The Blokes of Summer: Review
* Harvey Sahker, who had his first hit with the Blue Jays — the Croydon Blue Jays — has penned a book the British Baseball Federation, which dates back to 1890 ….
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By Kevin Glew
Harvey Sahker’s first hit was a seeing-eye grounder that bounded between the shortstop and third baseman into left field.
Unfortunately now that he has written about it in his new book, The Blokes of Summer, he won’t be able to embellish it in the future.
But if his initial base knock was less than majestic, where and when it happened may one day wow his children and grandchildren. Yes, the Toronto native was a member of the Blue Jays when he recorded his inaugural hit, but he wasn’t a Toronto Blue Jay. His first single came as a 26-year-old rookie with the Croydon Blue Jays of the British Baseball Federation.
Growing up in Hogtown, Sahker (shown in his 1989 Jays uniform) competed in softball rather than baseball, and it wasn’t until he accepted an overseas position as a systems analyst that he took up the game that the Toronto Blue Jays played.
His first hit is one of the memories that he shares in his 316-page book, which not only offers reminiscences of his 13-season playing career in England, but also provides a history of the sport in that country.
“As I played in England, I learned more and more about the game’s funky history in the country and at that time, nobody had written anything about it, so I decided to take it on,” explained Sahker, who started researching his book in the mid-’90s.
The ambitious author uncovered that the National League of Baseball Clubs of Great Britain was the first league in England. This four-team circuit was established in 1890 after A.G. Spalding had brought his Chicago White Stockings through the country as part of a worldwide tour the previous year.
“I suspect Spalding himself had a hand in the original league (in England),” said Sahker. “I suspect that a lot of the equipment was provided by Spalding’s company.”
Many of the players in that seminal loop were multi-sport stars. British soccer legend John Devey was one of the most notable. Sahker calls Devey the “Bo Jackson of late Victorian England.” Not only was he a star striker, he also excelled at cricket, and in his only season on the diamond, he won the batting title and registered at least nine victories as a pitcher.
The contests in that pioneer circuit were often high scoring, error-riddled affairs, which Sahker attributes to the condition of the fields, primitive equipment and inexperienced players.
Very few Canadians toiled in this early league, but Sahker did discover a Hamilton, Ont., native named Richard George Knowles, who was a “prime mover and shaker” on an American team of music hall performers called the Thespians. Despite occupations that might suggest otherwise, this squad was a force in the league and captured national championships in 1893 and 1894.
More Canucks would suit up for British teams during the 1930s when the popularity of the sport peaked in England. The London Major Baseball League (LMBL) was created in 1936 and many of the games were contested on the inner circles of dog racing tracks, making for some interesting outfield dimensions.
Sahker says that some Canadian hockey players in England competed in the league during their off-season, while other Canucks were recruited and brought overseas specifically for their diamond skills.
Future big leaguer Roland Gladu, who had played for the triple-A Montreal Royals, was the best known player to toil in the circuit. Dubbed the “Canadian Babe Ruth,” Gladu suited up for West Ham and was one of the league’s biggest gate attractions. But why would the talented Montrealer come all the way to England to flaunt his skills?
“It was the money coupled with the fact that it was an all-expense-paid trip overseas, and in the depression a lot of people didn’t have jobs at all,” explained Sahker. “It wasn’t just a chance to play ball and get paid for it, it was a chance to get paid and go on a huge adventure.”
Ross Kendrick was another Canadian that excelled in Britain during this era. Born in Merrickville, Ont., Kendrick was a dominant hurler with the York Maroons in the semi-pro Yorkshire Baseball League (YBL). Kendrick regularly recorded double-digit strikeout games and tossed a two-hit shutout for a team of Lancashire-Yorkshire League all-stars against a U.S. national amateur team that was preparing for the 1940 Olympics.
“Ross Kendrick was probably the top pitcher in Britain over an extended period,” noted Sahker. “He pitched there for three seasons immediately before the war and apparently he played amateur ball in England after the war.”
The second half of the book traces Sahker’s exploits as a player from 1988 to 2000 with the Croydon Blue Jays, Southern Tigers and Croydon Pirates.
As noted earlier, Sahker played softball as a child, but he was a big Cincinnati Reds fan, so he was familiar with how baseball was played.
“When I took my first set of hacks against the Croydon Blue Jays’ pitching machine, I’m glad that it was the late 20th century and not the early 21st century because fortunately there was nobody nearby filming me on their phone. It wouldn’t have been pretty,” he said.
One obstacle that Sahker and his teammates faced was that few English stores stocked baseball equipment. So when Sahker returned to Toronto for a holiday in 1988, he connected with Bobby Prentice, the Blue Jays’ director of Canadian scouting, who gave him 20 dozen used balls and several game-used bats that Sahker brought back to England.
“There were two bats that I remember being used for a long time,” said Sahker. “There was a black Dave Revering (model) bat that several of the guys liked to use and a Nelson Liriano bat which was the last one to survive.”
And as any amateur or recreational baseball player tends to do, Sahker also savours the memories of the home runs he belted in England.
“I hit a total of six home runs in 13 seasons and I can remember all six of them very well,” he said. “When they’re spaced that far apart, it’s kind of easy to remember them.”
One of the funniest stories that Sahker recounts in the book is of a Canadian named “Fred” (not his real name) who drove a 500-series BMW to games, threw a football to warm up his arm and repeatedly boasted about his arsenal of pitches.
“He was a bit of a strange dude,” recalled Sahker. “I don’t even think that he claimed to be a good pitcher. I think for some reason he wasn’t interested in doing anything but pitch.”
Eventually Dave Ward, the Croydon Pirates manager, consented and allowed Fred to start against the London Warriors, one of the top teams in England.
“Fred walked guys. He hit guys. He gave up a long home run,” writes Sahker. “Fred faced 10 batters. Nine of them scored.”
After he was relieved, Fred left the diamond and his teammates never saw him again, thus concluding his brief career with a gaudy 243.00 ERA.
After 13 seasons in England, Sahker and his wife, Eva, decided to return to Toronto to be closer to his family. His Pirates teammates threw a going-away bash and signed a ball for him.
“I still have the ball. That’s not going on eBay,” he said with a chuckle.
Sahker remains in touch with some of his teammates and maintains a link to the English baseball scene through his role on the selection committee of the British Baseball Hall of Fame. His groundbreaking book has also helped him establish more connections in Britain’s small but passionate baseball fraternity.
His 316-page effort offers fascinating insight into the history of baseball in England, as well as several laugh-out-loud anecdotes from his playing years. Sakher’s first hit may have been a nondescript grounder through the infield, but his book is a home run for British baseball buffs.
(Blokes of Summer can be purchased here)
