Baseball in Oldham !
In the 1930s there was a baseball boom in Oldham (as in several other Northern towns) with a number
of teams (including the Ferranti Sparks above), a colts league and a town team that played in the Yorkshire-Lancashire Major League.
The Oldham Greyhounds sometimes got crowds of c.5000 and even had games broadcast on the BBC. The activity in the 1930s makes
the present baseball and softball scene in the UK look like very small beer and yet it left virtually no legacy at all.
I'm interested in finding out more about Baseball in this country (and Oldham in particular) in the 30s so if anyone reading this knows of any good sources of information please get in touch.
Oldham teams included:
- Ferranti Sparks
- Oldham Dons
- AVRO Spartans
In 1935 William Brown, the owner of Oldham Greyhound Stadium, set up a league that covered much of the Manchester area:
- Oldham Greyhounds
- Manchester North End Blue Sox
- Belle Vue Tigers
- Hurst Hawks
- Hyde Grasshoppers
- Droylsden Mohawks
- Salford Red Devils
- Stockport
- Rochdale Greys
In 1938 the Yorkshire-Lancashire Major League was formed. Teams were allowed one professional player each & included:
- Oldham Greyhounds
- Bolton Scarlets
- Greenfield Giants (Bradford)
- York
- Liverpool Giants
- Rochdale Greys
- Halifax
- Hull
- Sheffield
- Leeds Oaks
There is some information about Baseball in Britain at the SABR UK web site.
Most of the information presented here was acquired at Gallery Oldham Roughyeds exhibition and should be credited to Oldham Rugby League Heritage Trust.
BTW: One of the tricky points about Baseball in Britain is one can be talking about one of 2 different sports - American Baseball played in the UK or the sport of English (or Welsh) Baseball.
The Anglo - Welsh version is still played in Liverpool and South Wales. All the teams mentioned here played "American" baseball.