The 1899 Southern Union Baseball Season was the fifth season of professional baseball within the Southern Union and the last season of teams being elected into the Super Ligan, with promotion and relegation to begin from 1900 following the merger with the Nationella Basebolligan. The season began on the 7th of April 1899, and concluded on the 3rd of September 1899.

Domestic Baseball

Koana Islands

Super Ligan

AIF Thomassmåstad won their first ever Super Ligan title having only achieved a high of 3rd place back in 1897. After a shaky start in April where the Blå Örnar only managed a 5-7 record, a 10-2 month of May pushed them into the top half of the table. They moved in to first place towards the end of June where they stayed for the remainder of the year to finish four games clear of defending champions Vizhune IS won their final four games of the season to claim second place, but spent much of the year in mid-pack after a 12-12 start to the season.

Centurio Conneaut finished 3rd for the second straight year with consecutive match-ups against Vizhune and Thomassmåstad in August in which they lost both series 2-1, all but ruling them out as title contenders. They finished ahead of Omfattandestad BoIS, who briefly held top spot in late May but three wins in their final ten games saw them slump to a 38-win season which was still their best finish since winning the title three years earlier.

Newly elected to the Super Ligan, Ruysdael Akademisk IF endured a tough season, winning just 4 games in the months of May and June combined, which included two-consecutive victories in their opening two games against local rivals AIF Thomassmåstad. A string of 11-straight losses beginning at the end of April saw them plummet down the standings with pitching being a particular hindrance. The same can’t be said for Hamnområde BK, who set another record for lowest winning percentage in a season at just .227 to finish last for the second straight year.

Following an extraordinary meeting with the majority of team owners from the Nationella Basebolligan on the 23rd of July, the Super Ligan’s first order of business at the end of the season was to vote on merging with the NBL. By a result of 9-3, the Super Ligan agreed to subsume the teams under the umbrella of the Super Ligan and rebrand the NBL to Division Ett (Division One), with two promotion/relegation places between the two leagues to begin from next season.

BK Humoor 1893 owner Mario Järelöv was outspoken about the potential merger, quoted in the Humoor Veckovis newspaper as saying:

The majority of Nationella Basebolligan clubs are poorly run and they struggle financially in comparison to the vastly superior finances in the Super Ligan. Opening up two demotion spots is too great of a punishment for well-run clubs such as mine.

– Mario Järelöv

Despite his objections, the new division was formally ratified with the bottom two teams in Division Ett subject to the same re-election process as the current system in the Super Ligan.

The re-election system of the Super Ligan was therefore used for the last time in the top tier at the end of 1899. Hamnområde BK became the last team to be voted out of the Super Ligan with poor finances and on-field performances cited as the primary reasons for their expulsion. However, due to the merger they were automatically granted a place in the new Division Ett. Ny Aucklanda IF were successfully voted back into the Super Ligan, becoming the only team to be voted out and subsequently voted back in to the top flight in history.

• IK Förenta Saffron – 10 (Re-Elected)
• Ruysdael Akademisk IF – 10 (Re-Elected)
• Hamnområde BK – 5 (Failed re-election)
• Ny Aucklanda IF – 7 (Elected)
• Atletisk Nyhamn – 3
• GK Udde Korall – 0

Nationella Basebolligan

The 1899 Nationella Basebolligan season was the third and last year of the league before it merged with the Super Ligan from 1900. The first games of the league took place on the 3rd of March 1899 and the season was completed on the 27th of August 1899. BF Oberoendestad won the title on the last day of the season.

Despite holding a 6-game lead over the chasing teams of Ny Aucklanda IF and Rovaniemi Förenta in mid-July, BF Oberoendestad went into the final game of the season at home Jordnot Kanjon BK tied on 53 wins with Ny Aucklanda IF after 4 straight losses in August. After scoring early, BF Oberoendestad saw themselves trailing 3-1 in the middle of the third before a couple of home runs from Catcher Tage Karinsson and lead-off hitter CF Nils Rydell put the game beyond doubt three frames later. BK Salau secured a walk-off home run win over Ny Aucklanda IF on the same day to seal the title for Oberoendestad.

Rovaniemi Förenta matched their best ever league finish in third, but for a brief spell tied at the top in May were never realistically in with a chance of winning the league, whilst Jordnot Kanjon BK and BK Salau both improved on 7th and 9th place finishes last season. Sandford Stad BF, entering the NBL for the first time after failing re-election in the Super Ligan last season, struggled in March and May to be hovering around 500-ball for much of the year before a strong finish bumped them up to 6th, two games clear of Portlethen Måndag GK and defending champions Bryankeld Förenta.

The two new teams this year, Västra Delen 95 and Freyr Viksida IK struggled all season, with the latter spending the majority of the year in last place after starting the season 3-24, including 13 straight losses in April, before sweeping Prestons-Grenada to start the month of May.

Mid-way through the season on the 13th of June, 11 owners gathered for an extraordinary meeting in Omfattandestad. The agenda focused on two areas: Niclas Nordin’s running of the league and the growing gulf in financial might compared to the Super Ligan. Only Niclas Nordin and the two owners of Västra Delen 95 and Freyr Viksida IK were not invited.

Nordin’s decision to invite Västra Delen 95 and Freyr Viksida IK without allowing all owners the chance to formally vote on their acceptance was considered unacceptable, and with attendances dropping for home games against the two sides due to their poor performances, all owners agreed that Nordin could not stay in the role of league commissioner.

Sandford Stad BF’s Petri Ljungberg was encouraged to speak to his former-colleagues in the Super Ligan and see if a merger was a possibility, especially with the growth of the Baseball Meisterschaft in Günsovölk potentially poaching players from the NBL, a stronger Super Ligan could only benefit all the teams within the Koana Islands.

After liaising with several owners in the Super Ligan, Ljungberg held a meeting and invited the other 10 owners who were present at the first meeting to discuss their options. Combining the two leagues to form a 26-team competition was ruled out but a second division allowing promotion and relegation was a distinct possibility, especially with it proving somewhat successful in the Football League in England.

With a unanimous decision to attempt a merger, Ljungberg and the other ten owners approached the Super Ligan president Pål Nyhaus and announced they intended to break away from the NBL and would like to formally join the Super Ligan as a second tier. Nyhaus organized a meeting of all owners from both the Super Ligan and the breakaway 11 from the NBL on the 23rd of July to discuss the possibility of merging the two leagues where it was agreed to vote on the decision at the Annual General Meeting at the end of the year.

Upon hearing of the impending vote several days later, Niclas Nordin said he felt betrayed by his fellow club owners, and would not organize the NBL’s fourth season scheduled for 1900, effectively drawing a line in the sand where the either the teams would join the Super Ligan, or would be forced to return back to regional leagues.

Västra Delen 95 and Freyr Viksida IK owners – knowing that the NBL was going to be wound up at season’s end – appealed to the breakaway 11 to be included in any negotiations and were eventually accepted whilst Nordin’s BK Embleton initially refused an offer by the 13 clubs attempting to join the Super Ligan, before backtracking and joining the rest of the league by season’s end.

Günsovölk

Baseball Meisterschaft

Rasensport Sorgenfrei moved into top spot towards the end of May, and despite tying their record with Gelb Kekerdom or Fortuna Juemen at various points in the season, never relinquished first place to eventually finish a whopping 7 games clear of the latter following a 12-game win streak to finish the season.

Fortuna Juemen improved on their 9th place finish last season to finish runners-up, 4 games clear of Gelb Kekerdom whose form dropped in July having flirted with top spot before Rasensport Sorgenfrei swept them in the middle of 5-straight losses.

BV Küstestadt finished 4th for the second straight year, tied on wins with Ducibus BV and Viktoria Grosstadt. Die Boxers could’ve finished higher if they didn’t lose their last 6 games of the season whilst Ducibus BV and Grosstadt both won their final 6 to draw level at seasons end.

VfB Andacht finished at the bottom of the pile with 24 wins, a drop of 5 places from last season, two games behind SG 1632 Schönheit who finished third the previous year.