Next update is done. I'll put up a table of the leagues after the 1907 baseball season tomorrow.
Part One Hundred-Ten: American Sport and Architecture
The First American Baseball Classic:
By 1907, the American Baseball Association had been organizing professional baseball leagues for over a decade. However, the leagues had been almost entirely separate within the association and few cross-league games were played in the early 20th century. Only a few exhibition games were organized between the Midwestern and Eastern leagues and smaller unorganized teams in the South. In 1904, Patrick T. Powers' succession to the presidency of the ABA to replace Albert Spalding[1] launched a new effort to strengthen and centralize the association. In 1905 some of the teams in the South were brought into the two leagues, bringing each league up to eight teams. The next year, baseball was featured at the 1906 Olympic games in New York City[2]. After the Olympics, Powers started working to organize a unified baseball season and a championship between the best teams in both leagues. Thus the American Baseball Classic was born.
The first American Baseball Classic took place after the end of the 1907 baseball season. With the new league format, the Midwestern League had teams from Chicago, Rockford, Saint Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit, and Louisville. The Eastern League had teams from New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. In the new coordinated format, both teams played their season between April and September. During the season, Spalding's old team, the Rockford Forresters, won an upset in the Midwestern League. They finished at the top of the league ending the five year streak held by the Chicago Cubs. The Boston Pilgrims[3] topped the Eastern League ahead of the Baltimore Orioles. During the inaugural Baseball Classic, the format was somewhat haphazard, and was organized in a series of five games. The Orioles won the first game of the Classic, but lost the next three to the Pilgrims.
While the first American Classic was held in 1907, the next Classic was not held until 1911. There were several reasons for this delay, including the United States' involvement in the Great War and disputes within the ABA about league organization and the rules of the series. Various issues with how the leagues were structured, such as the geographical separation of the leagues and the status of the then unaffiliated Cleveland and Miami teams, were both issues that were dealt with during the intervening years. In 1911, when the leagues resumed, the leagues had expanded to ten teams each. Both Ohio teams were placed in the Midwestern League, while the Eastern League gained teams in Washington and Buffalo. The 1911 American Classic was between the Chicago Cubs and the Brooklyn Superbas[4] and saw the Cubs defeat the Superbas three games to two. In the final game, Honus Wagner hit two home runs and earned the Cubs three of their six runs. The final game ended 6-2, giving the Cubs their first Classic victory.
The Inception of American Architecture:
In the late 19th century, the United States started to develop its own architectural styles. In some places, the Neoclassical style that adorned the Capitol building and other buildings in Washington, DC was continued. The National War Memorial dedicated in 1896 was inspired by the ancient oracle at Delphi. Its thirteen columns circling the outside of the memorial represent the original thirteen colonies in a similar fashion to the tholos, the most famous structure at Delphi. However, rather than a sloped roof, the columns hold up a dome, atop which there is a golden statue of Columbia. Other Neoclassical architecture that was popular during the period included triumphal arches. The Washington Square Arch in New York City is one example of a turn of the century triumphal arch in the United States, being built in 1895. In Paris, the Arc du Napoleon was built in 1873 at the Place de Napoleon in the eastern section of the city[5]. The Arc du Napoleon, like the Arc du Triomphe before it, commemorated the French victory in the Second Napoleonic War. Back in the United states, further adoption of Neocalssical architecture can be found in Nashville. During the Centennial Exposition of 1897, the self styled "Athens of the South" hosted several temporary Greek and Roman inspired buildings. A replica of the Parthenon and the Knights of Pythias Pavilion were rebuilt as permanent buildings in the later decades after they proved popular, and now loom as the central structures in Nashville's Centennial Park[6].
While the Neoclassical trend continued in American monuments, the United States also started adopting other architectural styles for more practical buildings. One of the most famous American architects, Henry Hobson Richardson, was a pioneer in the Romanesque Revival which incorporated medieval Spanish and Italian features in the middle to later years of the 19th century. One of Richardson's first well known works is the Trinity Church in Boston[7]. H. H. Richardson's continuation of the Romanesque Revival style can be seen in the Saunders Building on the Memphis riverfront. In contrast with the French colonial style used in most of the riverfront in the rebuilding after the Great Fire, the Saunders Building built in 1889 featured an Arabesque colonnade on the building's frontage along the river path and a geometric frieze pattern along the roof of the five story building.
While these architectural projects looked back at previous styles, other projects looked to contemporary turn of the century elements for inspiration. By far, the greatest example of these modernized structures is the Jefferson Tower in Saint Louis, Missouri. The Jefferson Tower, with its open iron lattice structure and observation deck near the top of the thousand foot tower, was built by French architect Gustave Eiffel as a centerpiece for the Lewis and Clark Exhibition held in Saint Louis in 1903. The tower sits at the site where the founding of the city of Saint Louis took place in 1764, and was built to align with the Saint Louis County Courthouse to its west[8]. The Jefferson Tower is the tallest structure in Saint Louis and Missouri, and for over two decades after its construction was the tallest structure in the world, surpassing the Washington Monument. From the observation deck at the top, the visitor has a vista of the entire city of Saint Louis, and this visage is now a symbol of the city's role in America's western expansion.
[1] Powers was president of OTL's Eastern League and founding president of minor league baseball.
[2] Baseball was featured as a demonstration sport.
[3] The Pilgrims was an early nickname for the OTL team that would become the Red Sox.
[4] Brooklyn's name before it was renamed the Dodgers.
[5] The Place de Napoleon is the OTL Place de la Nation.
[6] Both buildings were built in OTL for the Centennial Exposition. The
Knights of Pythias Pavilion was moved to Franklin, Tennessee after the exposition.
[7] Here's a picture of the
Trinity Church.
[8] The Jefferson Tower is of course the Eiffel Tower, and is built at the site of where the Gateway Arch is in OTL.
