Who’s Who in the England Team

Jerry Strong—England's second line of "offence" to fast ball and curve pitcher. Bats left or right-handed. Captain of Hull B.C. Also played for West Ham, London, 1936 and 1937.

Gerald Keith ‘Jerry’ Strong (1913–1956)[i] was a phenom from Montreal. One of the best players ever to grace the city’s senior amateur leagues, he pitched the Notre Dame de Grace (NDG) Indians to the top of the City Senior League table in 1932, and, in 1935, while pitching for the Royals, was awarded the Dave Kerr Cup for best amateur player in Montreal.[ii] That same season, he pitched the Royals to victory in the city championship. His battery mate in the Royals was fellow future England player Irvine ‘Snooker’ Ruvinsky, while another fellow future England player, Larry Marsh, played centre field. During the course of Strong’s stellar career in the Junior and Senior City Amateur leagues in Montreal, he turned out for the Westmount Owls (1930), Northwood Indians (1930), M.A.A.A. (1931), NDG Indians (1932 and 1933), and Royals (1934 and 1935).[iii]

Strong came to England in 1936 at the suggestion of Quebec pro player Roland Gladu, who was recruiting for the West Ham team in the new London Major Baseball League (LMBL). That season, Strong struck out four players in West Ham’s 5–3 victory against the 1936 US Olympic Baseball Team (also managed by Leslie Mann) at West Ham.[iv] The following season turned into a three-way hurling contest between Strong for West Ham, the brilliant but erratic Vancouverite Merrick Cranstoun of the Romford Wasps, and ace Japanese hurler Hidzeo ‘H’ Nishikawa of the Corinthians.[v] The demise of the LMBL prevented a rematch the following year.

After the West Ham team folded along with the LMBL, Strong returned to Canada and played a few games for minor league team Drummondville before accepting an invitation to return to the UK and join the breakaway International Baseball League (IBL), which was formed of North American players shut out of the NBA by the restrictions on the numbers of pro players a team could field introduced at the start of the 1938 season. When the IBL collapsed after only a month, he joined Hull of the NBA Yorkshire–Lancashire League.[vi] He was one of four players from the Montreal baseball scene selected for the 1938 England team (the others were Frank Cadorette, Larry Marsh, and Snooker Ruvinsky).

In 1939, he moved to the Oldham team, but financial issues led him to quit mid-season and return to London to get a steady job.[vii] This appears to have marked the end of his playing career. He returned to Canada, married, and then settled in Whitehorse, Alaska. He died there, of a heart attack, in 1958.[viii]

When Strong was selected for the England team late in the 1938 season, he was probably the second-best pitcher in England, after fellow Canadian Ross Kendrick, lead hurler for the England team. Strong was on the bench for three of the five England–USA games, but pitched a shutout game in Game 2, fanning 12 US players in the process, and was lead pitcher in the abbreviated Game 5. His contribution to the series was overshadowed by that of Kendrick, but it was considerable. Even greater was his contribution to the game in England in general.

[i] Biographical information on Strong: passsenger lists, SS Acquitania arriving New York, 31 August 1937, which helpfully lists Strong’s occupation as ‘baseball’; Roland Gladu and George Etheze were also onboard, New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957; entry for Gerald K Strong, 1939 England and Wales Register, Wembley district.

[ii] ‘Indians Clinch First Place in Amateur League’, Montreal Gazette, 26 August 1932; ‘Royals Win Title by Beating M.A.A.A’, Montreal Gazette, 14 October 1935.

[iii] Owls and Indians: ‘Strong is Signed by Senior League’, Montreal Gazette, 1 April 1930. M.A.A.A.: ‘Strong Pitches M.A.A.A. to 10–5 Win before 4,000’, Montreal Gazette, 16 September 1930. NDG Indians: See Note 41 above, first reference. Royals: see Note 1 above, second reference.

[iv] Josh Chetwynd and Brian A Belton, ‘British Baseball and the West Ham Club’ (London: McFarland and Company, 2007), 132–137.

[v] Cranstoun: https://www.ishilearn.com/diamond-lives-slugger and Nishikawa: https://www.ishilearn.com/diamond-lives-ace-hurler, accessed 2 August 2025.

[vi] Strong signs for Drummondville: ‘Jerry Strong Signs Up With Drummondville B.B. Team’, Drummondville Spokesman, 10 April 1938. Back in England, in IBL: ‘Hull’s Big Night Of Baseball’, Hull Daily Mail, 25 May 1938. Playing for Hull in Yorkshire–Lancashire League: ‘Hull Win Their Cup-Tie 6–4’, Hull Daily Mail, 11 July 1938.

[vii] Strong leaves Oldham: ‘Liverpool Giants Are Likely Winners of NBA Cup’, Liverpool Evening Express, 15 July 1939, 1939 register.

[viii] ‘Funeral Rites For Gerry Strong’, Whitehorse Daily Star, 15 March 1956.