Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Red Seals


The St. Louis Lead and Oil Company's "Red Seals" defeated the Southern Company's "W.H. Gregg" nine yesterday by a score of 9 to 7.
-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 13, 1876


I'm not sure what a Red Seal is but it's now my favorite 19th century club nickname.

12 comments:

Richard Hershberger said...

Mine is the Metacomets. This sounds like an astronomical phenomenon, but it actually is an anglicization of the name of the 17th century Indian chief in New England also known as King Philip.

If we move from "favorite" to "most memorable," there is an argument to be made for the upstate New York Ku Klux Base Ball Club.

james e. brunson said...

And I'll raise you one: the 1868 Ku Klu Klan Base Ball Club of Pulaski County, Tennessee; the Memphis police raided the club house and confiscated not only their baseball equipment but their Black Klan rigs made of silk as well.

David Ball said...

The New York club was based in Oneida Castle, a small place a little east of Oneida and Syracuse. One of the black teams from Washington, D.C. made a tour of that region, and I've wondered whether they found time to stop off and play the Klan.

I believe the proper form is Klu Klux Klan Base Ball Klub, by the way.

For St. Louis teams, though, you'd be hard pressed to beat the Peach Pies, the alma mater of Peach Pie Jack O'Connor.

james e. brunson said...

I stand corrected!

Jeffrey Kittel said...

Metacomets is a nice one but I always thought Peach Pie was a bit too effeminate. The Klan Klubs are just disturbing but I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

A couple of other favorites: the Chargoggaggoggmanchoggogoggs and the Kunsausstellungsgebaudes, both of Edwardsville, Illinois; the Sultan Bitters (which sounds like a nice ale); the Home Comforts; and the Jolly Nine.

james e. brunson said...

Don't forget Oscar Wildes, Rosebuds, and Sunflowers!

Jeffrey Kittel said...

I think Minnisota was an NHL club called the Oscar Wilds.

Richard Hershberger said...

Moving into 20th century professional baseball, the traditional name for a minor league club in Atlanta, Georgia was the Crackers. It brings me immense joy that a negro league club from Atlanta went by the name of the Black Crackers.

Jeffrey Kittel said...

It's a shame we don't get good club names anymore. Peach Pie or Black Crackers wouldn't survive the focus group, I guess. One of the minor league baseball teams in StL is called the Rascals, which isn't too bad. The other is called the Grizzlies, which is as bland as they come. Teams need to stop using the animal names and try being a bit more imaginative. Of course, in the 19th century, we had hundreds of clubs named (Insert Color Variation Here) Stockings.

David Ball said...

Were the St. Louis Reds ever called the Red Sox? It seems to me I've seen that a few times, and it's the only substitution of Sox for Stockings I know of before the 20th century.

Richard Hershberger said...

Regarding the sad state of modern minor league names, the traditional minor league club names for the cities of York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, are the White Roses and the Red Roses, respectively. This, of course, warms the cockles of the hearts of all lovers of English history or Shakespeare.

After an absence of professional baseball in these cites of quite some years, the independent Atlantic League now has teams in both. Their names: The Lancaster Barnstormers and the York Revolution. It is enough to make one weep.

As for "Sox" for "Stockings", I have seen it used irregularly from the 1870s. The Cincinnati Enquirer of 9/18/1870 has the headline "WHITE SOX AND FOREST CITIES" atop a brief article on the game in Chicago between the Chicago and Cleveland clubs. The body of the article refers to the Chicago club as the "White Stockings".

I suspect that headlines, with their imperative for brevity, are the main source of this formation early on.

Jeffrey Kittel said...

Off the top of my head, I don't think the Reds were ever refered to as the Red Sox. I'd have to check my notes because it may have happened once or twice but generally, they were the Red Stockings, Reds or Ponies. I agree with Richard that the Sox name came about due to newspaper space conerns. I have no evidence but that's how I always figured it.

As to the War of the Roses clubs, it's almost tragic that they didn't bring back the old names. Think what a semi-literate sports writer could do with them-the sons of York creating a glorious summer with a victory, etc. These are the things that happen when a culture stops reading.