http://www.liverpooltrojans.co.uk/index.php/about-us/baseball-on-merseyside
On
July 11th 1933, Mr. John Moores ( of the Littlewoods Pools family)
chaired a meeting of all the baseball fraternity in Liverpool, which at
this time was predominantly English Baseball. During this time, there
was some dispute between the English Baseball Association and the
English Baseball Union. The meeting was held at the Law Associations
rooms, Cook St. Liverpool, Mr. Moores asked for the co-operation of the
English Leagues, offering assistance for anyone who would change codes,
additionally he offered £100.00 for teams to change to American code. He
warned that, should they refuse his offers, then he would go ahead and
form an American League without their co-operation. Seven teams from the
EBU came forward to accept his offer, with Mr Moores already having
acquired players and officials from the States and Canada. On Monday,
21st of August 1933, the first recorded American rules baseball match
played between English teams took place at Priory Rd, Liverpool, between
Liverpool Amateurs and Oakfield Social. Two days later an exhibition
game was played with trained American rules players at the Littlewood
Sports Ground, Picton Rd.
Liverpool Trojans 1948
Although
two North American Major League teams (Chicago White Sox & New York
Yankees) had played an exhibition game at Goodison Park in the
twenties, the first mention of American - style baseball was made in the
Liverpool Echo on July 4th 1933, when an English code baseball team,
the Liverpool Amateurs, challenged a Japanese ship, the Lima Maru ,
to a game under American rules. This game drew an "unusually large
crowd" and was won by the Japanese by 12 - 9 with three home runs
separating the sides. However, a year later the Amateurs won the return
match. The Japanese pitcher Sikiyama, must qualify as the first official
winning pitcher in Liverpool. A similar game had been played in the
early twenties versus a Canadian ship, but there are no records for this
game. From this information, it would appear that the Liverpool
Amateurs were the first side to play American Baseball in Liverpool.
On
July 20th 1933, appeared the first mention of an American style
Baseball League. At this time, the game was already established in
London and had existed for about 11 years under the banner of the
Anglo-American Baseball Association. Teams such as the London Americans,
the London Canadians and the London Japanese all competed.
On
July 11th 1933, Mr. John Moores ( of the Littlewoods Pools family)
chaired a meeting of all the baseball fraternity in Liverpool, which at
this time was predominantly English Baseball. During this time, there
was some dispute between the English Baseball Association and the
English Baseball Union. The meeting was held at the Law Associations
rooms, Cook St. Liverpool, Mr. Moores asked for the co-operation of the
English Leagues, offering assistance for anyone who would change codes,
additionally he offered £100.00 for teams to change to American code. He
warned that, should they refuse his offers, then he would go ahead and
form an American League without their co-operation. Seven teams from the
EBU came forward to accept his offer, with Mr Moores already having
acquired players and officials from the States and Canada. On Monday,
21st of August 1933, the first recorded American rules baseball match
played between English teams took place at Priory Rd, Liverpool, between
Liverpool Amateurs and Oakfield Social. Two days later an exhibition
game was played with trained American rules players at the Littlewood
Sports Ground, Picton Rd.
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