessman, desires to develop American baseball in his country has reverberated throughout the baseball sphere. As one might expect, the proposal has aroused animated discussion on all sides, and though the suggestion to introduce the American form has been mooted before, this must be chronicled as the first serious attempt to do so.[13]
On Moores’ return to Liverpool in the summer of 1933, he organised a meeting with representatives of both the EBU and the EBA, and there, told them that he was ‘all out for 100 per cent. American baseball, and that if they decided to form a league, he would give them every support’.[14]
The language makes plain that this was Moores acting on his own initiative, not following through on any proposal that the EBU had asked him to take to America—they had expected him to come back with a proposal to add an international series to their sporting calendar, not rip it up and replace it with a new game.
This is also evident from the fact that Moores failed to win over either organisation and had to instead launch his own, the National Baseball Association (NBA), to promote the American game. This was in November 1933. However, Moores’ conversion was still to have catastrophic consequences for the English game in Liverpool. The first to feel its effect was the EBU. Enough Liverpool players took up the American game that Moores’s NBA was able to launch in 1934 with a two-division amateur league. This further rupture in the Liverpool baseball scene proved a severe blow to the EBU, with many of its clubs (e.g., Liverpool, Liverpool Amateurs, Goodlass, Ogdens) either returning to the EBA or defecting to Moores’ league for the 1934 season.[15]
The EBU folded at the end of the 1934 season. Although the EBA soldiered on, the schism in baseball in Liverpool that started with the defection of the EBU and continued with the creation of the NBA meant that it was on life support from that point forward.
Jamie Barras, August 2026.
Back to The Rounders
Notes
[1] ‘American Baseball’, Evening News (London), 5 June 1924.
[2] Ian Smyth, “Baseball Put to the Test and England Emerge Victorious,” Baseball Research Journal 24 (1995): 131–33; ‘England Win The Baseball Test in Leeds’, Leeds Mercury, 20 August 1938; ‘Fourth Success: England’s Baseball Win at Headingley’, Bradford Observer, 20 August 1938.
[3] ‘Baseball: England’s Easy Victory Over Wales’, Liverpool Daily Post, 23 July 1923; ‘International Baseball’, Western Mail, 28 July 1924; ‘Bee’s Notes on Sports: Arise, Sir Baseball’, Liverpool Echo, 27 July 1925. Population data: https://web.archive.org/web/20240704043924/https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/census/table/EW1921GEN_M13, accessed 19 July 2025.
[4] Diamond, ‘Baseball Changes’, Liverpool Echo, 24 October 1931.
[5] Note 4 above; ‘Baseball: New Men at the Helm’, Liverpool Evening Express, 19 November 1931; ‘Baseball Officials’, Liverpool Evening Express, 27 November 1931; ‘New Baseball Union’, Liverpool Echo, 30 January 1932; ‘English Baseball Union’, Liverpool Echo, 16 February 1932.
[6] Barbara Clegg, “Moores, Sir John (1896–1993), Businessman and Philanthropist,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published 23 September 2004, accessed 20 July 2025.
[7] ‘Bee’s Notes on Sports: New Baseball Trophies’, Liverpool Echo, 9 December 1932.
[8] ‘Bee’s Notes on Sports: Ambassador to America’, Liverpool Echo, 28 March 1933.
[9] ‘Bee’s Notes on Sports of the Day: the Irish Baseball Union’, Liverpool Echo, 1 June 1933; ‘Bee’s Notes on Sports: Ireland At Baseball’, Liverpool Echo, 6 June 1933.
[10] ‘Harridge and Heydler Have Enough Worries’, Springfield Evening Union, 17 April 1933.
[11] Note 10 above.
[12] Reproduced from the 1936 NBA Challenge Cup final programme by William Morgan in the first issue of Baseball Mercury, October 1972. https://www.projectcobb.org.uk/misc/mercury/issue_1.pdf, accessed 9 September 2025. The same text appeared in the 1937 NBA Challenge Cup final between Hull and Romford Wasps, 14 August 1937, and can be viewed here: https://www.projectcobb.org.uk/artefacts/1937-Challenge-Cup-2022-08-14.pdf, accessed 20 July 2025.
[13] ‘Baseball Budget’, Liverpool Echo, 29 July 1933.
[14] ‘American Baseball to be Played in Liverpool Next Season’, Liverpool Evening Express, 12 August 1933
[15] Daniel Bloyce, “John Moores and the ‘Professional’ Baseball Leagues in 1930s England,” Sport in History 27, no. 1 (2007): 64–87; ‘American Baseball’, Liverpool Evening Express, 8 November 1933; ‘More Baseball for Liverpool’, Liverpool Echo, 5 April 1934; ‘To-day’s Baseball’, Liverpool Daily Post, 14 May 1932.