National Professional Baseball League (NPBL); 1887 thru 1900

[Brian T Grabowski]

Winter-1893/4 => Spring-1894:

Following a tumultuous fall for the league in terms of owner disagreements, things begin to settle down as talks with the Appalachian League finalize in the early days of the new year. The league agrees to admit the teams from Baltimore and Washington, with the intention to expand to Louisville and Charlotte once a stable owner is found, as both cities had experienced 4 different clubs in the 4 seasons of the Appalachian League. The new teams to be admitted in the 1894-Season are;

1. Washington Senators: a team with a nickname that has been carried by multiple clubs, but with their new ownership under J. Earl Wagner, they look to be a stable and competitive club. They will play their games at Boundary Field which is on the city's limits, giving the club room to expand the field from it current capacity of 3,500
2. Baltimore Orioles: another causality of the American Association folding 5 years prior, this club had been reduced to the barely professional App. League. Owned by the brilliant financier Harry Von der Horst , the team, much like the Senators, is ready to compete in a new league with the opportunity to bring success to the city. The will play their games at Union Park in heart of Baltimore whose capacity of 5,000 will suit the city very well.

With expansion set and ready the league owners all meet to discuss the format of the season and changes to the league structure:

• The name of the league will officially change to the National Professional Baseball League (NPBL), to reflect its ever growing region of play
• The league's schedule will increase to 81 games
  • Expands the months of play to Mid-May - August, with a week gap until post-season starts
    • Elimination of required 2 exhibition games, but pre-season exhibitions are still encouraged
    • Elimination of specific day requirements
    • 60 games against division teams, 5 home & 5 away for each team
    • 21 games against other divisions' teams, 3 home & 3 away for each team
    • Series of games are encouraged in 2 or 3 game pairs to avoid excessive travel
    • Post-season will stay at top 2 teams in each division playing a 3 game series to determine division winner
      • Best team gets home-field advantage of first 2 games being at their field
    • Final series between division winners will remain as 3 games as well
      • Better regular season record determines home-field advantage
• Detroit moves to western division as Baltimore & Washington join the eastern division
• League fee for teams increased to $3,250 to cover purchase of league's first headquarters building in Cleveland and to expand advertising efforts

League as of 1894 Season:

Western Division:

1. Chicago Braves: owned by William Hulbert, plays at Memorial Field (capacity of 3,000)
2. St Louis Malt-Men: owned by the Busch Family, plays at Busch Field (capacity of 2,000)
3. Fort Wayne Generals: owned by Linus Gerzburg, plays at Gerzburg Field (capacity of 1,300)
4. Indianapolis Indians: owned by Eli Lilly, plays at the newly renamed and expanded Lilly Park (capacity of 3,000)
5. Milwaukee Brewers: owned by Rolf Stoiber, plays at Athletic Park (capacity of 2,150)
6. Cincinnati Red Stockings: owned by James Kenton, plays at League Park (capacity of 4,000)
7. Detroit Brown Stockings: owned by Frederick K. Stearns, plays at Recreation Park (capacity of 2,500)

Eastern Division:

1. New York Giants: owned by John B. Day, plays at Manhattan Field (capacity of 10,000)
2. Cleveland Spiders: owned by Francis "Frank" Robinson, plays at Riverside Field (capacity of 5,000)
3. Boston Admirals: owned by James O'Cahill, plays at the Congress Street Grounds (capacity of 8,000)
4. Pittsburgh Pirates: owned by Denny McKnight, plays at the temporarily expanded Exposition Park (capacity of 2,750) as new ballpark is being built with intentions of opening mid-1894
5. Philadelphia Athletics: owned by William A. Sharsig, plays at the Jefferson Street Grounds (capacity of 9,500)
6. Washington Senators: owned by J. Earl Wagner, plays at Boundary Field (capacity of 3,500)
7. Baltimore Orioles: owned by Harry Von der Horst, plays at Union Park (capacity of 5,000)

Stay tuned for the 1894 Season.....

 

[52cardsshortofadeck]

• Detroit moves to western division as Baltimore & Washington join the western division

Shouldn't that be "Detroit moves to eastern division"?

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

1894 Season:

The season starts with the annual Three Rivers Classic, where once again the Fort Wayne Generals beat the Fort Wayne Kekiongas in a 6 - 2 offensive showcase. Favorable weather allows the league to stay on schedule, and the early season favorites to win after strong showings are the Cleveland Spiders and the reinvigorated Indianapolis Indians.

As the season continues, the Indians maintain strong play but still can't keep up with the Chicago Braves who are determined to win the title again. In the east the Spiders slide from the top of the division after a few weeks of mediocre pitching. This allows the Giants reclaim the top spot, despite losing 5 games straight to end the regular season. As the regular season comes to a close, the remaining teams are the Chicago Braves, New York Giants, Cleveland Spiders, and the Indianapolis Indians (narrowly beating out Fort Wayne).

1894 Regular-Season:

West Division

1. Chicago Braves (60 - 21)
2. Indianapolis Indians (48 - 33)
3. Fort Wayne Generals (47 - 34)
4. Milwaukee Brewers (40 - 41)
5. Cincinnati Red Stockings (34 - 47)
6. Detroit Brown Stockings (32 - 49)
7. St Louis Malt-Men (29 - 52)

East Division

1. New York Giants (57 - 24)
2. Cleveland Spiders (51 - 30)
3. Boston Admirals (46 - 35)
4. Baltimore Orioles (40 - 41)
5. Pittsburgh Pirates (30 - 51)
6. Washington Senators (28 - 53)
7. Philadelphia Athletics (24 - 57)

1894 Post-Season:

West Division Title Series:

1. Indians 4 Braves 3 (10 innings) @ Chicago
2. Braves 2 Indians 0 @ Chicago
3. Braves 3 Indians 2 (13 innings) @ Indianapolis

After the grueling 13 innings, the Braves end the hopes of the Indians in front of a sold-out crowd in Lilly Park. After the game, the team's owner William Hulbert announces to the crowd outside of Union Depot as the team gets off the train, that he will build a new 11,000 seat along the lakefront in the still rebuilding downtown, to celebrate 3 years of amazing support.

East Division Title Series:

1. Spiders 4 Giants 0 @ New York
2. Giants 3 Spiders 1 @ New York
3. Spiders 7 Giants 2 @ Cleveland

The Spiders quiet the few fans of the Giants in front of the 5,000+ at Riverside Field. The team celebrates their return to the title series with an evening of drinking on the field.

NPBL Title Series:

1. Braves 6 Spiders 0 @ Chicago
2. Spiders 3 Braves 1 @ Chicago
3. Spiders 5 Braves 2 @ Cleveland

After an embarrassing 1st game in Chicago, the Spiders rally to win the next two games and secure the league title. With this series ending, the season comes to a close.

National Professional Baseball League Champion: Cleveland Spiders

Top Players:

1. James Wilson, P, Chicago Braves
2. Herbert Kempf, OF, Cleveland Spiders
   
3. Justyn Grocki, 1B, Chicago Braves
4. Aladino Melfi, 2B, New York Giants
5. William Zhihao, P, Indianapolis Indians (traded to the Indians early, plays rest of season with backing of Eli Lilly against racist objections to his presence in the league)

Revenue => Profit Per Team:

1. New York Giants: $66,450 => $15,450
2. Boston Admirals: $62,500 => $12,300
3. Chicago Braves: $52,000 => $13,200
4. Baltimore Orioles: $47,750 => $9,500
5. Cleveland Spiders: $44,600 => $12,800
6. Detroit Brown Stockings: $39,750 => $11,650
7. Pittsburgh Pirates: $37,300 => $8,750
8. Philadelphia Athletics: $34,500 => $9,500
9. Indianapolis Indians: $33,950 => $5,650
10. St Louis Malt-Men: $32,750 => $8,500
11. Cincinnati Red Stockings: $31,500 => $7,500
12. Milwaukee Brewers: $29,800 => $8,500
13. Fort Wayne Generals: $28,400 => $6,850
14. Washington Senators: $27,950 => $3,150

• Total League Revenue = $539,400
• Total League Profit = $133,300

For the first time in history, professional sports makes such a large splash with the amount of money this league brings in, it stirs massive interest from cities and investors around the country. As the league pauses to enjoy that through smart planning and well organized teams, the idea of a professional sports league is not only viable, but also fairly profitable.


Stay tuned for Fall-1894 and Winter 1894/5..........

 

[52cardsshortofadeck]

Are there going to be any sort of interesting diversions in how the league is structured in future, like promotion & relegation? Although I suppose that'd be too much to hope for...

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

Are there going to be any sort of interesting diversions in how the league is structured in future, like promotion & relegation? Although I suppose that'd be too much to hope for...

I've been toying with the idea of promotion/regulation but I don't think it would really work in the US with clear distinctions in the levels of sport as well as the vast distances between cities. There's also the fact that because I started the TL when I did, professional baseball already kinda existed so monopolized markets also already existed in the US. So while the concept is interesting, it's hard to implement in practice.

You will see a few cities drop down to the minors then reappear later in the league with different clubs. There's also the possibility of a new club forming in a large city like they did in our TL, which may force a relegation of one the clubs; as I don't plan for any city besides New York ever having more than one team long-term.

I am however going to start the "farm system" in a few seasons.

I am currently writing a "sub"-story to this league right now that will rear its head next season in the form of a sorta-rival southern professional league, but will see most of those teams become farm teams eventually to this league.

 

[52cardsshortofadeck]

I've been toying with the idea of promotion/regulation but I don't think it would really work in the US with clear distinctions in the levels of sport as well as the vast distances between cities. So while the concept is interesting, it's hard to implement in practice. You will see a few cities drop down to the minors then reappear later in the league with different clubs. There's also the possibility of a new club forming in a large city like they did in our TL, which may force a relegation of one the clubs; as I don't plan for any city besides New York ever having more than one team long-term.

Perhaps it'd work if the league ever got large enough to have state-level leagues; only the top-flight is national, which should cut down on the vast distances between cities. What does "clear distinctions in the levels of sport" mean in this context?

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

Perhaps it'd work if the league ever got large enough to have state-level leagues; only the top-flight is national, which should cut down on the vast distances between cities. What does "clear distinctions in the levels of sport" mean in this context?

The disparity between the levels of professional, semi-pro, and amateur already formed by this time in this TL as well as in our own. So the top tier of talent is already accumulating in this league with a few gems still hidden in semi-pro leagues.....but that'll begin to disappear in the coming seasons as the farm system comes in to existence.

As for state leagues, the problem once again comes from the levels of professionalism in the sport, because while its fun to explore this idea, when its tied down by finances like this league and "world" are, it's very difficult to justify a sustainable league in just like Indiana or Ohio. Now its possible that New York State might have a semi-pro league due to the extensive number of fairly large population centers, but they're really the only state that could support it at this point.

There's also that as stated before, the monopolization of cities was already happening, so say the Indianapolis Indians aren't going to let another professional team form in Indianapolis because they don't want competition. Trust-busting never really made its way to sports in America, which for better or worse, made us what we are now. I could play with that concept of sport trust-busting off-line and see what direction this would take, and I actually thought about using for an alternate hockey league I've been brainstorming.

The only teams that can still hold up to the teams in this league are those in Negro Leagues. As far as my research shows, there was essentially no pro, semi-pro, and amateur levels of Negro league, just everyone playing together. So that's why I created the River City Classic to show that talent of the black players compared to white players. I plan on an early league-wide desegregation as a response to this which will cause some interesting turmoil when it comes, but you'll have to wait to see that.

 

[Nivek]

Amazing TL so far and killing segretation of the sport in the cradle was amazing, terrific tl buddy

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

Fall-1894:

Following what a consensus of league owners called the most successful season the league has ever had, it came as a shock when J. Earl Wagner informed the league that he was folding the Washington Senators after just one season in the league. What he had failed to tell the league prior to joining it was his large amount of debt he'd accumulated in the years before joining while the team had no league to play in. They had essentially been operating off of large loans on the speculation of joining a professional league. Wagner then defaulted on his loans at the end of the season, and the bank seized his remaining assets causing the club to dissolve. The effects in the following weeks caused many of the owners to accuse one another of potentially hiding finances from one another in attempts to fraud the league. All of this came to a head when James Kenton (Red Stockings) accused John B. Day (Giants) of paying players under the table to avoid the salary cap. Linus Gerzberg had been suspicious of these dealings when the Giants had submitted their payroll to the league and it had been nearly $10,000 less then what it likely should have been.

In all this chaos, the league settled on a new system of accountability for the following season and beyond;

• All transactions regarding any franchise & league will be published bi-weekly to the entirety to league
• Any team caught paying players above the salary cap will be penalized $3,000 per player over the cap
• Any new team will have to submit substantial case of financial stability before joining the league

Later in the fall, Linus makes the decision to purchase the Fort Wayne Kekiongas from Charles Bonnaire and promises that they have a permanent home in Gerzberg Field. While not officially classified as professional or semi-professional, Linus makes it clear to the current team and to the lose association of negro teams in the region that he intends for his team to be the best. Linus received a letter from James Kenton informing him that he will not tolerate Linus's actions, and will formally leave the league to join the Southern Association which Kenton claims, "Holds the values of baseball closer than Linus does". Linus replies him in a letter with the one simple sentence, "James, I wish you luck in your experiment in the south".

Many in the north had heard of southern baseball, but no one was speaking of it like it was an actual professional league. They only had 4 teams that had lasted more than a season, and it looked like more of sustainability test than anything else to the team owners in the north. In its 3 seasons they'd managed to only keep these teams afloat;

1. Atlanta Crackers
2. Birmingham Bluebirds
   
3. New Orleans Pelicans
4. Memphis Egyptians

Perhaps now with the additional of the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the league would be more highly regarded, but most in the NPBL just hoped that this league would fail which would bring down Kenton as well.

Around the nation, economic recovery continues as several potential strikes have been averted to avoid another Homestead. The most shocking of all was the agreement between Pullman and the its workers that resulted in an increase in pay. Many around the area thought this would erupt into rioting, but all was calm when Pullman finally re-evaluated its importance to the still rebuilding Chicago.

Family life for Linus takes a turn for the worse when Amelia comes down with the flu in late October, pulling Linus away from everything for weeks while she recovered. During this time, both his son Frederick and his daughter Theresa also begin attending a private Catholic school on the north side of Fort Wayne, which shields then from witnessing their mother's sickness. Martha, his youngest child, is still too young to understand, and never knows a thing about all of it. The Hoosier Delivery Service is luckily staffed by the best workers Linus could find, and continues to operate with no problems while he is away from the company.

Mid-November Linus also receives a letter from the owner of Logansport Midways of the Mid-America League about a business partnership between the two leagues. Linus goes to Logansport the following week and is intrigued by the pitch he hears. He heads back home and prepares the same pitch to give to the owners of the NPBL in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned for the pitch that takes place in the Winter of 1894/5.......



Logo I've been rolling with for a few days, thoughts?

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

Winter-1894/5:

In the last remaining weeks of year, Linus meets with each owner in the league regarding the pitch about the Mid-America League. Affiliate semi-pro teams for player development; aka each team would have a regional team to assist in finding players from the area to join the professional teams. The pitch included several ideas for the obligations between the teams, and while nothing was set in stone all the owners seemed intrigued by the idea. Linus was the most enthused due to his friendship with the Midway's owner.

Following these meetings, Amelia Gerzberg also began to show signs of recovery from the strain of the flue she contracted, allowing Linus to fully return to his duties at his business. Things had been running fairly smoothly since the delivery service had begun operations, but Linus had hit a brick wall trying to expand the business further due to limitations on the versatility of transport vehicles at the time. His leverage as a board member for the Wabash Railroad hadn't given him the access to new markets that he had hoped for when agreeing to take the position. Frustrated with the situation, Linus settles in for the Christmas season to celebrate with his family.

After the new year, the league meets in Cleveland to discuss what to do for the 1895 season. Having lost two teams, the decision to reduce the amount of scheduled games or quickly find fill in teams in the short-term. Luckily for the league, both the Busch family of the St Louis Malt-Men and Rolf Stoiber of the Milwaukee Brewers had been in talks with clubs in the cities close to them. After several weeks of meetings and negotiations it was decided that two teams would join the league on a "probationary" clause that would allow the league to terminate their membership at the end of the season if financial and attendance expectations were not met. The two teams that would join the league would be;

1. Kansas City Blues: a club that had initially been a member of the American Association but after the league folded, been relegated to the semi-pro Mid-America League playing mostly small industrial cities and barely making any profit. The team was recently bought by the stockyard king, Wilfrid Portier whose ambitions had been fulfilled thanks to the invitation from the NPBL. The team will play its games at Exposition Park, capacity of 3,500, located in the heart of the black community sharing the field with the negro team the Kansas City Monarchs.
2. Minneapolis Lions: The semi-pro Millers were initially approached to join the league, but due to the club's financial instability, the league chose to persuade several local industrialists to form a team. After its creation, Oluf Lind bought out the other industrialists to claim sole ownership of the team. Oluf was a native of city, but born of Danish immigrants who had started their own sawmill. He chose to name the team after the a symbol of Denmark to help draw in interest of the large amount of Danish immigrants in the city, even going so far as to adopt the colors of the crest of Denmark (yellow and blue) for the team uniforms. The team will play its games at Athletic Park, capacity of 2,500, located just slightly northwest of the city's center.

With the league back up to 14 teams, the league ended its winter meetings and would again meet in the spring to discuss the realignment of the league.

Stay tuned for Spring-1895 & the 1895 Preseason.....

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

1895 Populations of League Cities:

1. New York City (5 boroughs) => 2,495,000 + surrounding region ≈ 2,795,000
2. Philadelphia => 1,186,000 + surrounding region ≈ 1,265,000
3. Chicago => 868,000 + surrounding region ≈ 1,024,000
4. St Louis => 585,000 + surrounding region ≈ 645,000
5. Boston => 538,000 + surrounding region ≈ 725,000
6. Baltimore => 496,000 + surrounding region ≈ 615,000
7. Cleveland => 329,000 + surrounding region ≈ 473,000
8. Pittsburgh => 315,000 + surrounding region ≈ 391,000
9. Detroit => 273,000 + surrounding region ≈ 317,000
10. Milwaukee => 270,000 + surrounding region ≈ 308,000
11. Minneapolis => 195,000 + surrounding region ≈ 213,000
12. Indianapolis => 163,000 + surrounding region ≈ 188,000
13. Kansas City => 157,000 + surrounding region ≈ 174,000
14. Fort Wayne => 58,000 + surrounding region ≈ 89,000

(I'll be doing these every five years to give an idea of the ripple effects in this TL)

 

[Unknown]

Fall-1892:
The nation is quiet following the October Strike at Homestead Steel Works in Pennsylvania. What started as a strike for higher pay, turned into an all out war the spilled into neighboring Pittsburgh. Over 75 left dead in its wake, many across the country have begun to question their government allowing something like this to happen.

Just curious: what caused the higher death toll in the Homestead strike ITTL? IOTL, it occurred from July to October and left about 20 people on both sides dead...

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

Just curious: what caused the higher death toll in the Homestead strike ITTL? IOTL, it occurred from July to October and left about 20 people on both sides dead...

Good question;

How I played with this event to make it have more of an impact nationwide, was to have the event happen a bit later in the year which caused tensions to boil even more leading up to it.

I couldn't find any conclusive evidence to say that it couldn't have happened later then our TL's date, just that it was inevitability going to happen at some point in that year.

As for the higher death toll, as mentioned before tensions were much higher, and it's worth noting that the additional deaths (tho not stated) were mostly Pinkertons as many were injured in our Tl, so perhaps the rioters got better shots in.

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

Spring-1895:

As the season approaches, several teams finish construction on new stadiums or expansions to current ones; mostly notably the new stadiums in Chicago and Pittsburgh for their massive sizes & opulence.

The entrance to Forbes Memorial Field in Pittsburgh featured impressive pillars adorning its outer walls, as well the extensive use of steel and concrete. All this was done with generous donations from Andrew Carnegie, who'd taken a liking to the Pirates and wanted them to essentially play in a palace. Critics initially were against the stadium being removed from downtown, but once it was revealed to the public, they were quickly silenced. Most estimates around the region put the stadium at a cost of about 1 million dollars.

As for Lakefront Park in Chicago, it had become the lynch pin for the plan to rebuild Chicago into the opulent center of art, culutre, and sport. Adorned with a grand entrance built of concrete and steel, this field not only would draw in baseball fans, but all who were enamored by its design. In an attempt to shrink the disparity between New York's revenue and Chicago's revenue, the new standard ticket price would be 15¢ for all games. This will likely reduce the avg amount of people seeing the home games, but it will also draw in higher class patrons. As with estimates for Forbes Field, this new stadium is estimated to have cost about 1 million as well.

As both these parks open, a ripple effect is felt throughout the league as its members realize that they must move out of their city's municipal ball parks and into larger stadiums owned by the teams. What follows in the lead-up to the season is several announcements from owners of intentions to build new stadiums. These include;

1. Frederick K. Stearns of the Brown Stockings will finance a new centrally located stadium with an intended capacity of around 10,000
2. The Busch family of the Malt-Men will also finance a new stadium closer to downtown St Louis with an intended capacity of around 13,000
3. John B. Day of the Giants will partially demolish, then rebuild Manhattan Field with a new entrance, outfield grandstands, and a 3rd deck of seats running alongside the 3rd-Home-1st baselines, increasing the stadium's capacity to 18,000

Linus quickly commissions the expansion of his stadiums upper deck to extend all along the 3rd-Home-1st baselines increasing the stadium's capacity to 3,250.

League as of 1895 Season:

Western Division:

1. Chicago Braves: owned by William Hulbert, plays at the newly constructed Lakefront Park (Capacity of 11,000)
2. St Louis Malt-Men: owned by the Busch Family, plays at Busch Field (capacity of 2,000)
3. Fort Wayne Generals: owned by Linus Gerzburg, plays at the hastily expanded Gerzburg Field (capacity of 3,250)
4. Indianapolis Indians: owned by Eli Lilly, plays at Lilly Park (capacity of 3,000)
5. Milwaukee Brewers: owned by Rolf Stoiber, plays at Milwaukee Athletic Park (capacity of 2,150)
6. Kansas City Blues: owned by Wilfrid Portier, plays at Kansas City Exposition Park (capacity of 3,500)
7. Minneapolis Lions: owned by Oluf Lind, plays at Minneapolis Athletic Park (capacity of 2,500)

Eastern Division:

1. New York Giants: owned by John B. Day, plays at Manhattan Field (capacity of 10,000)
2. Cleveland Spiders: owned by Francis "Frank" Robinson, plays at Riverside Field (capacity of 5,000)
3. Boston Admirals: owned by James O'Cahill, plays at the Congress Street Grounds (capacity of 8,000)
4. Pittsburgh Pirates: owned by Denny McKnight, plays at, the delayed, but finally built Forbes Memorial Field (capacity of 9,500)
5. Philadelphia Athletics: owned by William A. Sharsig, plays at the Jefferson Street Grounds (capacity of 9,500)
6. Detroit Brown Stockings: owned by Frederick K. Stearns, plays at Detroit Recreation Park (capacity of 3,500)
7. Baltimore Orioles: owned by Harry Von der Horst, plays at Union Park (capacity of 5,000)

Stay tuned for the 1895-Preseason and Season........

 

[Brian T Grabowski]

I'm working on the update for this, have had a really hectic past two months that includes a break-up and a job change, so look for any update this week.