Melbourne Winter Baseball League

Baseball Victoria is the governing body of baseball within Victoria. Baseball Victoria is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation.

The Victorian Baseball League (VBL) was constituted in 1889 by J.C. Williamson, Harry Rickards, Harry Musgrove, J.S. Milford and Major Ben Wardill (the longtime secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club). J. C. Williamson was the first President and remained in office for six years.

The teams in the inaugural season of the Victorian Baseball League were: Carlton, Ferguson & Mitchell, Fitzroy, Geelong, Kew, M.C.C., Melbourne (to be renamed Metropolitans), Richmond, Richmond C.C., St.Kilda, the “Age” and Victoria.

They were followed by South Melbourne, East Melbourne and Malvern in 1893, Essendon in 1893, Hawkesburn in 1896, and Prahran in 1897.

Since before the First World War Baseball curtain-raisers to League football had been an institution. The Victorian Baseball League A-grade competition fixture was aligned with the Victorian Football Association fixture and under this system every A grade team also had the backing of a District Cricket Club with all of the resultant benefits.

In 1896 football in Victoria was split into two sections when eight of the thirteen Victorian Football Association (VFA) clubs (Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and South Melbourne) broke away to form the Victorian Football League (VFL). This league soon became to be the dominate of the two especially given all twenty Victorian Football Association premierships to that stage had been shared by six of those eight clubs. The VFA continued to be an independent body, with only five of its original clubs (Footscray, North Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Richmond and Williamstown) – but within five years it had expanded to ten clubs, a size it maintained until the 1920s. This split had a significant impact on Victorian Baseball.

For several years after football split the Victorian Baseball League debated the need to restructure its constitution to recognize the split between the VFA and VFL. At each annual meeting of the VBL a portion of the business was dedicated to the allocation of teams between A and B grades, following a basic relegation and promotion system. In 1915 this meant that A Grade consisted of six teams playing on league football grounds and four on Association grounds. This caused it to be near impossible to organize a fair fixture of home and away matches matching teams with their respective football club. Further exacerbating the problem was the fact that the VFL played on better grounds to larger crowds.

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