England's Baseball Ground

Looking into the history of the old Derby County FC stadium

England’s Baseball Ground

Derby County FC played for over a century at a stadium simply called the Baseball Ground.

And there’s an interesting history behind it.

Baseball’s first appearance in England came at the hands of Albert Spalding. It was part of his famous world tour of 1888 and 1889.

At some point in time, a man named Francis Ley became interested in baseball.

He’s the man who created the Baseball Ground, as part of a sports complex in Derby.

He also was instrumental in the formation of England’s first professional baseball league.

From The Derby Daily Telegraph, October 10, 1889, page 3

From what I can tell, the first game was played on June 30, 1890. I believe it was played at the Baseball Ground:

From The Birmingham Daily Post, July 1, 1890, page 7

Sadly, there’s not much information in the old British newspapers about the league. I was able to find this listing of fixtures:

From The Derby Daily Telegraph, July 1, 1890, page 3

However, it was extremely difficult to find anything even remotely resembling boxscores, standings, and the like.

I was able to find this interesting description of the game in England from a Pittsburgh newspaper, however:

From The Pittsburgh Dispatch, July 13, 1890, page 14

Sadly, I couldn’t find much more information about the league. It appears that the league turned amateur soon after its formation.

I do know it was still active around 1900:

From The Derby Daily Telegraph, June 8, 1900, page 3

Derby County F.C. moved into the Baseball Ground in 1895, and the rest is history. The team remained there until finally moving to a larger stadium in 1997.

Sadly, the park was demolished in 2003 — removing one of the few physical memories of that long forgotten British baseball league.