Professional Baseball Tapestries
Description: The Chicago Whales only existed for three years, as part of the Federal League, a renegade baseball outfit that challenged the American and National leagues from 1913 to 1915, before abruptly going broke. The team is barely a footnote in baseball history, but it played an important role in Chicago history, because it brought the game to the North Side, which is why tens of thousands of Big Ten graduates live there today. The Whales were the first team to play baseball at the corner of Clark and Addison, and the first to win a championship there, in 1915 — 101 years before the Cubs did it. Yet I could find nothing commemorating them at Wrigley Field.
Description: The team began as the Taiyo Fishing Company, an amateur team currently affiliated with the Maruha Corporation. The team name was changed to the Taiyō Whales (大洋ホエールズ, Taiyō Hoeeruzu) shortly after the start of the 1950 season. The Whales received several veteran players from the Yomiuri Giants to compensate for their lack of players, but ended up in the bottom half of the standings each year. In 1951, there was talk of merging with the Hiroshima Carp, which had experienced serious financial problems but the merging never occurred due to massive protests from Hiroshima citizens.
Description: The Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツ, Yomiuri Jaiantsu; formally Yomiuri Kyojingun (読売巨人軍)) are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They have played their home games at Tokyo Dome since its opening in 1988. The team's owner is The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerate which also owns two newspapers (including the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun) and the Nippon Television Network (which includes flagship Nippon TV).
Description: The Chunichi Dragons (中日ドラゴンズ, Chūnichi Doragonzu) are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) and the Japan Series twice (in 1954 and 2007). They were also champions in the 2007 Asia Series.
Description: The Homestead Grays (also known as Washington Grays or Washington Homestead Grays) were a professional baseball team that played in the Negro leagues in the United States. The team was formed in 1912 by Cumberland Posey, and remained in continuous operation for 38 seasons. The team was originally based in Homestead, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Pittsburgh. By the 1920s, with increasing popularity in the Pittsburgh region, the team retained the name "Homestead" but crossed the Monongahela River to play all home games in Pittsburgh, at the Pittsburgh Pirates' home Forbes Field and the Pittsburgh Crawfords' home Greenlee Field.
Description: The Osaka Tigers are one of the oldest professional baseball clubs in Japan, playing their first season in 1936. Their fans are known as perhaps the most fanatical and dedicated in all of Japanese sports -- often outnumbering the home team fans at away games -- and have a reputation for rough behavior and a willingness to brawl with the opposing teams' fans, if not amongst themselves. After their 1985 Japan Series win, fans that resembled Tigers players jumped into the Dōtonbori Canal in celebration, but when no one resembled Caucasian first baseman Randy Bass, a statue of Colonel Sanders was stolen from a KFC and dumped in the river in his place, beginning what became known as "The Curse of the Colonel."
Description: The Orix Buffaloes (オリックス・バファローズ, Orikkusu Bafarōzu) are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The team plays in the Pacific League and is under ownership by Orix, a financial services company founded in Osaka.
Description: The Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツ, Yomiuri Jaiantsu; formally Yomiuri Kyojingun (読売巨人軍)) are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They have played their home games at Tokyo Dome since its opening in 1988. The team's owner is The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerate which also owns two newspapers (including the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun) and the Nippon Television Network (which includes flagship Nippon TV).
Description: The Bayou Bullfrogs were an independent professional baseball team that played for three seasons in Lafayette, Louisiana. The team was alternately referred to as the “Lafayette Bullfrogs” and the “Lafayette Bayou Bullfrogs” in various press accounts at the time. The Bullfrogs played at Tigue Moore Field, home of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Ragin’ Cajuns baseball program. The Bullfrogs were part of the Texas-Louisiana League, a centrally-owned and operated independent circuit founded in 1994. Decisions concerning the Bullfrogs were made at the league office, as T-L League clubs had neither local ownership nor Major League parent clubs.
Description: The Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツ, Yomiuri Jaiantsu; formally Yomiuri Kyojingun (読売巨人軍)) are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They have played their home games at Tokyo Dome since its opening in 1988. The team's owner is The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerate which also owns two newspapers (including the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun) and the Nippon Television Network (which includes flagship Nippon TV).
Description: Wear the ultimate HR professional's motto with this bold typographic tee featuring large heavily distressed white block lettering on a dark background — a workplace twist on the iconic catchphrase from the 1992 film A League of Their Own. Perfect for HR professionals, human resources managers, and anyone who has heard this phrase screamed internally during a particularly challenging employee meeting.
Description: Wear the ultimate HR professional's motto with this bold typographic tee featuring large heavily distressed white block lettering on a dark background — a workplace twist on the iconic catchphrase from the 1992 film A League of Their Own. Perfect for HR professionals, human resources managers, and anyone who has heard this phrase screamed internally during a particularly challenging employee meeting.
Description: The Pittsfield Electrics were an American minor league baseball club located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. They joined the Eastern Association, a now defunct minor professional baseball league, in 1913, and finished in 7th place that first year with a record of 62 wins and 73 losses. Pittsfield's W.I. Smith led the EA with 175 strikeouts. After the 1914 season, the team finished in 6th place with a record of 60 wins and 63 losses, the Eastern Association folded. Robert Troy led the EA with 212 strikeouts. The Electrics played their home games at Wahconah Park.
