Industrial League
The Industrial League is a general term for several semi-professional baseball leagues pitting company-sponsored teams made up of employees against each other. Industrial League baseball was an extremely popular past-time in the Birmingham District and is credited with serving as a seed-bed for numerous professional ball-players.
In 1926 the Leagues were organized thus:
1907
In 1907 the Birmingham YMCA organized a four-team amateur baseball league, with each team named for a commercial sponsor:
- Prowell Hardware Co.
- Cotton, Odum & Bowers
- Massey Business College
- Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Co.
1926
In 1926 there was an Industrial League and a City League, each organized into three divisions:
Industrial League
Eastern Division |
Central Division |
Western Division |
City League
Central Division |
Eastern Division |
Western Division |
1936
By 1936 there were more than 150 company-sponsored teams in more than a dozen leagues across five divisions playing under the umbrella of the Birmingham Amateur Baseball Federation. The Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company sponsored two of those leagues and eleven teams.
References
- Brasher, Jusin (2006) "The New South and the Sandlot: Company-Sponsored Baseball in Birmingham, AL." The Vulcan Historical Review, Vol. 10, pp. 20–32