Compiled by Andrew V.
BORN FROM THE ASHES
In the wake of the National League Collapse of 1894, dozens of fractured and localized baseball leagues scrambled to compete for the title of a truly National baseball league. The most prominent among these regional leagues were the Ivy League of the northeastern seaboard, the Cotton Belt Leagues of the southeast, the Frontier Leagues of the Midwest, and the infamous city leagues of the Great Lakes.
On March 21st, 1894, a committee of businessmen representing over one hundred regional baseball leagues from Saint Louis to Boston met at the mansion of Alexander P. Madigan of Manhattan, New York. Madigan was a successful investor and landowner, well-acquainted with the business and practices of the collapsed National League. Unanimously elected as the Commissioner of the this newly formed Legacy Baseball League, Madigan and his delegates drafted the Constitution of the Legacy Baseball League and began their work to locate and incorporate owners. He famously dedicated his Manhattan mansion, Madigan Hall, as the league headquarters.
With a founding body formed, the first of many obstacles the LBL faced in their quest for national recognition was that of funding.
A LEAGUE IS BORN
Michael Monroe, a wealthy Virginian railroad and tobacco baron, offered a substantial endowment to the Legacy Baseball League on the condition that his personal ballclub, the Richmond Rifles, would be incorporated into the league. Madigan and the Board agreed, and the LBL was born. Fifteen more franchises were accepted by the Board for entry into the league.
Eastern League: The Ivy Division
The Eastern League-Ivy Division was fiercely competitive and traditional assembly of “aulde leage” baseball talent based in Manhattan, New York. Formerly known as the Empire League, the Ivy Division represented a significant remnant of an older baseball culture in the United States.
The Brooklyn Whales
The Providence Angels
The New York Kings
The Boston Banshees
Eastern League: The Liberty Division
The Eastern League-Liberty Division as comprised of multiple amateur teams along the mid-Atlantic and southern-central coastline. The Division represented a grittier, faster form of the game, as developed in the acclaimed Cotton Belt League.
The Richmond Rifles
The Baltimore Clippers
The Philadelphia Brewers
The New York Bakers
Western League: The Great Lakes Division
The Western League-Great Lakes Division carried a proud lineage back to the 1860s, as the first region in America to produce a professional baseball team. Baseball was booming among the factories and expanding neighborhoods of Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit, and new stadiums could hardly be erected fast enough.
The Chicago Doves
The Chicago Packers
The Detroit Giants
The Twin Cities Empire
Western League: The Frontier Division
The Western League-Frontier Division was the youngest and wildest form of baseball in the United States. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, the riverboat-style of hard-hitting, strategic play gazes toward America’s baseball future.
The Cleveland Athletics
The Pittsburgh Oilers
The Saint Louis Beavers
The Saint Louis Reds
THE BEGINNING
The first pitch of the Legacy Baseball League was hurled by Stephen Millington of the Philadelphia Brewers from the mound at Libby Hill, Virginia, to CF Cooper Fowler of the Richmond Rifles, on the first day of Spring: March 21st, 1895.
The Legacy Baseball League was an overnight sensation across the United States. Rooters of all backgrounds poured into the ballparks, eager to see their national pastime washed clean of the corruption, greed, and scandal of the deceased National League. Unlike the National League, Madigan’s constitution prevented ballclub owners from firing their General Managers without a LBL Board vote. Furthermore, in the LBL, the General Managers—not the owners—were made to be the legislative body of the league. This balance limited the influence of those who bankrolled the league without removing their agency entirely. While such antics drove many potential investors away, the profit margins were too high for rich men to ignore long. Revenues poured into every franchise in the form of gate shares, quickly returning the investments of the original owners one hundred times over. Little of these profits, however, were passed on to the players.
EARLY CHALLENGES
While the Legacy Baseball League claimed to be a pure and fair institution, set apart from the mire of the National League, they employed a nearly identical Reserve Roster system—binding players to ballclubs for life with no legal grounds for negotiation other than refusing to play or leaving. The LBL did employ a rudimentary labor arbitration board—but the board was overseen by the Commissioner, who was appointed by the franchise owners. Even the best players in the LBL were earning pittances compared to the gate shares horded by their ballclub owners. Likewise, the LBL was arguably more exclusionary to minorities than the National League—going so far as to declare “all negroes are formally banned from participation in the Legacy Baseball League, either as players or in management.” in the wake of the Cooper Fowler Scandal. This scandal would result in the landmark Supreme Court decision “Fowler vs. The Legacy Baseball League,” enforcing “Separate But Equal” policy on the LBL and permeating the creation of the Negro Legacy Baseball League.
In 1899, retired Chicago Packers pitcher Thomas Hershey founded the Legacy Baseball League Player’s Union, addressing the need for more equitable player rights and contracts. He organized the first LBLPU Players Strike in 1902, in the wake of several General Managers refusing to address the growing pay disparity. Arbitration was greatly increased in 1902, and a $90,000 salary cap was imposed in 1903 to ensure competition across the franchises.
THE NEGRO LEAGUES ARE BORN
In the wake of Fowler vs. The Legacy Baseball League, the nations highest court determined that the precedent set by Plessy vs. Ferguson required the Legacy Baseball League to either establish a separate-but-equal Negro League or lose their tax-exempt and subsidized status. In recent years, some scholars suggest that this ruling was politically motivated by southern investors like Richmond owner Michael Monroe, whose enterprises made a fortune off baseball players and rooters of color but were unable (or unwilling) to share their resources and facilities with non-whites.
In 1901, eight teams were selected to form the Negro Legacy Baseball League. The Richmond Black Rifles, led by the very same Cooper Fowler who recorded the LBLs first hit, endured racism and ostracization from Richmond when his black heritage was revealed, and fought for his right to play baseball on the national stage, won the LNBL Cup as Manager of the Richmond Black Rifles, defeating the Atlanta Black Foxes 4 games to 7.
A MASSIVE SCANDAL
In 1903, a Congressional Inquiry revealed that the unrivaled Brooklyn Whales attempted to fix the 1902 Legacy Cup, dragging the series to Game 9 at the direction of their General Manager, Landon Kerr, who was desperate to save the collapsing finances of the team’s owner, William Barclay. They were supposed to lose the Cup. What they lost instead were their careers, their reputations, and, nearly, the entirety of major league baseball.
As the New Puritan movement gained traction across the United States, the already-criticized and incredibly popular Legacy Baseball League became a catalyst for political clamor for reform against corruption, excess, gambling, vanity, and alcohol.
Heavily subsidized and tax-exempt, the Legacy Baseball League faced its first national challenge, as hordes of rooters began to abandon the ballpark in 1904.
END OF AN ERA
On August 15th, 1904, LBL Founder and 10-year Commissioner Alexander P. Madigan died at 78, heralding the end of the “pioneer years” of the Legacy Baseball League. Madigan was a staunch anti-unionist who quarreled with the owners nearly as much as the players, but his vision and passion for the Legacy Baseball League mark him as the true Father of the LBL.
THE DARK HORSE FROM THE FRONTIER
In 1904, GMs gathered in Madigan Hall to elect a new Commissioner–an office of incredible power within the LBL. In a narrow vote, progressive journalist Jacob Parker defeated moderate frontrunner Winfield S. Garrison by one vote to ascend to the officer of Commissioner.
Parker, only 48 years old, promised to “root out corruption” across the league, increase funding to the Negro Leagues, nationalize ownership of ballclubs, formally recognize the Players Union, and open the door for collective bargaining and the termination of the Reserve Clause.
THE END OF DIVISIONAL PLAY
In Summer Meetings, 1909, the LBL Divisions were formally dissolved, allowing all teams in each League to compete independently for the top two playoff spots. A conservative Draft lottery was also instituted this year to encourage competitive play.
RADIO HITS THE AIRWAVES
On April 10th, 1916, Robert “Sparky” Parker hosted the first-ever LBL broadcast over the airwaves. A Joint venture between Richmond owner Michael Monroe and the Legacy Baseball League, “Sparky” brought America’s pastime into the homes of thousands across the eastern seaboard and as far west as Chicago.
The first sports broadcast in American history began with the Brooklyn native announcing “Hello folks, and welcome to Libby Hill ballpark in Richmond, Virginia!”
THE FUTURE LIES BEFORE US.
Born from the ashes of the National League, the imperfect history of the LBL is the story of the nation itself, set before the vast stage of the 20th Century. What role will you play?