Ideas Wanted: Class A New England League

[Arlie Latham]

I was looking at the free agent pool, and I decided that I wanted to add a Class A independent league without a draft to help find a home for some of those poor boys.

My league is in the year 1833 and I'm thinking of calling it the New England Laborer's League, or the NELLY. I was going to call it the New England Textile League, but that would seem to limit the amount of teams I could use.

Does anyone have any ideas for teams or logos that could go well with this new league, keeping the year in mind?

[Kelric]

There were plenty of real teams from the 1800s one could use.

Boston Reds (also the Red Caps, Red Stockings, etc. What is it with Boston baseball and red?)
Hartford Dark Blues
Providence Grays
Worcester Ruby Legs
Middletown Mansfields (Middletown, CT)
New Haven Elm Citys

Boston Resolutes were a black baseball team.

I know there's more, but that would mean more digging than I want to do. As for other towns you could use, there's Lowell (MA), any of the current Cape Cod league teams (with slightly different names, maybe), Portland (ME) or extend it a little out of New England if there are no other teams there and go with Baltimore or a host of New York sites like Syracuse, Rochester, etc.

Edit - Depending on the number of teams you want to use, or even just on location, you could always divide Boston up into neighborhoods with each area putting up there own team. The dockworkers/fishermen could have a team (I've used the Boston Dockworkers as a club name before), Charlestown could have a team, Cambridge which was Lechmere Point back then. Check out this random little map I found - http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histo...oston_1842.jpg - using simply 'Boston 1800s' on a Google image search.

[akw4572]

What about the Cape Cod league?

[Bobble]

Cities I leave up to you but going along with the Laborer's theme:

Strikers (you know, laborers on strike...strike out)
Molly Maguires (labor related)
Cordwainers (atiquey sounding laborer)
Union
Wildcats (wildcat strike)
Teamsters (...baseball TEAM...)
any laborer (miners, bricklayers, timbermen, boilermakers, etc. What do they do in New England? Fish? Trawlers, minnows, docksiders, dolphins, whatever kind of fish they have up there, etc..)

[lynchjm24]

If you want to mix in some textile cities you need Willimantic CT and Fall River MA. I've run all sorts of New England Leagues. Normally I go with:

New London CT
Hartford CT
Providence RI
Burlington VT
Manchester NH
Portland ME
Bridgeport or New Haven CT
Boston

But I've also mixed in Holyoke/Brattleboro/Danbury/Pittsfield/Newport/Nashua

[Kelric]

Taunton MA is also known by the name Silver City, so the Taunton Silvers or Silversmiths would not be out of place.

[CHOWDERHEAD]

Originally Posted by Kelric

Taunton MA is also known by the name Silver City, so the Taunton Silvers or Silversmiths would not be out of place.

Great choice - that is my hometown !!!

I think Silversmiths would be great.

[Bobble]

I googled some fishing jobs for team names:

Slimers (no idea what that is but it's something in the on-shore processing)
Deckhands
Longliners (some kind of fishing boat but works great for a baseball nickname)
Skippers

I googled some textile terms but nothing else really worked except maybe Spinning Mules--which would make for a GREAT logo (spinning jenny, flying shuttle, etc. not so great...)

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Bobble

Spinning Mules--which would make for a GREAT logo

See?

[Arlie Latham]

Excellent logo idea for a logo, Bobble. Thanks for the input from all of you. Anyone have a notion about the best way to get the various dregs of the free agent pool onto the teams in my Class A league? Will the AI automatically start looking for a signing a whole team's worth of players? I have doubts about this last question.

[Raidergoo]

They went after whales in those days. Gotta have a Whalers.

[cbbl]

Perhaps useless information, but from my database of baseball history, I pulled all teams based in the New England states before 1910. There are 181 of them.

Many early baseball teams did not have team names, however. They were simply known by their host city's name or, sometimes, used the city name as a nickname (e.g. Lowell Lowells). 57 of the teams in my database fit into this category. They played in the following cities:

* Augusta, ME
* Bangor, ME
* Biddeford, ME
* Brockton, MA
* Cambridge, MA
* Dover, NH
* Fitchburg, MA
* Hartford, CT
* Haverhill, MA
* Lawrence, MA
* Lewiston, MA
* Lowell, MA
* Lynn, MA
* Manchester, NH
* Meriden, CT
* Nashua, NH
* New Haven, CT
* Norwalk, CT
* Pawtucket, RI
* Portland, ME
* Salem, MA
* Springfield, MA
* Taunton, MA
* Waterbury, CT
* Woonsocket, RI
* Worcester, MA

The remainder are divided among 70+ nicknames including:

* Americans (Boston)
* Amoskeags (Manchester)
* Angels (Attleboro; Derby)
* Authors (Waterbury)
* Beaneaters (Boston)
* Bellmakers (Bristol)
* Black Crows (New Haven)
* Blue Sox (Portland)
* Bluebirds (Hartford)
* Blues (Boston; Haverhill; New Haven)
* Bonbons (Norwich)
* Browns (Lowell; New Bedford)
* Bs (Brockton)
* Busters (Worcester)
* Chippies (Lowell)
* Clamdiggers (Newburyport; Providence)
* Colts (Lawrence; Newport; Pawtucket; Willimantic)
* Cooperatives (Hartford)
* Dark Blues (Hartford)
* Doublins (Meriden)
* Doves (Boston)
* Elm Citys (New Haven)
* Fairies (Salem)
* Farmers (Manchester; Worcester)
* Finnegans (Waterbury)
* Giants (Bridgeport)
* Grays (Providence; Worcester)
* Herrings (Taunton)
* Hillies (Pittsfield)
* Hustlers (Haverhill; Worcester)
* Indians (Fall River; Hartford; Lawrence)
* Invincibles (Waterbury)
* Jewels (Middletown)
* Kennebecs (Augusta)
* Lillies (Portsmouth)
* Lions (Lynn)
* Live Oaks (Lynn)
* Lushers (Derby)
* Mansfields (Middletown)
* Marines (Concord)
* Maroons (Manchester; Pawtucket; Springfield)
* Meadowlarks (Northampton)
* Millionaires (Bangor)
* Nutmegs (New Haven)
* Orators (Bridgeport)
* Papermakers (Holyoke)
* Paperweights (Holyoke)
* Perfectos (New Britain)
* Phenoms (Pawtucket; Portland)
* Ponies (Newport; Springfield)
* Prairie Hens (New Haven)
* Quakers (Worcester)
* Rainmakers (Nashua)
* Red Caps (Boston)
* Red Sox (Boston)
* Red Stockings (Boston)
* Reds (Boston; Norwich; Worcester)
* Riddlers (Worcester)
* Rough Riders (Waterbury)
* Ruby Legs (Worcester)
* Senators (Hartford)
* Shoemakers (Brockton; Lynn)
* Silverites (Meriden)
* Texas Steers (New Haven)
* Textiles (Manchester)
* Tigers (Brockton; Lowell; Pawtucket; Taunton)
* Trotters (Woonsocket)
* Whalers (New Bedford; New London)
* White Sox (Bangor)
* Witches (Salem)
* Woodchoppers (Bristol)
* Wooden Nutmegs (Hartford)

1833 is a little old, but assuming you are looking for accuracy of names, choose names you'd likely never find today. From the above list, Chippies, Orators, Shoemakers, Textiles, etc. are good 19th-century names.

Also -- note that a single nickname may have been used by two teams operating in the same league at the same time. For example, the Providence Grays and the Worcester Grays both played in the Eastern League in 1888. The Brockton Tigers and the Lowell Tigers both played in the New England League from 1907 through 1909.



cbbl

[Kelric]

That's a great list, CBBL.

But, really... the Norwich Bonbons?

[Arlie Latham]

Wow, great list indeed CBBL. I also use this site for defunct leagues and teams to help spark ideas:

http://www.ballparkwatch.com/league_histories.htm

I know 1833 is a bit odd. I started my league in 1800. I imagined an organized town ball league that morphed into a major league. My major league is called the American Town Ball Association.

Twenty years later, I added an International-level league over in England. For that, I imagined a popular combination of Rounders and Crickets catching on to form a game that resembles our baseball. The league I have in England is called the BRACA, or British Rounders and Cricket Association.

Now, looking over those players left in the draft pool, is why I want to start a Class A league.

I will probably start the Southern Association after the Civil War. In history, it started in 1885, but I likely won't wait that long.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by Kelric

What is it with Boston baseball and red?

The original Boston professional club (now the Atlanta Braves) was the inheritor of the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869-70 — the first ever all-professional club. The team's owner, manager and (if I recall) five best players moved to Boston after they stopped making money in Sin City, keeping their previous name. Since then it's simply become traditional.

[Kelric]

Got it. I'm sure I must have seen that at some point... guess it just didn't stick.