Baseball: British baseball fun in the 1950s

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MANY Bygones readers have been surprised that English professional footballers, including Derby County’s legendary Steve Bloomer, used to play baseball.

But, according to Alwyn Bode (75), of Chellaston, who as a youngster used to play in a Birmingham Baseball League, a natural ball player could take easily to America’s favourite game.

“It wasn’t all that popular here with many sportsmen but, once people played it, they soon got hooked,” said Alwyn.

He became interested when he was an apprentice at Nuffield Metal Works, Birmingham, which had a baseball team.

“Quite a few Americans and Canadians, who had been stationed in the Midlands during war service, had met and married local girls and stayed on afterwards. Others, when they heard that we had a baseball team, applied for jobs.

“So there was some talent about and those of us who could play football and cricket were persuaded to join them. We really enjoyed it and had a pretty good team.”

In those days, many companies with a big workforce provided sporting facilities for their employees, as did Ley’s, in Derby, who constructed the Baseball Ground for the sport from across the water, though eventually, when people lost interest, it became the home of Derby County Football Club.

In Birmingham, there was an active baseball league with about a dozen teams and Alwyn played for Wolseley Athletic.

In 1951, after a particularly successful run of matches, they became one of the best in the Midlands and were invited to go to Belgium to play two matches with a representative team there.

“Twenty-one of us flew over for the weekend and were met by the lord mayor and played in the Olympic Stadium in Antwerp. It was very impressive, especially as we won the first game, though not the second.

“But, as we were about to come home, the aircraft was grounded by an electric storm and, with our government restricting everyone to taking only £5 out of the country on each trip, we were all out of cash.”

The British Consul was called and suddenly a Rolls-Royce pulled up and each man was handed a £1 note to get food and shelter, with the strict reminder that the money had to be repaid.

“We had some laughs about that,” he said.

There was also a healthy baseball league in Nottingham. Alwyn and some friends had heard that the city had the prettiest girls in England, so they went over and he promptly met Betty, who became his wife in 1952.

He worked as a draughtsman with Rolls-Royce in Nottingham and Derby before they decided to go into their own business. The couple bought a newsagent’s shop at Old Sawley, Long Eaton, which they ran for nine years before he moved to Boots, where he worked for 14 years before retiring and moving to live in Chellaston 11 years ago.

“I really love it here, but I often look back to the good old days in Birmingham and the baseball fun we used to have,” he said.

He still watches the games from America on Sky television and say he feels sure more English people would enjoy it if they took a little time to understand it.

“It’s a very sociable game. There’s lots of banter, and you get plenty of teasing like being nicknamed “Butterfingers” if you drop a catch. It’s pretty skilful which is why I think so many English footballers became involved with it.”

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