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Let’s begin our story with the first official announcement of the players that would make up the 10 founding teams. The ten general managers and their scout teams held tryouts for about six weeks or so leading up to the New Year’s Day announcement of who would be playing in the league. Each team signed 25 players to their active roster, and another 25 to their reserve roster.
The actual unveiling was quite an event, including a stunt horse riding show, a marksmanship competition, three bands, several speeches, and a lot of alcohol. People traveled from all around the state to learn about the new baseball league. Players were paraded out in their uniforms to thunderous applause.
There were 5 teams in the Eastern Conference. The East was expected to be the stronger conference. It was believed that all five teams would have a chance to make the playoffs.
Early projections were that Flagstaff would be a competitive ball club in 1912. They were considered to be a team that was good, but not great, on offense, defense, and pitching.
Outfielder Orlando Avila and Starting Pitchers Edgar Quintailla, Deole Cooper, and Kelvin Augustin were generally considered to be the best players on the team going into the season.
Here is the first team picture for the Flagstaff Axemen.
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