There might have been a shortage of work and money around in the 1930s, but there was no shortage of diversion if you were a sporting type.

In summer there was cricket, and what cricket it was if you were a Yorkshire fan.

In that decade, Yorkshire fielded what must have been some of the strongest county sides ever to walk on a field: Herbert Sutcliffe, Percy Holmes, Len Hutton, Bill Bowes, Hedley Verity, Maurice Leyland, Arthur Wood, Frank Smailes, 'Ticker' Mitchell and the like would have given most Test sides a hard time. In fact they often did but, for form's sake, Yorkshire were usually called England when they took the field against touring sides.

Just to be friendly, they allowed one or two outsiders like Wally Hammond and Harold Larwood to play, if they were good enough.

But for a gambling man, cricket wasn't as good a game as football. Football, you see, had the Pools, with a promise of a fortune, a release for ever from financial misery.

That's why, during the 1930s, baseball became a popular and well-attended sport in Bradford and indeed throughout the north of England.

Unlike cricket, baseball could be played in the course of one evening. That way it faced no competition from cricket. And that way, there could be a pools system organised around the game, to the delight of Sir John Moores, of Littlewoods, who was a great champion of the American game.

It wasn't only Moores who made a few bob out of baseball. Jack Carrodus, of Birkenshaw, remembers the Greenfield Giants, who played at Greenfield Stadium at Dudley Hill, home of dog racing. He also remembers one night when they played at the Bradford Rovers ground at Lower Lane, off Wakefield Road, against a team which included the famous American singing duo the Mills Brothers.

They were appearing at the Alhambra while touring England and promoting a new-fangled drink called Coca-Cola (at least it was quite new to England), and the young Jack Carrodus turned salesman and found himself one of Britain's earliest Coke dealers. He got a halfpenny per dozen bottles sold - not a fortune, but not bad for the mid-1930s.

The Moores baseball empire soon spread via the rugby league network, with the chance of summer income through the turnstiles being welcomed across the north.

The Moores technique - as well as the Mills Brothers' visit - are remembered by former Bradford player Harry Raynor, of Scholes. He and his pal Kenny Dennison were early recruits via Sedbergh Boys Club in Bradford. Being too old for one football side and a bit too young for another, the lads found themselves at Odsal being recruited into the City Sox.

Moores provided the kit and also two members of the team - the pitcher and the catcher, baseball's equivalent of the bowler and wicketkeeper, for each side were recruited among Canadian college players. For the rest of the team, enthusiasm and the ability to hit a ball with a bat were enough.

Young Harry Raynor was soon a star - and soon in the thick of it. One night, in a match at Hull Kingston Rovers' ground, he managed to spot the signals that the catcher was sending to the pitcher. Meanwhile the catcher spotted Harry watching. 'He stood up and pushed me and knocked me over. So I smacked him back and knocked him over.'

The police had to escort the visiting batter off the pitch amid a hail of tin cans and other missiles. And it didn't stop there.

'I was only 17 so I didn't go in the pub with the other lads. I waited on the bus until somebody threw a brick through the window - so I ended up in the pub after all'.

This sort of sport stood Harry in good stead when he came face to face with Erwin Rommell after being captured while serving with the Royal Artillery in Tunisia during the war.

But baseball had another triumph in store for him.

In 1937-38 Bradford, topping the table, attracted crowds of about 2,000 to matches, while Liverpool, who were further down the league, got gates of around 20,000.

This seemed wrong to Moores (a Liverpudlian) and so he pulled a stroke. He removed the pitcher and the catcher from the Bradford team before a match. What Moores didn't know is that Harry and his pal Kenny had been practising hard for a couple of weeks at night.

When it came to the game, they were more than a match for the imports. Bradford won by the narrowest margin - 1-0 after a three and a half hour game.

Baseball was becoming a major sporting event, and not just for the lads. City Sox and English Electric, among others, fielded women's teams.

Sadly, just as baseball was taking off, so were Hitler's Luftwaffe. The Second World War came along and somehow, afterwards, the enthusiasm seemed to have waned.

Hull maintained its liking for the game and still has a handful of teams. But Bradford, Scarborough, Whitby, Oldham, Bury and the like let it drop.

But not necessarily for good. Sedbergh Boys Club, where Harry Raynor started his career, is once again looking at starting a team.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.