The Forest Ave. Baseball Team in 1920 from today's Milmont Park, in those days it was the Ridley Park Post Office.
Some early history of the Delaware County Baseball League
NOTE: Beginning in the 1870's local baseball was a big deal. Local games would attract 1000's of bystanders and some local teams played the Phillies etc. In 1915, J. Franklin "Home Run Baker" was hired by the Crozer Family to play for the Upland Baseball Team. They paid him more than the Phillies!! That will be my next article
In February 1908, on invitation of J. B. Weeks and W. L.
Buck, acting as an organization committee, representatives of the Collingdale,
Aldan, Rutledge, Folsom and Colwyn baseball clubs met in Rutledge for the
purpose of organizing an amateur league.
Much enthusiasm was expressed at the meeting and all the clubs
represented decided to join the combination.
A week later a meeting of the managers was held in Holmes and at that
time a committee which had been appointed to draw up rules reported; although
the rule proposed to exclude paid players from league games raised so much
discussion that the meeting was adjourned without the rules being adopted or
other business being transacted. The
following week another meeting was held saw Holmes and representatives from
all the clubs were present, besides the managers of Primos, Prospect and Darby,
each of whom wanted his club to fill the open place in that league
membership. There was considerate time
taken up in deciding which club should be elected. The first ballot stood: Darby, 2; Primos, 2: Prospect Park, 1, and
the final vote admitted Darby. The rules
presented at the previous meeting were re-read and unanimously adopted.
ORGANIZATION
TAKES PLACE – In Morton the formal organization meeting took place in Aldan, at
which time the constitution was signed by the managers and officers, and the
forfeit money deposited. The election of
officers took place and resulted as follows:
President, J. B. Weeks; secretary, P. Sutcliffe; corresponding
secretary, H. Donald Doak; treasurer, William J. Glenn. Near the end of the session W. L. Buck was
elected to succeed P. Sutcliffe as secretary, and the office of vice president
was created, to which George K. Glover was elected.
The
managers of the clubs for the first season were: William J. Glenn Aldan; George W. Childs,
Colwyn; J. B. Weeks, Rutledge; William McDonald, Folsom; George Johnson,
Collingdale, and P. Sutcliffe, Darby.
The
season opened on Saturday, May 9 all from the first game every club flew the
flag. There were any number of close and
interesting times, among which the Rutledge-Folsom and Aldan-Collingdale, extra
inning interest will long be remembered.
The one for the pennant Was so close on the last day of the season
Folsom lost its chance by dropping a double header to Collingdale, and Aldan by
defeating Rutledge on the latter’s grounds in an extra-inning contest, clinched
first place and captured the pennant.
A
few weeks after the close of the playing
season, a convention of the managers, officers, players and their guests was
held by the Neighbors Club Hall, Aldan, at which time the pennant was presented
to the Aldan club by President J. B. Weeks.
At this convention the unanimous opinion was that the success of the
1908 season secured a stronger organization for the coming year. There had been much doubt expressed when the
league started as to whether it would stick together or not, but the fact that
the clubs had played every day a game was scheduled indicated that the Delaware
County League had come to stay and that the “doubters” had better lose
themselves in the “tall grass.” Some of
the games put up by the clubs were anything but first-class, but as a whole the
teams did good work, and were well supported.
IN
THE YEAR 1909 – The reorganization meeting of the league was held in Rutledge
in January, 1909. At this meeting
important changes were made in the clubs to continue the league for that
season, Folcroft and Norwood being admitted in place of Colwyn and Darby. The franchise of the Rutledge club was
transferred to Morton by consent of the Board of Managers, and the Folsom club
was given permission to change its name to Woodlyn and to play at that place. The following officers were unanimously
elected: President, J. B. Weeks; vice
president, George K. Glover; recording secretary, W. L. Buck; corresponding
secretary, A. Andress; treasurer, William J. Glenn. The managers for the 1909 season were: William J. Glenn, Aldan; H. P. Worrall,
Norwood; Andrew Patton, Collingdale; Will Hatten, Folcroft; Adam A. Andrews,
Morton; William McConnell, Woodlyn, Samuel H. Caufman succeeded McConnell as
manager of Woodlyn in the middle of the season.
The
class of ball produced by the league teams last year was greatly improved over
that of the 1908 season, and many clubs who aspired for the amateur
championship of the county received black eyes at the hands of the league
organizations. Every team did its best
on the field and on a general line the games were as fast as were seen anywhere
among the amateur clubs of the county.
SOME
INTERESTING CONTESTS – The Woodlyn-Morton games were the most interesting and
most largely attended. When the
Caufman-Andress aggregations met it was a signal for something to happen, and
it always did. The 3-1 and 3-2 games
played at Woodlyn will long be remembered by league fans and the mere mention
of these contests before either manager is enough to start an all-night
argument. The pitcher’s battle between
H. Forbes of Folcroft, and his brother, C. Forbes of Collingdale, was one of
the fastest contests of the season, resulting:
Collingdale, 0; Folcroft 3. The
12-inning game between Norwood and Morton, and the 10-inning Folcroft-Aldan
contest have also gone down in the league history. When the scheduled season closed Woodlyn and
Morton were tied for first place, each having a percentage of .720.
In
the first game of the championship series Woodlyn won, 3-0. This was one of the best games seen in the
county last season and was completed in the remarkably short time of one hour
and ten minutes. The game was played on
the McCoy grounds, Leiperville. The
second game of the series was the decisive one, Woodlyn having a regular
walkover, 10 to 0 at Clifton Heights.
Morton was demoralized from the beginning to the end of the contest,
lacking two of their regular players and all of their nerve. The game was a big disappointment as
everybody was looking for another contest on the style of the one played the
previous week, but the big crowd of Morton rooters shouted themselves hoarse to
no avail. The final standing of the
clubs, excluding this post-season series, was as follows:
W L P.C.
Woodlyn 18 7 .720
Morton 18 7 .720
Norwood 15 10 .600
Folcroft 10 15 .400
Collingdale 8 17 .320
Aldan 6 19 .290
CHANGE
IN THE LEAGUE – At a regular meeting of the League Board held in Chester on
December 9th, Folcroft’s resignation was accepted and Glenolden
elected to fill the vacancy. At the meeting
on January 7, Aldan was dropped and Pembroke, of East Lansdowne, admitted. On January 21 Morton’s resignation was
accepted and Collingdale was dropped, and the vacancies were filled by Rutledge
and Sharon Hill. Darby and Clifton
Heights are both anxious to join the combination, but the board is unwilling to
increase the circuit to eight clubs, so the teams to constitute the circuit in
1910 are: Woodlyn, Norwood, Pembroke,
Glenolden, Sharon Hill, and Rutledge.
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