The Baseball Ground was a stadium in
DerbyDerby is a city in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
,
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. It was first used for
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
as the home of
Derby County Baseball ClubThe Derby County Baseball Club was a baseball club in Great Britain that played baseball until 1898 when football become the dominant sport in that region...
from 1890 until 1898 and then for
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
as the home of
Derby County F.C.Derby County Football Club is a professional football club based in Derby, England, currently playing in the Football League Championship. The club is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only eleven clubs to have competed in...
from 1895 until 1997.
As the name suggests, the stadium was originally used for
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
. It was originally called
Ley's Baseball Ground and was part of a complex of sports grounds (Ley's Recreation Ground) built and owned by businessman Sir
Francis LeySir Francis Ley, 1st Baronet was an English businessman who owned Ley's Malleable Castings Vulcan Ironworks in Derby, which made iron-based goods for the British Empire. By extension, he also owned Baseball Ground from 1890 to 1924 as an attempt to introduce baseball into the United Kingdom...
for workers at his foundry, Ley's Malleable Castings Vulcan Ironworks.
The Baseball Ground was a stadium in
DerbyDerby is a city in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
,
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. It was first used for
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
as the home of
Derby County Baseball ClubThe Derby County Baseball Club was a baseball club in Great Britain that played baseball until 1898 when football become the dominant sport in that region...
from 1890 until 1898 and then for
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
as the home of
Derby County F.C.Derby County Football Club is a professional football club based in Derby, England, currently playing in the Football League Championship. The club is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only eleven clubs to have competed in...
from 1895 until 1997.
As the name suggests, the stadium was originally used for
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
. It was originally called
Ley's Baseball Ground and was part of a complex of sports grounds (Ley's Recreation Ground) built and owned by businessman Sir
Francis LeySir Francis Ley, 1st Baronet was an English businessman who owned Ley's Malleable Castings Vulcan Ironworks in Derby, which made iron-based goods for the British Empire. By extension, he also owned Baseball Ground from 1890 to 1924 as an attempt to introduce baseball into the United Kingdom...
for workers at his foundry, Ley's Malleable Castings Vulcan Ironworks. The stadium was the focal point of the complex and was part of a personal quest by Ley to introduce baseball to the UK.
The stadium was home to Derby County Baseball Club, which was allied to the more famous football club. The club ran away with the first championship after the National Baseball League of Great Britain and Ireland was established in 1890. However, pressure from other teams in the league over the number of
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
players Derby used forced them to resign at the end of the league's first season, though the baseball club itself lasted until 1898.
Derby County Football Club had occasionally used the stadium for their home matches and, with their partner baseball club in decline, made it their permanent home in 1895 and renamed it The Baseball Ground. A party of Gypsies were forced to move and legend has it that before leaving they put a curse on the ground preventing Derby County winning the F.A. Cup. The ground became the property of the club in 1924 when it was purchased from Ley for £10,000.
At its height, the Baseball Ground could accommodate around 42,000 spectators. The record attendance was 41,826 for a match against
Tottenham HotspurTottenham Hotspur Football Club, , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English professional football club based in Tottenham, North London which currently plays in the Premier League...
in 1969. Later, the stadium was slowly converted to become all-seater from terracing and the capacity eventually dropped to 18,300 - inadequate for the ambitions of Derby County, who were an ambitious side chasing promotion to the Premier League during the early to mid 1990s.
The stadium featured two 3-tier stands at either end, both with the lowest tier not facing completely straight towards the pitch (due to the previous configuration for baseball) giving a wedge-like appearance at one end. Also, in one corner was a unique stand that was more house-like, mainly for media use.
Derby County remained at the stadium until 1997, when they relocated to the
Pride Park StadiumPride Park Stadium is a football stadium in the Pride Park business park on the outskirts of Derby, England. It is owned by and is the home of Derby County F.C. The stadium holds 33,597 spectators...
. The relocation plan had only been unveiled some 18 months before the new stadium was opened - chairman
Lionel PickeringLionel Victor Pickering was an English businessman, best known as the owner of Derby County F.C. between 1991 and 2003...
had originally planned to boost Derby's stadium capacity by expanding the Baseball Ground. The last league match to be played there was a Premier League fixture against
ArsenalArsenal Football Club are an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London...
, though the stadium continued to be used for reserve team games for a few seasons afterwards. In late 2003, the Baseball Ground was finally demolished to make way for housing.
The Baseball Ground was once used for an international match:
EnglandThe English national football team represents England in international association football and is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England...
beat
IrelandThis article deals with the Irish Football Association team up to 1950, when it last picked players from outside Northern Ireland. The current IFA team, which sometimes played as Ireland, is described in Northern Ireland national football team...
2-1 in a
British Home ChampionshipThe British Home Championship was an annual football competition contested between the United Kingdom's four national teams, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from the...
match on February 11, 1911.
External links