Book reviews

Book reviews with a Boston bent. Be it a book that takes place in Boston, or was written by a writer from Boston. Or one on the history of Boston. From comic book to graphic novels to the strange and weird. If it is about Boston you will find it here

Monday, April 2, 2012

Fenway 1912

I have been reading this book for a while. Getting distracted by the 101st season in my beloved park.

That is where  I discovered an interesting bit right in the first chapter.  Boston was once a two team town. There was an American League team The Boston Red Sox and a second team that played on the National team side.  This less popular team had been given several different names as time went on. The Nationals, The Doves, or even The Rustlers....  

Well Glenn Stout says it better than I ever could

The Nationals  began to rouse from their slumber.   James Gaffney, a member of New York's Tammany hall political machine purchased the club.  Former player John Montgmery Ward was elected president and on December 21 the club made some changes.

First Ward announced that henceforth the team would no longer   be known as The Nationals, or the Doves or Rustlers ....They would be known as "The Braves" Ward explained that new owner James Gaffney is one of the grand sachems of Tammany in New York and is known as one of the "Braves"


Therefore Boston Braves would have the true fighting ring that the fans would take to.  --James Gaffney

He continues  -----
The Tammany Hall building was in fact named after a Native American  Chief Tammany, and so the political activists who meet there and  became New York's first political machine were  called "Braves"

The nickname continues to this day, used by the Atlanta Braves although few fan realize that the name originally referred to a machine politician, not a Native American

Back to me then

So if any from Atlanta is listening, your team was not named as a offence of your Native lands.  The Toma-hawk shot in the 7th inning is useless. 

The new mascot should be a guy in a poorly made suit demanding 10% of all earning

Now

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