The Baseball Ground (sometimes referred to as the BBG) was a stadium in
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...
, England. It was first used for
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
as the home of
Derby Baseball Club from 1890 until 1898 and then for
football as the home of
Derby County
Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group.
Founded in 188 ...
from 1895 until 1997. The club's reserve and youth sides used it until 2003, when it finally closed as a sports stadium after 113 years (108 of them as a football stadium) and was demolished.
History
As the name suggests, the stadium was originally used for
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
. It was originally called Ley's Baseball Ground and was part of a complex of sports grounds (Ley's Recreation Centre) built and owned by businessman
Sir Francis Ley 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 establish professional organised baseball in the United Kingdom. His Ley's Recreation Club was formed in 1890 and went on to become known as Derby Baseball Club, prior to being dissolved by Ley and replaced with a new Derby Baseball Club, all in 1890.
The Ground was bordered by Shaftesbury Crescent (west-northwest); Vulcan Street (south-southwest); the Ley foundry (east-southeast); and an extension of Cambridge Street (north-northeast) roughly corresponding to Columbo Street. The original stand was built along Vulcan, with standing-room areas along other edges of the field. The diamond was in roughly the southwest corner of the lot. Over the years, additional stands were built around the pitch and were tagged with names corresponding to their orientation with respect to the streets (Vulcan and Columbo) and nearby neighborhoods (
Normanton and
Osmaston).
The stadium was home to Derby Baseball Club, the baseball club was running away with the first British professional baseball championship, the
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
which was established in 1890. However, pressure from other teams in the league over the number of American players Derby used forced them to resign before the end of the league's first season.
Derby County Football Club was formed in 1884, as an offshoot of the
Derbyshire County Cricket Club.
The football club played on a pitch that was part of the
Derby cricket ground, which at that time was in the middle of a racecourse.
This site, which had minimal facilities, was chosen to host five FA Cup semi-finals, the replay of the
1886 FA Cup Final and an
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
international match in 1895.
Derby had occasionally used Ley's Baseball Ground for their home matches due to
horse racing meetings taking priority.
With the baseball club in decline, Derby County FC 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
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
. The ground became the property of the club in 1924 when it was purchased from Ley's heirs for £10,000. The Baseball Ground was once used for an international match:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
beat
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
2–1 in a
British Home Championship match on 11 February 1911.
At its height, the Baseball Ground could accommodate around 42,000 spectators. The record attendance was 41,826 for a match against
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
in 1969, just after Derby County were promoted under the management of
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Engl ...
, at the beginning of the most successful era in the club's history. Clough guided Derby County to the league title in 1972 and his successor
Dave Mackay oversaw another title triumph in 1975.
However, attendances fell at the turn of the 1980s as Derby were relegated from the First Division in 1980, and in 1984 they fell into the Third Division, though an upswing in form followed and they were back in the First Division by 1987. Perimeter fencing was erected between the stands and the pitch during the 1970s to combat pitch invasions by
hooligans
Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as rioting, bullying and vandalism, usually in connection with crowds at sporting events.
Etymology
There are several theories regarding the origin of the word ''hooliganism,'' which is a ...
, but this was dismantled in April 1989, within days of the
Hillsborough disaster in which 97
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
fans were fatally injured, most of them crushed to death against perimeter fencing. This resulted in policing levels in games at the Baseball Ground being increased by 50%.
Closure
Derby County remained at the stadium until 1997, when they moved to the
Pride Park Stadium
Pride Park Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Derby, England, that is the home ground of English Football League club Derby County. With a capacity of 33,597, it is the 16th-largest football ground in England and the 20th-largest stad ...
. The site had first been identified in August 1993, although difficulties with decontaminating the land led to the project being abandoned within 18 months in favour of rebuilding the Baseball Ground into a 26,000-seat stadium. In the meantime, the Baseball Ground had been gradually converted into an all-seater stadium, although its capacity was reduced to just over 18,000 - inadequate for a second-tier club with ambitions of winning promotion back to the top flight.
However, these plans were abandoned in February 1996 and Pride Park was confirmed as the location for a new stadium. Construction work began later in 1996, with the new stadium scheduled to be ready in time for the 1997–98 season. It was, however, confirmed that the Baseball Ground would be retained for reserve and youth team matches for at least a few years after the new stadium's completion. Construction of the new stadium began later that year.
The last league match to be played there was a
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
fixture against
Arsenal (where 18,287 people watched Derby lose 3–1, although their top flight status was secured one season after promotion), though the stadium continued to be used for reserve team games for a few seasons afterwards.
In late 2003, several months after the youth team played its final game there, the Baseball Ground was finally demolished to make way for housing. The former ground has since been redeveloped to around 150 new homes and, in September 2010 a commemorative statue was unveiled on the site. The high metalwork featuring the silhouettes of three footballers dribbling and shooting was commissioned by the builders Spirita and Strata and designed by artist Denis O'Connor. A fan, George Glover, 'made history' by scoring the last goal at the Baseball Ground in a game between fans.
Structure and facilities
After the
Taylor Report
The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report is the report of an inquiry which was overseen by Lord Justice Taylor, into the causes of the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989, as a result of which, ...
was published, the stadium was slowly converted to become all-seater from terracing. Consequently, its capacity dropped to 17,451 in the 1995–96 season.
This was inadequate for the ambitions of Derby County, who were chasing promotion to the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
during the early to mid-1990s, finally achieving it as Division One runners-up in 1996. 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.
Transport
In 1990, a halt was built to serve the stadium called
Ramsline Halt although only four trains ever stopped there.
References
; Sources
*
External links
Photographs of the Baseball Ground before and after
{{Authority control
Defunct baseball venues
Defunct football venues in England
Derby County F.C. home stadiums
History of Derbyshire
Sports venues in Derby
Premier League venues
Demolished buildings and structures in England
Football venues in Derbyshire
Sports venues completed in 1890
1890 establishments in England
Sports venues demolished in 2003
English Football League venues
Baseball venues in the United Kingdom
Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom
Defunct sports venues in Derbyshire
History of baseball in the United Kingdom