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Following on from the first Major League Tour of Ireland and Britain in 1874, a tour was organised by A.G. Spalding as part of a grander plan to bring American Professional Sports to the World.

Spalding’s Chicago White Stockings (now Chicago White Sox), of the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs (then the only Major League, as the American League would not be founded until 1901, and the National Football League, National Hockey League and National Basketball association until decades later), toured Ireland and Britain.

The Chicago team played the All-America Club in the grounds of the North of Ireland Cricket Club in Belfast, with the All-America team winning 9-8 thanks to a late 9th Inning rally.

In the return match, played at Landsdowne Road in Dublin, the White Stockings were leading 3-1 until another late 9th Inning rally, which saw the All-America Club score four runs in the Top of the Ninth.

Another facet of this tour was the decision of the English Rounders Association (Liverpool) and Welsh Rounders Association to adopt some of the rules of American Baseball, including two-handed batting (up until then batting was one-handed) and tagging a player out with the glove. The Rounders Associations changed their names to the English and Welsh Baseball Associations, to reflect the changes, although they kept the posts instead of adopting the bases as in Baseball. Welsh Baseball is still played as the traditional Celtic game of Wales (see: https://eirball.ie/welsh-baseball/ for more on this sport, which is popular in areas of Wales and Liverpool with a large Irish Working Class immigrant population).

References

Bibliography

[1] Chetwynd, Josh (2008) “Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History”. pg. 207. Published by McFarland and Company, Jefferson, North Carolina.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Frank Kingston and Hugh Mulcahy.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American & World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 24 April 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.

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Naturally, given the links between America and Ireland, Britain and France, the three countries got the biggest promotion of Baseball in the late Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Professional Baseball clubs toured Europe.

The earliest known game of Baseball in Ireland occurred on 24 August 1874 in Dublin, when National League clubs, the Boston Red Stockings and Philadelphia Athletics (later Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics) finished off a 12-game tour of England by playing two matches in Dublin. The series finished one game apiece.

The teams also played a match against the All-Ireland Cricket team. Because of the large number of Irish-Americans playing Professional Baseball at the time, this leg of the trip was considered essential by Boston owner Harry Wright.

References

Bibliography

[1] Chetwynd, Josh (2008) “Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History”. pg. 206. Published by McFarland and Company, Jefferson, North Carolina.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Frank Kingston and Hugh Mulcahy.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American & World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 24 April 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.

Results

Box-Score 31 October 1917

Teams 31 October 1917

Report

Two International Baseball matches between America and Canada were played in Dublin and Belfast in late October 1917.

In the first encounter Canada won by 10 runs to 6, and the return match, in Belfast, finished 5-5.

Doyle for Canada, and Stanley for America were the Pitchers, who were described as excellent.

America went 2-0 up in the first innings, but Canada added one in the second, and levelled the match in the third. America took the lead again in the fourth with a well-obtained run, but Canada retook the lead in the fifth by adding two runs. There was no score from then until the ninth innings, when America obtained two. It looked like America was going to win when Canada’s first batter failed, but they managed to equalise in the end. One Extra inning failed to separate the sides, and it finished five runs each.

References

Newspapers

[1] Anon. (1917) “Baseball Match in Belfast: America v. Canada”. The Belfast News-Letter. Thursday, November 1, 1917. pg. 3.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Frank Kingston and Richard Mulcahy

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American & World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 24 April 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.

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A match, suggested by Admiral Sims, was played on the grounds of University College Cork, was played in aid of a wartime charity by two US Naval Vessels: USS Trippe and USS Melville. Despite being delayed by over a week due to rain, it attracted a large crowd, who witnessed USS Trippe win by 7 runs to 6.

Around 3,000 people attended, and the band of the 3rd battalion, the Leinster Regiment, played a selection of music, finishing with the US and British National Anthems.

A warm-up match had been played by USS McDougal and USS Wadsworth. The match raised £90 for the Cork War Workers Fund.

The Navy created a Baseball Diamond at Ringaskiddy, beside Ballybricken House, afterwards, and a Baseball bat from Ballybricken is in the Cobh Museuem.

A re-enactment took place at the Mardyke, UCC, exactly a century later, also in aid of charity (Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind) when a team of visiting US Students, attending a Summer Camp at UCC, along with a few expats, took on the ‘Cork Rebel Alliance’. the location was at the exact same place as the original match 100 years previously.

References

Newspapers

[1] O’Riordan, Sean (2017) “Famous Baseball game by US Sailors recreated in Cork” Irish Examiner. Wednesday, July 26, 2017. [Internet] Available from: https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/famous-baseball-game-by-us-sailors-recreated-in-cork-455663.html [Accessed 28 July 2017]

[2] Duncan, Mark (2017) “An Irishman’s Diary” The Irish Times. Wednesday, August 23, 2017.

Images

[3] Anon. (2017) “Milligan from the Melville team hits a mighty stroke playing in the baseball match against Trippe at the Mardyke on July 25, 1917.” Irish Examiner. Wednesday, July 26, 2017. [Internet] Available from: https://www.irishexaminer.com/remote/media.central.ie/media/images/z/zzzMardykeBaseballMatch1917A_large.jpg?width=648&s=ie-455663 [Accessed 28 July 2017]

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Frank Kingston.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American & World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 24 April 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.