My Fictional Baseball Universe of 1871: The APBL, NBBO, and Pro/Amateur Split

tm1681 · 02-15-2022, 09:01 PM

This is the story of a pair of leagues that began with logos I was making during down time when I was doing remote work. They are analogues to the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), and their resulting split in real life in 1871.

Details of how I decided on names and logos are in this thread. in the Mods forum.

On January 22, 1857 in Manhattan's St. Nicholas Hotel, executives from various baseball clubs in New York City, Brooklyn, and elsewhere in the northeastern United States met to form the first group of organized baseball clubs, the National Base Ball Organization. In that meeting, guidelines for the NBBO's first formal competition were outlined:

Starting in May of 1857, 48 clubs from the northeastern United States would form six "championship" divisions where each club would play the others in their division ten times (two five-game series), for a total of 70 games.
The six divisions were further separated into two leagues: the New York League and the Northeastern League
The winners of each of the three divisions would go to the playoffs, with the team having the best record in each league automatically moving on to the League Championship Series and the other two teams playing a best-of-five series to go to the LCS.
The two league champions would compete for the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, named for the two men who wrote the Knickerbocker Rules for baseball: William Tucker and William Wheaton

The original 48 teams were as follows:

In the early years of the NBBO, even though the oldest clubs were from New York City and Brooklyn it was the clubs outside of New York who dominated, with Northeastern League members winning seven of the first nine Tucker-Wheaton Cups. The Sons of the Ocean Baseball Club, based in New Bedford (MA) and led by star Roland Cameron, won three titles, with Merrimack Milles, Newark, Port Jersey, and Reading joining in the spoils.

Soon after, there were fissures in the amateur league. While most players were given an expense per-diem of $1 or $2 per week, star players were given under-the-table payments of as much as $500 per year, essentially making them full-time professionals. Not long after "shamateurism" began, the New York clubs dominated, with NYL clubs winning four of the five NBBO championships from 1866 to 1870.

After the end of the 1870 season, executives from ten of the NBBO's most successful and financially viable clubs got together at the Astor House and decided it was time for a fully professional baseball league. In that meeting, the American Professional Baseball League was born, with ten clubs and a new idea: nicknames...

Having ten teams would allow for a longer schedule (90 games) and thus more money, and not having to hide payments meant that players could be paid more, with jobbers making $5 a week and superstars making as much as $1,500 a year.

The split meant the NBBO had its own ten-team hole to fill, and it did so by bringing in successful independent clubs from the region, which were plentiful:

It's May 1871, and there are now 58 competitive baseball teams in the United States, spread across two leagues. While the NBBO is still mostly filled with players who stick with their local teams for most of their careers, front offices now have the chance to trade players for one another and successful veterans might move to another locale. In the APBL, it was decided that players should be able to freely move after a period of time equivalent to an apprenticeship: four years. The people at APBL HQ have figured that the higher payment combined with the increased ability to move around should allow them to attract the finest quality of baseball players in the United States.

And thus begins the era of professional baseball in this fictional universe.

A link to the Quickstart file is here: via OneDrive

RMc · 02-28-2022, 08:31 AM

Quickstart, perhaps?

dward1 · 03-07-2022, 05:22 PM

beautiful and well thought out

Hrycaj · 03-28-2022, 01:23 PM

These logos are just fantastic. I wish I could do something as close to this impressive. Just really well done.

02-15-2022, 09:01 PM	#1
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 807	My Fictional Baseball Universe of 1871: The APBL, NBBO, and Pro/Amateur Split This is the story of a pair of leagues that began with logos I was making during down time when I was doing remote work. They are analogues to the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), and their resulting split in real life in 1871. Details of how I decided on names and logos are in this thread. in the Mods forum. On January 22, 1857 in Manhattan's St. Nicholas Hotel, executives from various baseball clubs in New York City, Brooklyn, and elsewhere in the northeastern United States met to form the first group of organized baseball clubs, the National Base Ball Organization. In that meeting, guidelines for the NBBO's first formal competition were outlined: Starting in May of 1857, 48 clubs from the northeastern United States would form six "championship" divisions where each club would play the others in their division ten times (two five-game series), for a total of 70 games. The six divisions were further separated into two leagues: the New York League and the Northeastern League The winners of each of the three divisions would go to the playoffs, with the team having the best record in each league automatically moving on to the League Championship Series and the other two teams playing a best-of-five series to go to the LCS. The two league champions would compete for the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, named for the two men who wrote the Knickerbocker Rules for baseball: William Tucker and William Wheaton The original 48 teams were as follows: In the early years of the NBBO, even though the oldest clubs were from New York City and Brooklyn it was the clubs outside of New York who dominated, with Northeastern League members winning seven of the first nine Tucker-Wheaton Cups. The Sons of the Ocean Baseball Club, based in New Bedford (MA) and led by star Roland Cameron, won three titles, with Merrimack Milles, Newark, Port Jersey, and Reading joining in the spoils. Soon after, there were fissures in the amateur league. While most players were given an expense per-diem of $1 or $2 per week, star players were given under-the-table payments of as much as $500 per year, essentially making them full-time professionals. Not long after "shamateurism" began, the New York clubs dominated, with NYL clubs winning four of the five NBBO championships from 1866 to 1870. After the end of the 1870 season, executives from ten of the NBBO's most successful and financially viable clubs got together at the Astor House and decided it was time for a fully professional baseball league. In that meeting, the American Professional Baseball League was born, with ten clubs and a new idea: nicknames... Having ten teams would allow for a longer schedule (90 games) and thus more money, and not having to hide payments meant that players could be paid more, with jobbers making $5 a week and superstars making as much as $1,500 a year. The split meant the NBBO had its own ten-team hole to fill, and it did so by bringing in successful independent clubs from the region, which were plentiful: It's May 1871, and there are now 58 competitive baseball teams in the United States, spread across two leagues. While the NBBO is still mostly filled with players who stick with their local teams for most of their careers, front offices now have the chance to trade players for one another and successful veterans might move to another locale. In the APBL, it was decided that players should be able to freely move after a period of time equivalent to an apprenticeship: four years. The people at APBL HQ have figured that the higher payment combined with the increased ability to move around should allow them to attract the finest quality of baseball players in the United States. And thus begins the era of professional baseball in this fictional universe. A link to the Quickstart file is here: via OneDrive Last edited by tm1681; 06-01-2022 at 08:06 PM.

02-28-2022, 08:31 AM	#2
RMc All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,444	Great stuff! Quickstart, perhaps? __________________ "We're all behind our baseball team..."

03-07-2022, 05:22 PM	#3
dward1 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 929	beautiful and well thought out __________________ My Dynasty: Moving Upstate And Down a League in the United States Baseball League, a pro/rel global universe

03-28-2022, 01:23 PM	#4
Hrycaj All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 1,433	These logos are just fantastic. I wish I could do something as close to this impressive. Just really well done. __________________ Click on my signature to read about the great game of baseball in Normington.