Liverpool Trojans: A Brief History

The Trojans were originally formed in 1946 by a group of ex-servicemen, recently home from six years of war. They were a group of friends that used to meet up regularly in a pub in West Derby village called the "The Halton Castle". After a bit of friendly ribbing between the group and a local baseball team, the group of young men were challenged to a baseball game. Always up for a laugh, the lads agreed - They elected the pub manager as the team manager, and asked an American ex-Liverpool Giant professional player, Eddie O'Melia, to be player/coach.

The name "Trojans" has a more unique origin than you might think as well as rather than being named after the ancient force of fighting men, they were originally named after a beer! The brewery “Higsons” used to sell a brand of beer called "Trojan Beer" and this happened to be the favourite drink of most of the players that ended up forming the team. The local barmaid had even been referring to the group as "The Trojans in the back room". So, when a name came to be decided upon, it was unanimous that it should be "The Trojans".

The Trojans’ first year was littered with heavy defeats, but the following year some more experienced players joined the team, and that fact combined with the existing players improving with game experience, meant that the Trojans would go on to become one of the leading teams in the Northwest over the next few years.

This team continued in this fashion until 1958, when due to what was described at the time as “sheer apathy” the team temporarily disbanded. Urgent calls from the manager and committee throughout the winter off-season were ignored by the players, and because of the financial position of the club being so poor, all the kit ended up being sold off. There was uproar from the players when they found out, but by this time it was too late salvage anything, and the club would enter a six year wilderness in which it dod not compete.

In 1964, several members of the original team decided to start things up again so, with their numbers bolstered by the addition of several younger players, the team was re-formed as the "Liverpool Trojans".

Despite that brief wobble in the timeline, the Trojans have gone on to achieve success at all levels of British Baseball. They first became prominent at the national level in 1969, when they reached the National Championship Cup Final. They were beaten by one run after 11 innings by Watford Sun Rockets. Rumours at the time suggested that the Watford team may have used “illegal” U.S. Naval players, but there was never a case brought forward for them to answer.

It wouldn’t be until 1976 that the Trojans would win their first major title, the British Championship, by a score 5-4 against an All-American team known as "The Spirit of 76". The game was played at the home of London Welsh RFC, Rosslyn Park. The Trojans were to win the British Championship twice more. In 1978 they would beat Crawley Giants 14-12 at a final staged in Hull, and in 1980 they got the better of Hull Aces on their home field, running out winners by 12 runs to 1. They appeared in three other national finals around that time but ended up as runners-up on those occasions.

The Trojans also lay claim to a British record : winning the North West League for nine consecutive years, with the streak running from 1976-1984.

In 1991, the Trojans would, once again, win the North West Championship and this would reward them with promotion into the newly formed Premier League. Unfortunately because of work commitments, the Trojans were unable to complete their first season in the newly formed league.

In 1993 the National Governing Body for Baseball in the Britain, the British Baseball Federation, effectively disbanded all local leagues and formed conferences across the UK. The Trojans were placed in the Northern Conference, which they went on to win once more to gain promotion in to the top tier.

The team would remain at that level until 2002 when they declined the invitation to join the newly formed Rawlings National League, which was to be made up primarily of teams in the south and so would have increased travel for the club to a level most players would not have been able to manage. In fact, the only northern club that did opt to join this league, the reigning Northern Champions, the Preston Stingers, would fail to last the season.

In 2003, the Trojans would pick up their next northern championship, and have been the dominant force in Northern Baseball from that time until the present day. As, on top of 14 Northern championships between 2003 and 2019, the Trojans were also crowned BBF AAA National Champions in 2011 and 2012. They were also British Baseball League Champions in 2017, 2018 and 2019, but it is important to note that only teams from the north of England were members of the British Baseball League at that time.

NOTE : It may be of interest to followers of the game, and to Everton supporters, to know that the Trojans’ original home ground was Everton Football Club's training ground at Bellefield, and the Evertonian links don’t finish there. The Trojans and the Formby Cardinals were the last two teams to play baseball at Goodison Park. This was in the Lancashire Cup Final in 1948.