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TWELVE NEW CLUBS BROUGHT INTO NBBO FOLD
REPLACEMENTS FOR THOSE DEPARTING FOR APBL ANNOUNCED AT AUTUMN MEETINGS

NEW YORK CITY (Nov 11-14, 1870) - The National Base Ball Organization spent part of its Fall Meetings watching the twelve runaway clubs that formed the APBL get down to the nuts & bolts of their new competition. However, the NBBO had its own business to attend to: that of just who would replace those twelve clubs.

The NBBO’s Executive Committee knew going into the selection process where the teams needed to come from. In order for any of the 36 remaining clubs to avoid having to switch regions, three incoming clubs would need to be form New York City, three more would have to reside on or very near the Atlantic Coast, two were required from Brooklyn, two more had to be picked from Upstate New York, and one each from the inland Northeast and New England was needed.

There were dozens of clubs that saw themselves as worthy of the jump to organized baseball. After all, this was a rapidly growing sport, with many cities & towns seeing clubs of their own develop as leisure time increased among the middle and upper classes.

The selection process began as soon as the Five Founders of the APBL made the announcement in June regarding the seven clubs that would be joining them in their new professional venture. After roughly five months of going over facility quality, market sizes, financial ledgers, and regional success, it was time to reveal the roster of twelve clubs selected to join the NBBO and bring it back up to 48 teams.

BALTIC BASE BALL CLUB (New York City) – Situated in the Astoria area of Queens, Baltic was a well-known local club founded in the middle of the 1850s, a couple of years before the inaugural season of the NBBO. At the time Baltic wasn’t organized enough to join the original roster of 48 teams, but over the intervening years they had developed a well-organized club structure. (NOTE: Baltic based on a real club.)

COLUMBIA BASE BALL CLUB (Buffalo, N.Y.) – Founded one year after the NBBO began play, Columbia was originally an informal baseball club but became a more serious one as Buffalo’s rapid population growth in the 1860’s (NOTE: Buffalo’s population rose from 81,129 in 1860 to 117,714 in 1870) meant that Upstate New York’s biggest city could now handle two legitimate baseball organizations. (NOTE: Columbia based on a real club.)

FRONTIER BASE BALL CLUB (Oswego, N.Y.) – Frontier was not going to be a like-for-like replacement for Flour City, as the club was based in a town that could only handle a venue with a capacity of just over 2,000, making them one of the three smallest clubs Upstate upon entry. Still, Frontier was highly regarded and their venue was on the grounds of Fort Ontario. (NOTE: Based on a real club. Date of origin was different in the now defunct MLB database.)

LANCASTRIA BRITANNIA B.C. (Lancaster, Penn.) – No big club was going to replace Alleghany, as Pittsburgh was the only big city covered by the Inland region. In came Lancastra, representing the hometown of former president James Buchanan, whose name was on the club’s home venue that held around two thousand people. (NOTE: Club name made up. The words “Lan-castra Britannia” appear on the Lancaster city flag, seal, and other Lancaster-related items. I have no idea if it’s supposed to mean anything other than a Latin Language reference to the English city it was named for.)

MARATHON BASE BALL CLUB (Brooklyn) – Having been around for only five years, Marathon quickly became known for their quality facilities at the club’s base in the South Williamsburg area of Brooklyn. Their practice area was easily of NBBO standard, and the Williamsburg Grounds was a fine venue that held around 4,400 people. (NOTE: Club name made up but inspired by similar-sounding names of the time.)

MARYLAND BASEBALL CLUB (Baltimore, Mary.) – With over 250,000 people (NOTE: 267,354 as of the 1870 Census), Baltimore was more than big enough to have multiple NBBO clubs, let alone one. Still, it took the sport a bit longer to take off in the state of Maryland – MBC was one of the state’s first three clubs when it was founded in 1861 – and as a result there was one big club based in Baltimore, MBC, boasting of a home venue that would immediately be one of the largest in the competition. (NOTE: Maryland BC based on a real club.)

MERCURY BASE BALL CLUB (New York City) – In existence since 1859, Mercury was a well-run outfit based in the Hunt’s Point area of The Bronx, one that liked employing players with the speed to match the namesake of their club. Mercury had big shoes to fill, as technically they were taking the place of Knickerbocker. (NOTE: Name made up. There were numerous clubs of the time named after Neptune, but creating one here would’ve looked too much like Sons of the Ocean.)

NATIONAL BASEBALL CLUB (Washington, D.C.) – The nation’s capital nearly doubled in population during the 1860’s (NOTE: 61,000 in 1860, 109,000 in 1870) and the city’s first baseball club grew similarly. Playing in a venue named after the United States’ first President, George Washington Stadium, National gained a reputation as a rapidly improving organization and the NBBO wanted a team representing D.C. (NOTE: Based on a real club.)

NEW YORK ATHETIC CLUB (New York City) – The New York Athletic Club had only been founded in 1868, but over just two short years the organization had developed a baseball club of an extremely high standard. Playing around Brooklyn & N.Y.C. in 1870, the club had two players scouts felt could be five-star talents in the NBBO: OF William Valentine & P James York. Their facilities in Manhattan were outstanding, and their venue, the N.Y.A.C. Grounds, was of the highest grade while seating around 6,400 spectators.

(NOTE: I created the NYAC team here because the real-life NYAC runs club teams in sixteen different sports – seemingly everything BUT baseball. Their real-life programs are of such a high standard that, as a look at the front page of their website will tell you, the club sent nearly 70 of its members to the 2024 Olympics & Paralympics.)

SALEM BASEBALL CLUB (Salem, Mass.) – Much to the relief of the seven remaining clubs in New England, St. John’s was replaced with a club that would be about average in market size when compared to its regional brethren and certainly not as dominant on the field. Salem had a good reputation in New England with no outstanding issues, and they were openly welcomed into the fold. There was one thing that made the club famous…

Salem had an incredibly unique home venue: The Crucible. The playing surface would immediately become the smallest in the NBBO upon the club’s entry, as it was a symmetrical field measuring 300 feet down the foul lines, 375 feet to the outfield gaps, and just 400 feet to straightaway Center Field. However, Salem made up for the distance by having the entire outfield encased in a fifty-foot fence made out of the area’s finest maple and covered with the darkest black paint that could be found. The shortness of the field was intimidating to pitchers, and the height of the fence was intimidating to batsmen.

(NOTE: Club name made up. I felt like making a team based in Salem using literary references. In real life, according to Protoball the first club to be created in Salem was…“Pigeon Base Ball Club”, which doesn’t roll off the tongue at all.)

STAR BASE BALL CLUB (Brooklyn) – Star had been around for almost as long as Baltic, and like Baltic it took a while for Star to become a seriously organized baseball club. They were Jim Creighton’s first club (NOTE: not in real life), had a quality venue on York Street, and looked like an organization that could seamlessly move up to the NBBO. (NOTE: Based on a real club. There was also an Evening Star Club, Lone Star Club, Morning Star Club, and North Star Club in Brooklyn.)

TIGER SOCIAL CLUB (Philadelphia) – Last but certainly not least, Tiger was the baseball club formed by the members of its namesake “Gentlemen’s Cigar & Leisurely Activity” club. They were happy to welcome women to the games at their venue on Broad Street, though. Cricket was still the 1A to baseball’s 1B in Philadelphia, but it was easily big enough for a second NBBO club and Tiger was the best of the independent bunch.

(NOTE: Name based on a real club found in the old MLB.com “earliest clubs” database that has since been taken down. They are referred to as “Penn Tigers Club of Philadelphia” and “Pennsylvania Tigers Social Base Ball & Quoits Club” at Protoball, and yeah I’m not going to try to put that second name in OOTP. I suppose I could’ve have put it in as PTSBBQC???)

With those twelve clubs, the National Base Ball Organization had its roster of 48 back. It was now ready to move Full Speed Ahead toward the 1871 season.