Tag: National Association

“The Grand Central Hotel,” by Anonymous

April 10, 2023
839px-Grand_Central_Hotel,_from_Robert_N._Dennis_collection_of_stereoscopic_views_5_crop
Grand Central Hotel (New York Public Library / public domain)

The publication date for this piece is unknown, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was written in the mid-to-late-1870s, around the time of the fall of the National Association and the beginnings of the National League. The poem is full of imagery and metaphor, speaking of “the collected debris of memories” and “New fortresses / Stretch their fledgling arms / And puncture the sky / With abbreviated zeal.” I can just imagine team owners clinking glasses to cheers of “Long live the National League!” as they concluded their meeting at the Grand Central Hotel.

*

No sun,
Now rubble,
The collected debris of memories
Echoes
An anguished ring through the corridors of Manhattan Canyons:

Where are we going?

From where
To where
Do we step?

December… a month… a day… a time
logged on the fresh pages of history…
the first and only real entry… a league
…a new league… a microscopic legion of
men bearing witness to the birth,
unfurling its colors on an industrial land to detract

from the former failure…

The National Association is dead,
Long live the National League!

From rubble to rubble,
From dust to dust,
New fortresses
Stretch their fledgling arms
And puncture the sky
With abbreviated zeal.

Like so many transients
Awaiting a derailed train,
The others come
And never go.

The American Association is dead
The Union Association is dead
The Players League is dead.
All gone,
All dead,

Long live the National League!

“The Great Mississippi,” by Jordan A. Deutsch

April 18, 2021

This poem by Jordan Deutsch was published in 1932, and you can see the history all over this piece. I really love the imagery of the sunrise, and the phonetic spelling out of the conductor’s pronunciations (“… Shecargo and Saint Louieeeeee”) just put a voice in my head yelling these cities out.

*

Up from the grasslands,
The plains, the cities,
Up from the vastness of the land itself:
Up Up Up
To the Great Mississippi.

Up to that First Field bathed in the sun,
Basking in the glory of its birth
Immersed in future time.

Further up slides the sun.

Up
To the Red Stockings from Cincinnati,
The original Magnificent Machine,
The dynasty without a future.
Up
To the National Association,
Swaying in its greatness.

Further up slides the sun.

Through the mouth of history slide provocative names
Once breathed on the lips of dreamers.

In what fine grave do the Elizabeth Resolutes
Troy Haymakers,
And Lord Baltimores now rest?

Up moving up
To expanding cities pocketed
In gray concrete.

(Can you hear the shrill and melodic chant of the
Train Conductor calling out his roll?)
:NewYawkHartfordBosstonPhilaDELphia
LouievilleCINCINnatiShecargo and Saint Louieeeeee.

Up up up
Up
To the Great Mississippi.

This day in baseball: First professional team at the White House

April 13, 2019

The first professional sports team to visit the White House was the Forest Cities ball club, a recently defunct franchise of the National Association, brought to Washington, D.C. by President Chester A. Arthur on April 13, 1883.  Later in the season, President Arthur also hosted the new National League’s New York Gothams (who would become known as the Giants in 1885).

Chester Arthur
Chester A. Arthur (Wikipedia)