Tower Hill Baseball Club is a baseball club based in Crocketford, Albaland. They are known as The Tees and play in a white jersey with gold pinstripes, black pants and gold socks with a black cap. They are one of 16 teams that played in the inaugural Albaland Baseball League in 1910.
Founded by Australian Liam Jackson in 1901, having grew up in the suburb of Tower Hill after moving their from Melbourne in 1883 at the age of 11, the club found organising games very difficult with the city – a heavy Catholic town at the time – banning baseball from being played until 1905 when Priest Joseph Forbes, who founded in South Angel in nearby St. Michaels, visited and the ban was subsequently lifted.
Despite a poor showing in the Alba Shield from 1907 until joining the Albaland Baseball League in 1910; being eliminated in the First Round in three consecutive years before the club was brought to the attention of Tadd Steward in 1908 when Rigside Nine – his favourite club – defeated them at home. Steward was impressed by the teams professional attitude towards warm-ups and stretching the team did prior to the game, commenting that to Liam Jackson that he wished his team was as professional in their approach as his team was.
Liam Jackson, remembering the conversation, enquired about joining the ABL in 1909 by telephone and Steward invited the club to join the league several months later with Tower Hill top of the list to join Rigside Nine, Melton Coss and Terregles Collieries.
The club plays out of the tiny Eskdale Street at the foot of Tower Hill, a park that heavily favours hitters with Home Runs greatly increased. Right-handed pull hitters really benefit with the wall sitting at 9-feet high before it disappears into the rock face of the near vertical portion of Tower Hill increasing the fair ball line up to 22 feet in centre field before jumping up to 35 feet high in right field. The stands sit on top of the cliff face which has since been smoothed over and padding put in place to protect the players. Famously, the right field foul pole was brought down by strong winds in 1965, taking a large chunk of the rock formation with it, forcing it to be patched up prior to the start of the season.