Let’s go east Hull therms! Professional Baseball in 1930s Yorkshire and its amateur legacy

Abstract

ABSTRACT British baseball had two periods when it developed professional leagues, in 1890 and the 1930s. A key element of the emergence of a professional game was transnational linkages provided by business, individuals and religion. Social and industrial links between the United States and Britain facilitated professional baseball. In the 1930s the enthusiasm for baseball by the industrialist John Moores saw the game rapidly develop from an amateur base in Liverpool to professional leagues in Lancashire, London and Yorkshire. It has been argued that, faced with hostility from elements of the media and established sports, especially cricket, establishing baseball as a professional spectator sport was challenging. The hiatus caused by World War Two left a shallow-rooted sport particularly vulnerable and it failed to re-emerge as a professional game. But the professional leagues inspired an amateur game, most notably in the city of Hull, which developed a substantial amateur league, encompassing four divisions and a women’s section by 1939. In Hull amateur baseball survived the conflict, it re-emerged with a multi-divisional format that continued into the 1960s. However, as the generation enthused by professional baseball retired from active involvement, the game receded to minuscule levels of participation.