Liga Cubana - 8/12 team fictional league. early 20th century

[20_range]

For a long time I've wanted to do a focused project, a Caribbean fictional major league. Well, I got too focused - I settled on 12 cities, then 16, then started adding minor league teams. I wanted to work on "timeless" letter logos, but then I wanted modern logos too, so it became two leagues, modern and vintage. Then I wanted to follow the history of baseball more closely, and start with a Cuban League. So here is a (vaguely) early 20th century set of Cuban teams, as simply as I can make them, that will evolve into that Caribbean League.


I'll be using this starting in, I don't know, 1900 or 1910, then expanding it past Cuba in the 1930s or 40s.


If I improve or alter these in the future, I'll post them here. These are as simple as I could make them, and most of them have future logos already done.


If someone is interested in making early 20th century style uniforms for them, let me know. In my mind these leagues are a tribute to lbl_brendan's fictional negro leagues, and tm1681's incredible work.

[20_range]

It's just the triangle from the flag.

[20_range]

aka Rojos and Blancos. I made this H based on what wikipedia says is a nickname for Havana, the City of Columns. the blackletter H is from the King James Bible font. I'll add a script Elegantes logo.

[20_range]

This one already has a future version I've posted. It's Martin Dihigo, but since it's a fictional league (and I really like the name), we'll say that they took their name from the ancient Persian soldiers, like the many teams named Vikings, Trojans, Athenians, etc. (I think I've played ootp since 2017, so, almost 10 years, so, not as long as I've played the Civilization games )

[20_range]

Another one from a nickname, Otros nombres: La perla del sur

(I did a lot of fact-checking for this league reading wikipedia pages, and then trying to read the spanish wikipedia pages)


This one is based on this 1905 Cincinnati Reds logo, but I'm proud to say that I manually made my own wishbone c. It's supposed to be a wishbone C that is also a crude oyster shell, with a pearl ball!

[20_range]

" On 1 June 1689, they arrived at a hill, joining two other families already present at the site. According to tradition, a mass was celebrated under a tamarind tree and Santa Clara was founded. Since then, the place under the tree has been known as Loma del Carmen (transl. Carmen's hill). "


I used the abbreviation Sta. Clara because it appeared on the real-life Santa Clara Leopardos unforms.


There are a lot of SC monograms available on the internet but I fought with it for a long time and ended up making two slightly different ones.

[20_range]

the later version, I guess this one will be the slightly later in time version.

[20_range]

"After Henry Morgan burned the city in the 17th century, it was redesigned like a maze so attackers would find it hard to move around inside the city."


Certainly I will do my best to do a mid-20th century cartoony minotaur. I already have a much more labyrinthy C planned for the main Caribbean league. I made this C.

[20_range]

This is named for an indigenous artifact, the Hacha de Holguin. links links It's a little iffy for me, so I didn't try to draw it. Axes of Holguin makes a pretty cool name though (Axes of Holguin! Holguin is upon you!)

**tiny white small logo is uploaded, to the right of the 2nd logo


Plus I just couldn't think of anything. I read that wikipedia page a dozen times before I found this section in the Spanish page


"Hacha de Holguín


Este es el símbolo supremo de la provincia, y también mantiene una presencia significativa en la identidad visual de la ciudad. Esta pieza arqueológica, hallada en la región en 1860, representa un valioso testimonio del legado aborigen local y ha sido adoptada como emblema por varias instituciones, incluido el escudo provincial.
Aunque su uso simbólico corresponde más directamente al territorio provincial en general, su impronta forma parte del imaginario cultural de la Ciudad de los Parques."

[20_range]

The SDC team has to based on the White Sox, right? I did three separate SDC monograms, this is the first one. Again, I could have just scanned the S from the 1917 Sox logo, but instead I did my best to alter a S to resemble it.

[20_range]

and now for the uh more fanciful part of this project. This fictional league is based on the real life Cuban League and other Caribbean leagues, which had major league stars like Dolf Luque and Negro League Hall of Famers like Oscar Charleston. Those Negro League teams (which we now consider major leagues) always featured "Cuban" teams - say, the New York Cubans and Cuban Stars, for both league games and barnstorming.

So I decided to provide four guest or barnstorming teams, representing Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the DR. (My original idea was some kind of "New York Americans" team to match the New York Cubans, but I'm not trying to deal with American iconography rn). Not sure if I'll incorporate them into my league (maybe they are all actually based in Havana), but I've been working on this identities for the full Caribbean league, so it was fun for me to add them as precursor teams.

[20_range]

Or RD Estrellas


I decided they're purple to combine the red and blue from the flag. I have a new SD monogram coming for them

[20_range]

I can't believe I drew a crucifix for verisimilitude, but I did. This is the simplest version of the Saint James cross - the future versions make it more into a sword. They eventually evolve into the Cuyayas.

[20_range]

They evolve into the Coquis

[20_range]

A traveling team might adopt a national tree as its symbol, and then become known by its uniform color.

[20_range]

Ok that's everything for this league, which again is at least in my mind only the precursor league for a much larger project I have to finish Ponce, and make a league logo, otherwise I have another 32 logos to post at least!!

I hope people like these (and someone wants to make uniforms or a quickstart)

[20_range]

"but there's no stars in the New York skies / they're all on the ground" Open House Lou Reed & John Cale


well ok here are your barnstorming New York Stars, a guest team in the early 20th century Cuban League


(Babe Ruth played in Cuba)


this is sort of inspired by the New York Highlanders, but I made it as a joke just this minute, so it was the perfect time to finally deploy the CBGB font

[WooBallFan43]

Originally Posted by 20_range

Or RD Estrellas


I decided they're purple to combine the red and blue from the flag. I have a new SD monogram coming for them

Gonna assume they become the Santo Domingo Astronomos?

[20_range]

Yep they are currently the Astronomos in my game. I try to have more than one name available for teams ("official" nicknames like the Bronx Bombers, or name changes like Bridegrooms/Robins/Dodgers)

Notes i forgot about
Market sizes:
Large: Havana, Santiago de Cuba
Medium: holguin, Camagüey
Small: Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Santa Clara

Rivalries: Havana and Havana, Havana and Santiago, Santiago and holguin, Cienfuegos and santa Clara.

Minotauros sounds ridiculous but it works a little better in a cattle farming / "cowboy" region:
" The economy of the Camagüey province is primarily cattle and sugar (in the north and south) farming, and the province is known for its cowboy culture, with rodeos frequently held."

Ideas that I didn't end up using: Havana Chess Club (Capablanca), Loros/Verdes

[tehsuigi]

Originally Posted by 20_range

the later version, I guess this one will be the slightly later in time version.

I adore the monograms for Santa Clara. Great to see you've launched this project properly!