The Richmond Saga, 1.1 Written by Andrew V. Richmond, Virginia August 20th, 1899 The trolley slid along East Main Street, dust heavy in the August heat, with the bustle of downtown Richmond alive and thrumming into the late morning. Carriages lined the wide lane—still yet to be properly paved—and in the elegant light on Richmond’s…
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Team Introduction: The Detroit Giants
Written by Brendan H. To an uncommon cathedral—both pastoral and timeless—distinct from a city exploding with industry and lurching towards the future, generations of Detroit natives and immigrants journey in exultant pilgrimage to root for the local team. The Old Grounds, an unassuming ballpark located just off of Jefferson Avenue near the Detroit River, had…
Team Introduction: The Chicago Packers
Written by Drew V. Set against the bustling Polish neighborhood of Buck Town in the Wicker Park District, the Packers of Powers Field play against a noisy and bustling working-class community near the newly-constructed Wicker Park train line. Hand-selected from the best city meat-packer baseball organization, local politician and banker Horatio Powers bankrolled the formation…
Team Introduction: The Philadelphia Brewers
By Drew V. Founded by the Philadelphia twins and businessmen Karl and Walther Boeselager, the Philadelphia Brewers are a founding LBL powerhouse currently dominating the Liberty Division. Originally a supplier of the 1883 Philadelphia Athletics, the pair owned a large brewery operation in Philadelphia, founded by their father, Wilhelm. The Boeselagers lost the original bid…
Team Introduction: The New York Kings
Written by Brendan H. Bread and circuses? The pursuit of great wealth at all costs, unscrupulous though the methods may have been had been a successful one for Alexander Bingley. The son of an Episcopalian clergyman, the native New Yorker had treated the accumulation of vast sums of capital as his divine right throughout his…
Team Introduction: The Boston Banshees
“In the end, his mother told him, it was the wailing that took his father. A pox on their family. After each joyous beginning, the wailing would consume him until the silent, stillbirth would drown the fairy’s cries with its gurgling, violent emptiness. The cycle continued, unabated, like the tide—day giving way to night. At…
Team Introduction: The Baltimore Clippers
On a low foundation of a long-collapsed paint factory, Carroway Field lies along the Patapsco River’s inner harbor near downtown Baltimore. Named for its founding owner, painting supply magnate Edward Carroway, the elegant ballpark sports grandiose and iconic “witch’s hat” grandstands overlooking the Inner Harbor. Like the high-sailed and fast-paced ships for which they are…
Team Introduction: The Richmond Rifles
The LBL’s only current “southern” ballclub, the Richmond Rifles represent a remnant of the once-prestigious “Cotton Belt” clubs, long-since scattered into disarray following the collapse of the National League. A visionary project of the prominent Virginia tobacco magnate Michael J. Monroe, the Rifles of Richmond are a proud and aging ballclub of former greats among…
Team Introduction: The Brooklyn Whales
Written by Brendan H. Woefully disorganized, the LBL’s Brooklyn squad was hastily chartered just prior to the formation of the league. With the local talent mostly claimed by their peers in Manhattan, Brooklyn was forced to build a team mostly from whatever players were left over. Upon first seeing the team—an amalgamation of spare parts,…