Derby County Baseball Club

An early team with Steve Bloomer on 2nd base and Jack Robinson on 3rd. Francis Ley is in the bowler.

The Derby County Baseball Club was a baseball club in Great Britain that played baseball until 1898 when football become the dominant sport in that region. To the British gentleman, baseball was an awkward sport that was the direct descendant of cricket, a game that rivalled with golf in popularity at that time.

History

Baseball was introduced to Derby by Sir Francis Ley, an industralist, who owned Ley's Malleable Castings. Following a visit to the United States in 1889, Ley became convinced that, as a way of ensuring a healthier and more productive workforce, an investment should be made in promoting recreation for his workers. During his journey to the States, Ley had seen the way in which baseball fields had been laid out by companies and factories for the use by their workers and decided to follow suit on his return to Derby. Consequently, Ley had the Baseball Ground built; a 12-acre (49,000 m²) park for the use of workers with cricket and baseball facilities.

The club ran away with the first championship after the National Baseball League of Great Britain and Ireland was established in 1890. However, pressure from other teams in the league over the number of American players on the Derby team forced Derby to resign at the end of the league's first season, though the baseball club itself lasted until 1898.

Players

• Steve Bloomer
• Jack Robinson

Honours

• British Champions: 3
  • 1895, 1897, 1898

See also

Baseball in the United Kingdom

External links

• Article about Exhibition Game at Baseball Ground