Franchise Highlight: The Providence Angels
The Angels are a hard-charging, no frills, no nonsense ballclub owned by a devout New England judge. They started the LBL as a playoff mainstay, but have scuttled more recently. The Angels need a disciplined GM ready to roll his/her sleeves up in pursuit of the eternal glory of a Legacy Cup. Fierce rivals with the Baltimore Clippers, the Angels are looking to even the score with their rivals (Baltimore has 53 wins to Providence's 42 head-to-head as of the date of this post).
The life work of sporting enthusiast and Superior Court Judge Jacob Cartwright, the Providence Angels are a successful and strait-laced ballclub who play in the scenic center of Roger Williams Park on “Angel Island.”
A successful lawyer, respected judge and soft-spoken Roman Catholic deacon, Jacob Cartwright purchased the center of Roger Williams Park in 1893 to build a “holy, disciplined, and transcendent” baseball club. Originally formed from Judge Cartwright’s highly competitive diocesan club, the Angels were opened to non-Catholics in 1895 to comply with LBL mandates.
Likely the most rigid team in the Legacy Baseball League, Angels players are held to “Cartwright’s Canons,” a handbook of strict protocols, courtesies, and exercises written in the fashion of a Liturgy of the Hours. “Non-Catholic brethren are welcome to participate in the organization,” the introduction of Cartwright’s Canons reads, “just as our Savior Jesus Christ healed the gentiles and shared a well with the harlots.”
Players are fined for failure to shave, unkempt hair, cursing, rudeness, impiety, drunkenness, and failure to observe the sabbath.
Judge Cartwright’s no-nonsense franchise is often seen as the complete foil to Father Thomas Carlow’s rowdy Baltimore club. Archdiocesan gatherings between Baltimore and Rhode Island clergy are less than warm during the baseball season, with the respective Archbishops famously devoting pre-series homilies and Prayers of the Faithful to their respective teams.
A perennial contender in the Ivy Division, the Angels play a disciplined, clean, and polished form of baseball under LBL veteran manager Jimmy Heath. Behind pitching star and East Providence native
John Griffith, the Angels established themselves as a LBL contender in the mid-1890s. Hard-hitting lefty
Rufus Burnell leads a powerful offense.
A 4-time Ivy Division champion, Cartwright’s Angels are looking to win their first Eastern League Championship.