Legacy Baseball: Fictional Negro Leagues

[LBL_Brendan]

This set was actually the first one that I put together for the '20s. It's broadly consistent with the remainder of the set and timeless. Crest on the homes and team name on the aways. The logo only appears on the home caps, just like the '25 Braves.

[LBL_Brendan]

And, with the Hoppers, that'll finish off the 1920s. A .zip file containing all of the logos/caps/jerseys has been added to the first post. As far as I know, the items are all appropriately labeled according to OOTP naming conventions.

Stay tuned for the last installment--the 1910s. I have about a quarter of the teams mapped out. So, it'll likely be awhile before I can put a bow on this series. But, it will happen... eventually.

My tentative plan at the conclusion of the '10s will be to go back and fix some things that are bothering me now about earlier uniforms since I have much more experience putting these things together than I did when I started this thread.

I'll upload a .zip file of the full set once that process is done, too. Call it a "Director's Cut," I guess.

Thank you for following along so far!

Best,
Brendan

[RailroadBaseballCommish]

Back story: The Sierra Leone Creoles and Afro-Americans who settled and founded Liberia and Sierra Leone brought the game of Baseball with them. The first games being played in the 1870s, organized ball didn't form until 1902.

Teams:
The WABL saw the merging of two independent baseball leagues, The Creole Baseball Union and the Liberian Baseball League. The game had become quite popular by then, there being 12 teams total:

CBU:
Freetown Maroons (jamaican settlers)
Green, Yellow, Pinstripes
Wilburforce Nova Scotians (black loyalists)
Black, White, Red
Hastings Scimitars (muslim majority)
Bown, Green, White
Leicester Black Anglicans (the church)
Green, Black, White
Waterloo West Indians (settled by 2nd/4th West Indies Regiment)
Scarlet, Dark Blue, White
Freetown Abolitionists (military Barracks in town)
Black, Gray, White

LBL:
Monrovia Independence (declaration of independence was signed there)
Red, White & Blue
Crozierville Brown Sox (a farming community)
Brown, White, Green
New Georgia Norfolks (the name of the ship that brought them was the Norfolk)
Blue, White
Careysburg Black Baptists (founded by a baptist minister)
Purple, White, Gold
Clay-Ashland Kentuckians (was part of Kentucky in Africa colony)
Deep Blue, Coal
Maryland Republics (it use to be a republic of its own)
Yellow, Black, Blue

I was hoping you could make the logos, uniforms and hats for my league? If not that's fine but it would super cool if you did cause your clearly better at it than i am. I would like the style to be 1940's-50's.. very classy. This is for LBL Brendan. Thank you.

[LBL_Brendan]

Originally Posted by RailroadBaseballCommish

Back story: The Sierra Leone Creoles and Afro-Americans who settled and founded Liberia and Sierra Leone brought the game of Baseball with them. The first games being played in the 1870s, organized ball didn't form until 1902.

Teams:
The WABL saw the merging of two independent baseball leagues, The Creole Baseball Union and the Liberian Baseball League. The game had become quite popular by then, there being 12 teams total:

CBU:
Freetown Maroons (jamaican settlers)
Green, Yellow, Pinstripes
Wilburforce Nova Scotians (black loyalists)
Black, White, Red
Hastings Scimitars (muslim majority)
Bown, Green, White
Leicester Black Anglicans (the church)
Green, Black, White
Waterloo West Indians (settled by 2nd/4th West Indies Regiment)
Scarlet, Dark Blue, White
Freetown Abolitionists (military Barracks in town)
Black, Gray, White

LBL:
Monrovia Independence (declaration of independence was signed there)
Red, White & Blue
Crozierville Brown Sox (a farming community)
Brown, White, Green
New Georgia Norfolks (the name of the ship that brought them was the Norfolk)
Blue, White
Careysburg Black Baptists (founded by a baptist minister)
Purple, White, Gold
Clay-Ashland Kentuckians (was part of Kentucky in Africa colony)
Deep Blue, Coal
Maryland Republics (it use to be a republic of its own)
Yellow, Black, Blue

I was hoping you could make the logos, uniforms and hats for my league? If not that's fine but it would super cool if you did cause your clearly better at it than i am. I would like the style to be 1940's-50's.. very classy. This is for LBL Brendan. Thank you.

Good morning, RailroadBaseballCommish. From your post, I can tell that you are very creative and have a lot of great ideas. And, I am flattered that you like the materials in this thread.

Unfortunately, I do not have the bandwidth to take on a 12-team league like this at this time. For context, one set for one of my projects usually takes me between 2 and 6 hours to complete (depending on inspiration and complexity). Sometimes it takes me longer if I have to cycle through a couple of different ideas to find one that works. Sets for post-1940ish (once baseball logos generally became more complicated than the earlier eras) tend to take longer, too.

But, here is what I can offer you... I use Inkscape and GIMP (using the templates that many generous people from these forums put together and shared) in putting together my graphics. I would be happy to answer any questions that you have about either program if you do undertake this project on your own (and I sincerely hope that you do and share it with the rest of us).

I started making my own stuff a few years ago when I wanted to try to build my own fictional baseball universe. I am not a graphic artist (or even particularly artistic), but I have slowly learned how to put together things that l am happy with through (i) lots of Googling about the programs above, (ii) extensive review of both sportslogos.net and the Baseball Hall of Fame's Dressed to the Nines database for the period that I am interested in replicating, and (iii) lots of trial-and-error. The very first logos that I ever put together three+ years ago were just letters in circles (and if I were to go back to look, it's an even money bet that they were not even centered in the circle).

Please feel free to PM me any questions about Inkscape, GIMP or any of the above, and I will try to respond within a reasonable amount of time to help get you on the right track. I would be happy to share my experience with you (or anyone else reading this, for that matter).

Thank you for the message. I am sorry to disappoint, but I hope you understand!

[20_range]

It's a fascinating concept. I think if you made it a separate post in this board you might start getting some responses. I was thinking for the church team, maybe an adaptation of this great old knuckler/TXranger logo.
Your post also made me look up the soccer leagues in those two countries to see what their team names/logos are like. It's really worth it.

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by RailroadBaseballCommish

Back story: The Sierra Leone Creoles and Afro-Americans who settled and founded Liberia and Sierra Leone brought the game of Baseball with them. The first games being played in the 1870s, organized ball didn't form until 1902.

Teams:
The WABL saw the merging of two independent baseball leagues, The Creole Baseball Union and the Liberian Baseball League. The game had become quite popular by then, there being 12 teams total:

CBU:
Freetown Maroons (jamaican settlers)
Green, Yellow, Pinstripes
Wilburforce Nova Scotians (black loyalists)
Black, White, Red
Hastings Scimitars (muslim majority)
Bown, Green, White
Leicester Black Anglicans (the church)
Green, Black, White
Waterloo West Indians (settled by 2nd/4th West Indies Regiment)
Scarlet, Dark Blue, White
Freetown Abolitionists (military Barracks in town)
Black, Gray, White

LBL:
Monrovia Independence (declaration of independence was signed there)
Red, White & Blue
Crozierville Brown Sox (a farming community)
Brown, White, Green
New Georgia Norfolks (the name of the ship that brought them was the Norfolk)
Blue, White
Careysburg Black Baptists (founded by a baptist minister)
Purple, White, Gold
Clay-Ashland Kentuckians (was part of Kentucky in Africa colony)
Deep Blue, Coal
Maryland Republics (it use to be a republic of its own)
Yellow, Black, Blue

I was hoping you could make the logos, uniforms and hats for my league? If not that's fine but it would super cool if you did cause your clearly better at it than i am. I would like the style to be 1940's-50's.. very classy. This is for LBL Brendan. Thank you.

I like this concept, I'm just going to seed my own concept league in Liberia but just use MLB team names so I don't have to worry about logos. Great call on this for sure as a concept tho.

[LBL_Brendan]

Bringing it all home... I have finished the 1910s' designs, which should bring this set to completion from 1900 through the end of the 1940s. I'll post them as time permits.

First up is the Atlanta team. This set is based on the Federal League team from Pittsburgh.

[LBL_Brendan]

The Birmingham kit in the 1910s is based off of the Brooklyn team from the Federal League.

[LBL_Brendan]

Newark Federal League Team

[LBL_Brendan]

No specific inspiration for this one. I guess the 1915 Red Sox are probably the closest analogue.

[LBL_Brendan]

Uncreatively inspired by the 1915 Federal League KC team.

[LBL_Brendan]

1917 Philadelphia Athletics

[LBL_Brendan]

Cleveland 1913

[LBL_Brendan]

1913 St. Louis Browns (approximately)

[LBL_Brendan]

1916 Cubs

[No Pepper]

Nice to see these, keep it up!

[LBL_Brendan]

1912 Boston Braves-ish

[LBL_Brendan]

Boston Braves (again?!) 1915

[LBL_Brendan]

Wrapping up the Southern League (just outside of two years from the date of the first post... not bad!) is the St. Louis Canaries of the 1910s!

1915 St Louis Cardinals

[LBL_Brendan]

On to the Great Northern League.

1913 Cincinnati Reds