The logo of the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña: a big sky-blue circle, bordered in red and white, surrounding a smaller circle of darker blue with white borders, superimposed on which is a red-and-white nautical star that hosts the acronym "LNP" in black block letters.

Gaceta de la Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña

150 years of the best baseball in the universe—all in one place.

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League: A very simple white circle containing a red maple leaf, bordered in red-white-red.

Royal Canadian Baseball League

In the 1890s, a decade after American baseball banned foreign players, Canadians tired of waiting for spots on Cuban or Texan rosters founded their own league.

At first, they played mostly as entertainment for lumber camps and mining towns. Pitchers threw breaking balls only by accident, hitters swung for the fences on every pitch, and players maintained a studied agnosticism on the importance of fielding.

When the Earl of Minto granted it patronage in 1901, putting the “Royal” in “Royal Canadian Baseball League,” it became a significant contributor to the world of baseball, especially as many players migrated southward to play in the Caribbean.

Latin-style baseball, for the first time, experienced the home run as a semi-reliable offensive weapon, and the tall, squarely-built Canadians, with their sinewy arms, big swings, and mastery over hardwood, received a nickname that reverberated throughout history: bucherones (“lumberjacks”), still used to refer to sluggers today.

Ontario Baseball Association

Northern Circuit

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Nipissing Air Marshals: a dark blue circle gridded in light blue and bordered in light blue-navy-light blue, on which stands a white narrow stencil "N" bordered in light blue and black.
  • Banners: 1896.
  • OBA pennants: 1896.
  • RCBL championships: 1896.

Though a team sprang up in the modern area of North Bay due to it being a majority-Francophone part of Ontario, Nipissing would later become famous for its services in national defence.

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Sault Ste. Marie Rapids: an orange circle striped with thin green lines, bordered in green-gold-green, emblazoned with a huge modern "S" laser-cut near the top curve; nestled in the top part of the "S" are the smaller letters "SM." All of the text is bordered in gold and green, too.
  • Banners: 1894, 1895, 1897, 1902, 1903.
  • OBA pennants: 1902.
  • RCBL championships: 1902.

The Canadian side of the Rivalry of St. Mary’s River, which may well have encouraged the formation of professional Great Lakes teams in the succeeding years, is sometimes nicknamed “the Canallers.“

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Sudbury Meteors: a turquoise circle emblazoned with a bronze "S" in curvy font, bordered in bronze-black-bronze. There are meteors streaming behind the "S" towards their inexorable landing in the bottom left of the logo.
  • Banners: 1901, 1904.
  • OBA pennants: None.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Once simply a Jesuit settlement, Sudbury was put on the map by the discovery of nickel ore in its namesake “basin” formation, which would bring prosperity and expansion to the city.

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Thessalon North Stars: a dark, cold purple circle, almost brown, bordered in gold-black-gold; upon it sits a big serif "T" which grades from white up top to turquoise at the bottom.
  • Banners: 1892, 1893.
  • OBA pennants: 1893.
  • RCBL championships: 1893.

A small lumber and farming community on the north shore of Lake Huron, Thessalon has been the site of surprisingly extensive investment, including in other sports, from the rest of Canada.

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Thunder Bay Sleeping Giants: a green circle bordered in gold-red-gold, emblazoned with curvy white lowercase letters that say "TB" for Thunder Bay, bordered in black and shadowed in blue.

FOUNDED 1901

  • Banners: None.
  • OBA pennants: None.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Strewn throughout Canada are many reminders of the debt its citizens owe to geology, and among these the massive basaltic cliffs of the Sleeping Giant might be one of the most potent.

Southern Circuit

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Brampton Florists: a green circle flecked with pink triangles, bordered in pink-white-pink and emblazoned with a bold script "B" in black, bordered in white and pink.
  • Banners: 1893, 1894.
  • OBA pennants: 1894.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Whatever your city considers their most enduring symbol—a skyscraper, a music genre, a food—in some sense, it cannot hold a candle to Brampton, whose calling card was its floriculture industry.

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Hamilton Hammers: a blue circle bordered in gold-red-gold, emblazoned with an italic white "H" with a low crossbar, bordered in red and shadowed.
  • Banners: 1902.
  • OBA pennants: None.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Hamilton, like many of the cities near it, is part of a heavily industrialized zone which defined the Canadian economy in the manufacturing boom of the early twentieth century.

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Kitchener Wild Pigeons: a dark green circle bordered in beige-tan-beige, inside of which a blocky sans-serif tan "K" sits, bordered inside in beige and outside in black.

FOUNDED 1901

  • Banners: 1903.
  • OBA pennants: 1903.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Domestic rock doves are one thing, plentiful in cities all over North America—but Kitchener’s early settlers genuinely had to drive away thousands of their feral equivalent out of the area.

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Markham Wheelwrights: a blue circle bordered in red-white-red, emblazoned with a thick sans-serif golden "M" bordered in red and shadowed.
  • Banners: None.
  • OBA pennants: None.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Before sprawling cities became the norm for human habitation, Markham, a town with one foot in the frontier, was full of artisans crafting parts for various mills—including (what else?) wheels.

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Pickering Bonebreakers: a dark green circle bordered in orange-white-orange, emblazoned with a white "P" in a quirky sans-serif font, very restaurant menu aesthetic with the bell of the "P" folding over it in a wide curve, bordered in orange and black and shadowed.
  • Banners: 1892, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1901, 1904.
  • OBA pennants: 1892, 1895, 1897, 1901, 1904.
  • RCBL championships: 1892, 1895, 1901.

Ontario’s most successful team, the Bonebreakers hail from the birthplace of Daniel David Palmer—whose foundation of chiropractic, for good or ill, ensured his place in medical history.

Ligue du Baseball du Québec

Québec Ouest

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Draveurs de Gatineau: a blue circle bordered in green-white-green, emblazoned with a big, angular "G" that looks like it fell off an old-timey sign and took slight scratches to its front, bordered in more green and shadowed in white.
  • Banners: 1902.
  • LBQ pennants: 1902.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Like the “river hogs” of the American Northeast, draveurs in Canada were timber rafters who moved all-important lumber down rivers like the one that gave Gatineau its name to factories and mills.

The logo of the Supercalandres de Lachute: a maroon circle bordered in coral-black-coral, on which a formal serif "L" stands in white, bordered in more coral and then black, shadowed as well.
  • Banners: 1903.
  • LBQ pennants: 1903.
  • RCBL championships: 1903.

Like many other towns of central Quebec, Lachute’s contribution to the Canadian economy was in paper—which supercalenders gave the glossy finish so prized by writers and printers.

The logo of the Insulaires de Laval: a dark pink (mauve?) circle dotted with white, bordered in white-blue-white, with an angular sans-serif blue "L" bordered in black and then white upon it.
  • Banners: 1895, 1897.
  • LBQ pennants: 1895.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Over the years, as municipalities in the general orbit of Montréal began to abut, they would begin dividing up any free islands left in the Hochelaga Archipelago amongst themselves.

The logo of the Corsaires de Sherbrooke: an orange circle decorated with a thin dark orange wave pattern, bordered in navy-white-navy, emblazoned with a blocky, modern-looking, diagonal navy "S," bordered in light blue and white and shadowed in black.
  • Banners: 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1901.
  • LBQ pennants: 1896, 1897, 1901.
  • RCBL championships: 1897.

Unlike most of the teams in the Royal Canadian, Sherbrooke chose its name well into the twentieth century, once Stan Rogers had given the town a sufficiently memorable (if incorrect) association.

The logo of the Bucherons de Thurso: a red circle bordered in gold-black-gold and striped in thin gold strands, emblazoned with a white "T" whose left crossbar swashes downward, bearing black wood grain.
  • Banners: 1892, 1893, 1894, 1896, 1904.
  • LBQ pennants: 1893, 1894.
  • RCBL championships: 1894.

Despite being a center of the lumber industry since 1850, Thurso exaggerated a bit when it chose its baseball team’s fearsome name: in reality, the town’s claim to fame is a paper mill.

Québec et Maritimes

The logo of the Royal Canadian Baseball League's Halifax Batteries: a blue circle bordered in gold-black-gold, inside of which a narrow "H" with a diagonal crossbar in gold is shadowed.

FOUNDED 1901

  • Banners: 1903.
  • LBQ pennants: None.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Halifax Harbour was one of the most strategically important ports in the Colonial-era Royal Navy, leading to the fortification of the local Citadel Hill with the capability for long-range defence.

The logo of the Fourches de Lévis: a pale golden circle bordered in black-white-black and striped in more black, inside of which a wide serif black "L" is bordered in white and shadowed thickly in black.
  • Banners: 1892.
  • LBQ pennants: 1892.
  • RCBL championships: None.

While the exact method that Marie-Josephte Corriveau used to murder her husband is a topic of dispute—it may have been a more prosaic hatchet—the pitchfork stuck in the local imagination.

The logo of the Moncton Magnets: a black circle bordered in bright green-white-bright green, emblazoned with two "M" letterforms in modern type; one is red, one is blue, and they're bordered together in white, with a bright green shadow.

FOUNDED 1901

  • Banners: None.
  • LBQ pennants: None.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Moncton, one of three significant urban areas in New Brunswick, has historically made plenty of hay out of every local phenomenon they can think of involving water running in the wrong direction.

The logo of the Dons de Québec: a blue circle decorated with faintly-shaded wave patterns, bordered in white-black-white, with a letterform of joined "QC" in block type, embossed in white, bordered in black and shadowed.
  • Banners: 1901, 1902, 1904.
  • LBQ pennants: 1904.
  • RCBL championships: 1904.

Class-conscious Québec City fans have long assumed their team is named after the more powerful families in the area, but it actually takes its name from Samuel de Champlain‘s flagship.

The logo of the Trifluviens de Trois-Rivières: a navy circle bordered in black/white/black, emblazoned with a white "TR" in modern athletic type, inside of which are contained the three mouths of the St Maurice river; they, and the letterform as a whole, a re bordered in light blue and then black, which also includes its shadow.
  • Banners: None.
  • LBQ pennants: None.
  • RCBL championships: None.

Given the fantastic demonym citizens of the area enjoy, there was never much competition when the local team needed a name; it further enshrines François Gravé du Pont‘s embarrassing mistake.