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CHAMPIONSHIPS: ARE THEY IN THE STARS?
ST. JOHN’S SHOWS UP AT AUTUMN MEETINGS WITH A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT LOOK

NEW YORK CITY (Nov 11-14, 1870) - There was an amusing aside to all the serious business that took place during the four days of the National Base Ball Organization’s Autumn Meetings, one which occurred among the clubs locking in the details to make the American Professional Baseball League a formality.

In the hours after St. Johns’ president Borland Craig showed up on the first day, a number of his colleagues noticed something different about the insignia that was present on club stationery:

Sometime between their triumph in the one-game playoff to decide the champion of Tucker-Wheaton Cup XIV on August 22nd and the start of the Autumn Meetings, St. John’s had added a series of five stars across the top of the shield to signify their five NBBO championships.

Doc Adams, president of the Knickerbocker club that St. John’s had beaten twice in winner-take-all games to decide who would lift the cup, gave Craig a look that said, “Really?” Craig responded by chuckling and pouring Adams a drink.

Officials from the other clubs present were as bemused by the change as anything else, given that they had all just moved to create a new league that had no champions and no history to its name yet.

It wasn’t long before the business of the week continued as usual. The main question regarding St. John’s and the change to their identity was this: they had been the most dominant organization over the course of the early years of baseball, but would that continue into the days of professional sport?