The Hoboken A's soon faced an even more worthy challenger in 1879, however, when the Philadelphia Yankees were formed. The Yankees faced up against the A's in Hoboken Park and slaughtered them 23 to 4. The A's quickly took a back seat to the Yankees, who made the sport popular enough where everyone knew it would stay in the public eye.
In 1894, after almost two decades of playing in a poorly-built park, Custer deemed it a good idea to sponsor the construction of a new, grand stadium in downtown Philadelphia. When it was completed, it was a truly colossal structure, and it was the largest athletic facility in the entire world. Nicknamed "The House that Custer Built," Philadelphia Grand Ballpark became a national icon. Baseball was on the rise. It caught on slowly at first in the Columbian nations, but was soon just as popular there with teams like the Baltimore Orioles and the Newport News Boys.
THE RISE OF THE WORLD BASEBALL LEAGUE:
In 1876, a game of baseball was played in a suburb of Paris, making it the first recorded game ever played in mainland Europe. It remained an obscure sport for a few more years, but in 1880, the first European baseball club, the Stuttgart Leichtathletik, was officially formed in the Confederation of the Rhine. Just two months later, the Paris Panthères were created. For the next thirty years, the American and European baseball organizations developed separately, and teams popped up everywhere from Lyons to Dublin to Moscow, but still remained relatively obscure. Baseball hit Europe in full-force during the Southron Youth Craze of the 1910s and 20s, and the International Baseball Committee was formed, based in Hoboken, to clean up the organizations into large, functioning leagues and division. Teams were only let into the respective leagues and divisions by a vote of the current members. Those who weren't allowed in were considered "minor league." In 1922, the organizations and rules were finalized for the last time and the World Baseball Organization was formed.
AMERICAN LEAGUE NORTH DIVISION:
- Philadelphia Yankees
- Hoboken A's
- Boston Blue-Legs
- New York Puritans
- Connecticut Cannons
- Shicagwa Cubs (successor of the Bears)
- Iowai Injuns
- Oshkosh Lumberjacks
- Detroit Patriots
- Lewisiana Fighting Fellows
- New Hampshire Browncaps
- Gettysburg Gremlins
- Memphis Cowboys
AMERICAN LEAGUE SOUTH DIVISION:
- Baltimore Orioles
- Newport News Boys
- Louisville Sluggers
- Vicksburg Athletics
- Savannah Sirs
- Shiloh Sportsmen
- Charleston Caps
- Raleigh Red-Leggings
- Havana Green Socks
- Montgomery White-Caps
- Bogota Banditos
EUROPEAN LEAGUE WEST DIVISION:
- Paris Panthères
- Vienna Sportlers
- Amsterdam Piekeniers
- Lyons Blue Sox
- Dublin Leprechauns
- London Lions
- Oxford Rounders
EUROPEAN LEAGUE EAST DIVISION:
- Stuttgart Leichtathletik
- Moscow Sportsmeny
- Copenhagen Kroner
- Berlin Werwylfe
- Sofia Sportisti
The Union League dominated in the early years (especially the Philadelphia Yankees) successfully winning the "World Championship Game" every year from 1922 to 1929, opposed by really only a handful of Southron and English teams (the sport became wildly popular in England around 1919). However, in 1929, the Moscow Sportsmeny went on a roll, crushing all other European teams and claiming the continental title after a devastating 15 to 2 championship game against the Oxford Rounders. So, the anti-Slavic and anti-Orthodox Republican Union was going to host a Russian team in Philadelphia. The Union made promises that the Russian players would be left alone and provided with pleasant accommodations, and they did follow through with the promises, giving the team rooms in one of Philadelphia's nicest hotels.
On October 1st, 1929, in a standing room-only event, 100,000 spectators flocked to the House That Custer Built and waited for the game to start, some even waiting in the streets and having people yell down the plays from the upper decks. The opening ceremony consisted of a very friendly welcome to the Russian team. The Yankees were told to be extra friendly with them to make the Union look good to the rest of the world. The Union and Russian anthems were played and a flag ceremony was held. Then, the crowd began chanting, "Salute! Salute! Salute!", clearly waiting for the Russians to salute First Chief Consul Joseph Steele, who was standing up in his special box behind the batter's box. Reluctantly, the Russian players pounded their chests with their right hands, raised the same hands to Steele, and shouted in unison, "All hail Joseph Steele, First Chief Consul of the most proletarian fascist American People!" in the best English they could muster. Steele returned the salute, followed by the Yankees and the spectators.
The crowd went nuts, knowing they had just essentially made Russia bow to Joseph Steele. The cheering people refused to stop for a good five minutes, and the aging Warren G. Harding stepped into the crowd and whipped them into a frothing frenzy. The "All Hails" transitioned into "Yankees! Yankees! Yankees!", pounding their feet and waving their fists. It was clear they were ready for the game to start.
The teams took to the field at noon and went through three scoreless innings. Then, at the bottom of the 4th, Marty Smith, the Yankees' star hitter, went to bat. On the second pitch, he hit a rounder that went sailing clear out of the park. The crowd went crazy again. A Russian player wrote in his diary, "I have never seen people cheer like these Americans. It's as if they're experiencing the Return of Christ when some man hits a piece of leather with a wooden stick." The next inning, Russian player Isaak Lagounov hit a two-run rounder, causing a deafening silence in the stadium. Johnny But when the Yankees' Mikey Johansson hit a two-run rounder, which was met with even louder applause than Smith's and a salute from Steele as Johansson received a four-minute standing ovation, in which he goosestepped two full circuits around the bases, right hand outstretched the whole time.
Finally, it came down to the 9th inning. The score was Yankees: 8, Russians: 5. The Yankee fans were sure they had it in the bag and they knew pitcher Aaron Burr Worthington only had to get three outs. Just three outs.
Bam.
Russia's Lagounov hit a rounder again. 8 - 6.
Walked.
Russia's Igor Volkov took first base.
Worthington was sweating up a storm. The manager came out to the mound to talk. Steele gave a very upset glance at his nearby officers. Worthington tried to pull himself together and prepared to throw the cowhide once more.
Crack.
Georgius Abategiovanni was hit in the arm by the nervous ball and went to first base. Volkov advanced to second. Seeing Worthington was about to blow the game, the Yankees benched him and sent Gus Steed to the mound. His first pitch was a three-run rounder. The Russians took the lead 9 to 8. The crowd screamed and booed as Steed collapsed in a nervous breakdown. He was escorted off the field by doctors and was replaced by Richie Norman, who managed to finally close the dreadful first half of the 9th.
The Yankees came up to bat for the last time. All three struck out.
The crowd lost all control and rushed the field, throwing several Military Policemen acting as security off the outfield wall (one later died at the hospital). The Russians fled for their lives.
The rioting spread to the thousands standing outside the stadium. Many started overturning cars and busting windows near the stadium, searching for the "Slavic cheaters." The Yankees admitted they lost fair and square, but it didn't matter. By the nightfall, hundreds of cars were blazing and Military Police and ORRA riot troops clashed with the mobs while trying to evacuate the Russian team in what could very well turn from a mob to murder or kidnapping of the Russian team, which would be a huge disaster of unimaginable proportions. Around 11 that night, the Union Army finally arrived with several cavalry regiments. They charged the crowds outside the stadium, pulled up an armored vehicle to the stadium gates, threw the Russian team in the back, and took off at dangerous speeds.
Tear gas was deployed, as were rubber bullets. The mobs started retreating from the stadium itself and into the rest of the city, where they had coordinated efforts to stop and overtake the armored car with the Russian team in it. There were widespread lynchings of Russian-American "Inferiors," too. They also managed to get hold of Worthington, the pitcher, and they beat him to within an inch of his life with lead pipes and canes. He never played again and went to live a life of obscurity out west.
Finally, Steele took personal control of the effort to stamp out the rioters from underneath the stadium in a secret bunker Custer had built when the stadium went up. Martial law was declared and the Army cracked down much harder. Extra-strength tear gas was deployed on the most unruly areas, which immediately dispersed the crowds. Over the next few days, the military rule continued as Steele attempted to get his capital back into proper shape. Hundreds of arrests were made, and the Russian team boarded a Union Navy vessel and steamed back to Europe. The Union government declared it was a "few anarchists" in the crowds who made them turn violent, and it wasn't a reflection on the nation itself. Despite this, the Union was declared ineligible to host a World Championship game for ten years. Steele was a very, very unhappy man.
Here are a couple baseball cards from this TL:
