Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Baseball Imitating Life....In the Middle Ages

My husband is a fan of Ebbets Field Flannels and loves the look of traditional baseball jerseys, and it is just fun to look at the different uniforms and muse over the names of Negro League and minor league teams long gone (and some still around).

Looking through their website tonight, we found a cap for one team that was a pretty obscure historical reference, the type you rarely find in baseball...especially minor league baseball

The York White Roses.

Clever, and I hardly would've expected a minor league baseball reference to the famed War of the Roses that tore Britain apart for so long...IN THE 15th CENTURY. After all, the stereotype is that most of the fans and definitely the players back then could barely read. To see a reference in baseball to the thirty-four year battle for the throne that waged between the House of York and the House of Lancaster...Wow. That was unexpected to say the least.

But what struck me as completely ironic was the blip in the section on the history of the team:

Managed by Rudy Hulswitt, York finished in 7th place, 17 1/2 games behind the pennant winner. The franchise MOVED TO LANCASTER!! in 1941, but the move didn't help, as the franchise finished dead last, 39 games out.


It however, doesn't say whether or not the franchise was renamed to the Red Roses when they moved.

And yes, I am a complete geek. I know it.


2 comments:

Captain Spaulding said...

I love the history. Maybe I am just showing my own geekness.

Thursday's Child said...

I'm a geek too and thought it was pretty interesting...even though my geekiness doesn't extend to baseball. I tend to be pretty illiterate there.