# Nineteenth-century baseball team names **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 5, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098 "2015-08-05T21:00:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/21 "2015-08-08T04:43:00Z")
Some of the teams that got their names from club names or followed that pattern: Mutual Club (New York) Atlantic Club (Brooklyn) Eckford Club (Brooklyn) Athletic Club (Philadelphia) Allegheny Club (Pittsburgh) Lord Baltimore Club Maryland Club (Baltimore) Olympic Club (Washington) Forest City Club (Cleveland) Kekionga Club (Fort Wayne) Western Club (Keokuk) When the Cincinnati Red Stockings became successful in 1869-1870, they popularized sock colors for team names—generally the socks were the only colored part of the uniform. Some of the teams that followed this example (some of these are historically questionable): Boston Red Stockings Hartford Dark Blues Worcester Brown Stockings Worcester Grays Troy Green Stockings Chicago White Stockings Louisville Grays Providence Grays St. Louis Brown Stockings ( this is all from memory so don’t hold me to it) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/22 "2015-08-08T05:22:42Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > […] > Forest City Club (Cleveland) > […] There was also a Forest City club in Rockford, Illinois. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/23 "2015-08-08T14:48:03Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > For decades (in fact, it may still be) the official name of the Cardinals was the St. Louis National Baseball Club, Inc., despite the fact that the Cardinals nickname goes back to the 1890s. I think there’s a distinction to be made between the “official name” of the _team_ and the name of the corporate entity (or entities) that owns or runs the team. The corporate entity was called the St. Louis National Baseball Club Inc., but the official name of the _team_ has been the “St. Louis Cardinals” for a long time. The corporate entity held the rights, so you had to get the permission of the St. Louis National Baseball Club Inc. to rebroadcast portions of games that it recorded, but the _team_ that appeared in those recordings was officially the St. Louis Cardinals. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/24 "2015-08-08T16:18:47Z")
…And the Washington American League team was officially the Nationals, incongruously; but fans and sportswriters (and the team itself, I assume) insisted on Senators and that name stuck, until Washington was vacated as a team site in 1972. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/25 "2015-08-08T17:21:42Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > …And the Washington American League team was officially the Nationals, incongruously; but fans and sportswriters (and the team itself, I assume) insisted on Senators and that name stuck, until Washington was vacated as a team site in 1972. The “Nationals” name—like a lot of team names appropriated by American League clubs—is actually much older. I don’t know whether there was ever an actual “National Club,” but the name comes from the era in which teams were usually associated with gentlemen’s clubs. The names of the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Athletics, Washington Nationals, Washington Senators, and Milwaukee Brewers, for example, are all based on names used by (or retroactively associated with) National League and other pre-AL clubs. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/26 "2015-08-08T17:55:50Z")
Well, even now, “Mets” is merely a shortened version of the team’s official business name: “New York Metropolitan Baseball Club.” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/27 "2015-08-08T19:19:51Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Well, even now, “Mets” is merely a shortened version of the team’s official business name: “New York Metropolitan Baseball Club.” I’d quibble with this statement only to the extent that it might be in conflict with what I said above: From my perspective “New York Mets” is the _actual_ name of the team that takes the field under the direction and sponsorship of “New York Metropolitan Baseball Club Inc.” ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/28 "2015-08-10T13:21:01Z")
Saw this posted on Twitter earlier this month… > In 1905 the Washington American League team held a public contest to replace the nickname Senators, which apparently wasn’t very popular. The winner: Nationals, the nickname used by the 1886-1889 National League Washington franchise, which remained an unofficial nickname for years after. The Senators name emerged with the 1892-1899 National League Washington team, which originated as an American Association team in 1891. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098/29 "2015-08-10T14:41:31Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I’d quibble with this statement only to the extent that it might be in conflict with what I said above: From my perspective “New York Mets” is the _actual_ name of the team that takes the field under the direction and sponsorship of “New York Metropolitan Baseball Club Inc.” Oh, as a practical matter, you’re 100% right. NOBODY has ever called the team “the Metropolitans” or anything like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nineteenth-century-baseball-team-names/727098.md?page=1)