Former Coventry City
striker Gerry Baker who passed away in August didn't live to see the
publication of a book telling the story of his and his brother Joe's
footballing career. The book The Fabulous Baker Boys Is an
incredible story of two brothers who scored more than 500 goals
between them and donned international jerseys for England & the
United States. Despite being brought up in Scotland and having broad
Scots accents they never had the chance to play for the country they
felt was their own.
I wrote about Gerry's
career in his obituary at the time of his death and how, by virtue of
being born in the USA he became the first top-flight European
footballer to represent the States - this was before the
international qualifications changed in the 1980s allowing players to
qualify by virtue of parents & grandparents places of birth.
Joe's story is equally as fascinating - he was born in Liverpool and
aged 19, became the first man to play for England having never played
in the Football League. His goal scoring feats at Hibernian saw him
selected to play alongside greats such as Jimmy Greaves, Bobby
Charlton & Johnny Haynes. Between 1959 & 1966 Joe won eight
full caps & but for the emergence of a young striker called Geoff
Hurst months before the 1966 World Cup would have almost certainly
been in Alf Ramsey's squad for the tournament. There are humorous
stories of Joe, with his broad Scots accent, turning up for
international duty.
Young Joe's scoring &
international performances had the top English clubs chasing his
signature but with the maximum wage still in force, the lure of the
Italian lire was too great & Joe signed for Torino, around the
same time as Denis Law joined them. The book tells how Joe, who was
on £12 at Hibs was given an unbelievable £12,000 signing on fee.
Joe & Denis' time in Turin was a disaster on the pitch and
culminated in a serious car crash which left Joe hospitalised.
Once recovered he
returned to the UK & signed for Arsenal (the maximum wage had
been removed in the meantime) and scored goals for fun for the
Gunners & later Nottingham Forest before winding his career down
at Sunderland and back in Scotland with Hibs. The Forest side of
1966-67 was outstanding , finishing second in the league &
but for a bad injury sustained by Joe in the FA Cup sixth round
against Everton, may have won the FA Cup. I remember seeing Joe play
for Forest against Coventry at the City Ground the following season,
City's first in Division One, on the night George Curtis broke his
leg. A battling Sky Blues team led three times, with substitute Bobby
Gould scoring twice, in a thrilling 3-3 draw & Joe netted one of
the Forest goals. A week later in the return game at Highfield Road
Joe ripped City's makeshift defence apart scoring twice in a 3-1 win.
Although Gerry only
spent a couple of years at Coventry near the end of his career &
his time at Highfield Road is only briefly covered in the
well-researched book, I would still recommend the book as an
excellent read for all football fans. The author, Tom Maxwell a
Scottish football historian, has worked with the Baker family
including Gerry, before his death, and gives a great insight into
British football in the 1950s & 60s, an era when footballers were
paid modest wages and the average football fan could relate to them,
something it's not possible to say these days.
Ian Harris wrote to me
recently regarding the largest away followings Coventry City have
had. Until recent seasons there have been no official figures for the
number of away fans at games so any figures I quote are estimates
that were quoted in the Coventry Telegraph at the time, some which
may have been based on ticket sales for all-ticket games. The largest
number of City fans at an away game has to be the estimated 50,000
who travelled to Wembley Stadium in August 1987 for the Charity
Shield game versus Everton. During the previous season's FA Cup run
there were approximately 25,000 tickets sold by the club to City fans
for the final, but it's likely that a good few more obtained tickets
elsewhere. There were 27,500 at the semi final v Leeds at
Hillsborough and 15,000 at the sixth round tie at Hillsborough. Other
large followings include the FA Cup tie at Villa Park in 1965
(20,000), a league game at the same venue in 1937 (20,000 in a crowd
of 68,000), 15,000 at Molineux in 1966 and 14,000 at the same ground
for the FA Cup tie in 1973. Since 1987 the largest City away
following is probably the estimated 11,000 who travelled to Old
Trafford for the League Cup game in 2007. Can anyone remember any
other big away followings?
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