Hand Drawn Maps « billsportsmaps.com

June 30, 2023

Billsportsmaps’ 15th anniversary throwback: Major League Baseball, 1903 to 1952 [Hand-drawn map].

Filed under: 15th anniversary maps,Baseball,Hand Drawn Maps,Retro maps — admin @ 9:20 pm

Major League Baseball, 1903 to 1952 [Hand-drawn map]

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By Bill Turianski on the 30th of June 2023; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Billsportsmaps.com had its 15th year anniversary, on the 17th of August 2022. So I am posting a series of maps from the early days of this blog. This hand-drawn map was originally posted in November 2007.

Major League Baseball, 1903 to 1952 [Hand-drawn map]
Between 1903 and 1952, there was no franchise movement among the 8 National League and 8 American League baseball clubs. This map shows all the 16 MLB clubs from that time period, with emblems, cap crests and uniform details. Included is an inset map of the Greater New York City area. In the inset map, the locations of Yankee Stadium (NY Yankees), the Polo Grounds (NY Giants), and Ebbets Field (Brooklyn Dodgers) are marked. The evolution of these three NYC clubs’ crests and the evolution of the three ball clubs’ colors are also shown here.

This map would not have been possible without the incredible book “Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century” {at Amazon, here}. That book was researched, written, and illustrated by Marc Okkonen. His artwork for this book can now be found as the main uniform database (from 1900 to 1994) for the Baseball Hall of Fame site “Dressed to the Nines – A History of the Baseball Uniform”…{exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/database}

I made this map in early 1993, after my brothers had given me, for Christmas, the now-out-of-print “Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century” by Marc Okkonen. I used Caran d’Ache watercolor pencils and graphite pencil, on Bienfang semi-transparent paper. In 2023, I added the banner at the top of the map.

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May 1, 2023

Billsportsmaps’ 15th anniversary throwback: The American League, established in 1901 as a major league. [Hand-drawn map from 2005.]

Filed under: 15th anniversary maps,Baseball,Hand Drawn Maps,Retro maps — admin @ 4:39 pm

The American League, established 1901 as a major league [Hand-drawn map from 2005]
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By Bill Turianski on the 1st of May 2023; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Billsportsmaps.com had its 15th year anniversary, in August 2022. So I am posting a series of maps from the early days of this blog. This map was originally posted in October 2007.

The National League was established in 1876. It had competition from other pro baseball leagues, most notably the American Association (1882-91). Then for several years at the close of the Nineteenth Century, the National League was the sole major league. That changed in 1901: The Western League had renamed itself the American League for 1900, while it was still a minor league. But the next year – 1901 – the American League broke from the National Agreement, and declared itself a major league. So starting in 1901, there were once again two major leagues in pro baseball, and that has not changed since then. And since 1903, the winner of each league has gone on to play in the best-of-7-game World Series.

I hand-drew this map in 2005. The media I used were Caran d’Ache watercolor-pencils, graphite pencil, and Sharpie markers. Featured on this map are caps, logos, and cap crests from the past, with the ball clubs’ years of existence listed. I usually selected the oldest distinctive logos of each team. The text-box overlays, for each team’s formation-dates and for the logos’ time periods, were done on the computer in 2007. Franchise shifts are also noted. The map was updated and tightened up in 2023. And I added a banner at the top showing the 8 charter members of the 1901 American League, which includes any name-changes or franchise-shifts of those 8 ball clubs {info gleaned from this page at Wikipedia…American League: Charter franchises}.

The map lists every ball club that has played in the American League, since its inception as a major league in 1901. The main map is focused on the Northeast and the Midwest of the United States, which, of course, is the area where all of the original teams of both the National League and the American League were located. There are also 5 inset-maps. One inset-map is of Greater New York City (the New York Yankees), and the other four inset-maps are for areas where the American League expanded to, or moved into: California (the Los Angeles Angels and the Oakand Athletics), the state of Washington (the defunct Seattle Pilots, and then the Seattle Mariners), Texas (the Texas Rangers, and the Houston Astros [who switched over from the N.L. in 2013]), and Florida (the Tampa Bay Rays).

The logos and cap designs were primarily sourced from Sportslogos.net and from Marc Okkonen’s drawings found at the HoF site Dressed to the Nines.
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In the 18-year interim between when I made this map [2005], and now [2023], there have been 5 changes. These following five things I have added to the information on the map…There have been two changes in the names of teams in the American League, there has been one league-status change, and there will be another change – a franchise-shift – after the 2024 season, plus there is one change in the way that the history of the A.L. is officially reported.

A). The two team name changes: 1) in 2008, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays changed their name to the Tampa Bay Rays; 2) in 2022, the Cleveland Indians changed their name to the Cleveland Guardians. B). The league-status change: in 2013, the Houston Astros switched from the National League to the American League. C). The change soon to happen: the Oakland A’s will leave Oakland, CA after 2024, and will move to Las Vegas, Nevada. D). The recent ‘change’ in the history of the American League: according to Baseball-reference.com and official Baseball Hall of Fame baseball historian John Thorn, the New York Highlanders [the present-day New York Yankees] were actually an expansion team, and the franchise has no links to the defunct Baltimore Orioles of 1901-02.

The Baltimore Orioles (II, A.L., 1901-02) went bankrupt in the mid-summer of 1902, following ex-Orioles’ manager John McGraw defection to the New York Giants of the National League. And so the American League took over the operations of the 1902 Orioles for the remainder of the season. Following the 1902 season, the American League, under the directive of commissioner Ban Johnson, placed a franchise, under new ownership, in New York City. The team would turn out to be called the New York Highlanders, and they would play at Hilltop Park, about a mile south of the old Polo Grounds in northern Manhattan Island. (That team would change its name to the New York Yankees in 1913, move into Yankee Stadium in The Bronx in 1923, and then go on to become the most successful ball club in the history of Major League Baseball.) Five players from the 1902 Baltimore Orioles joined the roster of the new 1903 New York Highlanders. There are several reports in the news media, during the August-1902-to-March-1903 time frame, that the defunct 1902 Orioles’ franchise was transferred to new ownership in New York City {see 2 paragraphs below}.

And it is even more complicated than that, as described in this July 2014 article from the NY Yankees fan-site called The Captains’ Blog, Yankees Lose Their Oriole Way: BR.com Removes Baltimore Years From Franchise History. Here are some excerpts from that article…“American League President Ban Johnson endeavored to place a team in New York, which, not surprisingly, the incumbent Giants of the National League did everything possible to thwart. Although Johnson wasn’t able to establish a franchise in New York when the A.L. ramped up in 1901, his ultimate plan was to eventually move an existing team into the Big Apple. By many accounts, the Baltimore Orioles were that team.”…“John McGraw was selected to manage the Orioles in 1901, and, he believed, eventually shepherd the team to New York. However, when he learned that Johnson’s plan to reach Gotham didn’t include him, McGraw decided to write his own ticket. Not only did the fiery manager jump ship to the New York Giants in the middle of the 1902 season, but he helped his new bosses gain a majority ownership stake in the Orioles, which he then used to sabotage the franchise. This subterfuge eventually put the Orioles on the brink of collapse, and only by Johnson seizing the reigns was the team able to complete the 1902 season. Then, after negotiating a peace settlement with the National League during the offseason and securing a site for a new ballpark, Johnson folded the tents in the Baltimore and brought his show to the big top in New York.”…“…it could be argued that Johnson was the de facto owner of both the 1902 Orioles and 1903 Highlanders because the A.L. president was largely responsible for constructing their rosters and determining where they played. Who knows, if not for the inhospitable political climate in New York, which forced Johnson to award the franchise to owners backed by the powerful Tammany Hall, the A.L. might have retained control of the team in its early goings. In Yankees Century, baseball historians Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson go so far as to say Johnson was basically extorted out of the franchise by Tammany big wig Joseph Gordon, who forced the sale to a syndicate led by cronies Frank Farrell and Bill Devery in exchange for being able to build a ballpark within the city. “To make it happen,” Stout and Johnson wrote, “all Johnson had to do was say yes – and hand the franchise over to Tammany.” [New paragraph]…“Stout and Gordon’s research also showed that the American League footed some of the bill for the construction of the new ballpark, giving further credence to the notion that the league was a “part owner” of the new franchise in New York. Finally, the commissioner’s lawyers directly advanced a legal argument asserting Johnson’s status as owner. In response to a lawsuit filed by the remnants of the Baltimore American League Baseball Club, which asked for a judge to place the team’s assets in receivership, the New York Times wrote, “Mr. Johnson’s attorney…claims that Mr. Johnson, as President of the American League, is continually acting not only as owner of the Baltimore club, but all other clubs of the American League.”…“…[Ban Johnson]‘s mission was to land a franchise in New York, with or without nominal ownership, meaning only one asset had real value: the right to operate as a franchise. This asset was retained by Johnson and eventually conferred to new owners. Had McGraw not instigated a coup, it’s likely that the transition would have preceded more smoothly and with legal blessing. That it did not shouldn’t erase the clear ties that bind the Baltimore Orioles of 1901 to 1902 to the Yankees of the present day.” [Excerpts written by William Juliano / twitter.com/williamnyy23.]

Via the Wayback Machine, here is a fascinating thread from Baseball-Reference.com…1901-02 Orioles Removed from Yankees History [76 Responses to “1901-02 Orioles Removed from Yankees History”.] In this thread, you can see that John Thorn never addresses the issue, raised by irate commenters, that there is media evidence of a franchise transfer. Here are two, plus a screen-shot of the newspaper article quoted in the second comment. Comment #54…[via the Cleveland Leader from Aug. 27 1902]: “The players, it is said, were given to understand that the franchise of the Baltimore club would be transferred to New York and all hands signed by the Baltimore management switched over there.” Comment #63…[via the Philadelphia Inquirer from March 10, 1903]: “Baltimore franchise will be formally transferred to Gotham and all details announced”. Comment #74: {screenshot of Philadelphia Inquirer from March 10 1903}.

Here’s one more link, from the Reddit.com/Orioles page, posted by u[deleted] on the 22nd of July 2014, On the nonsense that is BBRef trying to strip the 1901/1902 Orioles from the Yankees history.
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February 25, 2023

Billsportsmaps’ 15th anniversary throwback: Negro League Baseball, 1920-1950 (hand-drawn map) [first posted 26 November 2007].

Filed under: 15th anniversary maps,Baseball,Baseball: Negro Leagues,Hand Drawn Maps — admin @ 3:21 pm

By Bill Turianski on the 25th of February 2023; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Negro Leagues map
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Denied entrance into Major League Baseball by the color barrier, black ballplayers organized leagues of their own. These were the Negro Leagues, which existed between 1920 and 1957. The primary leagues were the Negro National League (1920-31; and 1933-48); the Negro Southern League, a minor-league (1920-40); the Eastern Colored League (1923-28); and the Negro American League (1937-57). [For purposes of this map, records will only go to 1950, after which the Negro American League, the last negro league, essentially played exhibition games.]

There were many standouts in the Negro Leagues, and 37 Negro League players (as of 2022) have been elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame. The first five elected were Satchel Paige (the legendary right-handed pitcher); Josh Gibson (catcher, and home run king); James ”Cool Papa” Bell (center fielder, and base-stealer extroardinaire); Buck Leonard (first baseman, slugger); William “Judy” Johnson (third baseman, with a .349 lifetime batting average); and Oscar Charleston (outfielder, and slugger, with a blend of power and speed; and a .376 lifetime batting average). More information about the Negro Leagues can be found at www.blackbaseball.com, and at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum at nlbm.com, among other good sites.

Negro League baseball was characterized by fleet-footed action, and hi-jinks, ranging from tomfoolery to deadly serious one-upsmanship. There was more base-stealing than in Major League Baseball, and there was a sense of “playing to the crowd.” The teams knew the fans (particularly the significant portion of white customers) were there to see a show, and the players didn’t disappoint. An example of this was the barnstorming (traveling) club called the Indianapolis Clowns, an outfit similar to the Harlem Globetrotters. But that did not mean that Negro League baseball was an inferior product. During this era, negro baseball squads often defeated white MLB squads in exhibition games. Seasons were generally around 60 to 70 games long. There were no real standardized schedules, and teams operated on a shoe-string budget.

The Golden Age of the Negro Leagues can be seen as the period from 1933 to 1947. The Washington-Homestead Grays regularly outdrew the Major League Baseball team the Washington Senators in Griffith Park in Washington DC, as they racked up 9 straight Negro National League titles. The Chicago American Giants played in old Comiskey Park, home of the MLB team the Chicago White Sox. The Pittsburgh Crawfords played in the first entirely black-owned ball park, Greenlee Field, and traveled the country in style, in their custom-made bus. The Newark Eagles won the 1946 NNL title, under Effa Manley (the first woman owner-operator to win a championship; she became the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 2006). And the Kansas City Monarchs toured the continent with their state-of-the-art portable lighting system. The Kansas City Monarchs would set up shop most anywhere, playing to thousands on a nightly basis. The Monarchs began using lighting for night games in 1930, five years before MLB teams first did. The KC Monarchs ranged throughout the midwest, the upper midwest and Canada. The Monarchs ended up sending more players to Major League Baseball than any other Negro League team. Their star pitcher, Satchel Paige, made more money than most major leaguers. It was an amazing phenomenon, that only ended when blacks were finally able to play in the Major Leagues. In 1947, Jackie Robinson, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, broke the color barrier, and the Negro Leagues days were numbered. Owners saw their star talent go to the white ball clubs, with no financial compensation. By the mid 1950s, the few surviving Negro League clubs were basically playing exhibition games, and the whole era faded away under the public radar. But the legacy of the Negro Leagues cannot be overstated.

I drew the main map in 2001, using Swiss-made Caran d’Ache watercolor pencils and Rapidograph pens. In 2007, after scanning it, I added the flanking segments. I have included the 17 most prominent Negro Leagues ball clubs.

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November 13, 2022

Billsportsmaps’ 15th anniversary throwback: Hockey of the North Atlantic, circa 1994 [hand-drawn map].

Filed under: 15th anniversary maps,Hand Drawn Maps,Hockey — admin @ 10:12 pm

By Bill Turianski ; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Billsportsmaps.com had its 15th year anniversary, on the 17th of August 2022. So I am posting a series of maps from the early days of this blog. This map was originally posted in October 2007.

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This is a map from my early days of sports maps, back in 1994. I was using a semi-transparent Bienfang watercolor-weight paper. First, I traced, onto that paper, the outlines from an enlarged photo-copied map (from an atlas). Then I used Swiss-made Caran d’Ache watercolor pencils, and plain graphite pencil. As you can see, back then, I was way more into the unbridled use of color and form, and less into accuracy. I can remember, halfway into the map, deciding to put in minor-league hockey clubs, only to realize (pre-Internet) that I had little chance of finding the logos for most of these small clubs. So I improvised: 1993 Ontario Hockey League trading cards I had helped (for logos of teams like the Sudbury Wolves, the Owen Sound Platers, and the Belleville Bulls); and for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League teams, I just used their names alone. This map has teams from the National Hockey League; the American Hockey League; the aforementioned OHL and QMJHL; and the East Coast Hockey League. Minor league affiliations of all 16 of the 1993-94 AHL clubs are noted by small logos of their parent NHL clubs. (1993-94 AHL/NHL affiliations: Adirondack Red Wings/Detroit Red Wings; Albany River Rats/New Jersey Devils; Binghamton Rangers/New York Rangers; Cape Breton Oilers/Edmonton Oilers; Cornwall Aces/Quebec Nordiques; Fredericton Canadiens/Montreal Canadiens; Hamilton Canucks/Vancouver Canucks; Hershey Bears/Philadelphia Flyers; Moncton Hawks/Winnipeg Jets (I); Portland Pirates/Washington Capitals; Prince Edward Island Senators/Ottawa Senators; Providence Bruins/Boston Bruins; Rochester Amerks/Buffalo Sabres; Springfield Indians/Hartford Whalers; Saint John Flames/Calgary Flames; St. John’s Maple Leafs/Toronto Maple Leafs). After I scanned the drawing in 2007, I cleaned it up slightly, added team names in Arial font, and tightened some of the circles on the map. The player in the map’s legend is New York Ranger goalie Mike Richter, with his Statue of Liberty mask, and in his 1994 NHL All-Star Game uniform. {1994-97 NHL All-Star uniforms (nhluniforms.com).}

Hockey of the North Atlantic, circa 1994 [hand-drawn map]

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July 11, 2008

Baseball of the Southeast, circa 1992.

Filed under: Baseball,Hand Drawn Maps — admin @ 10:43 pm

Major League Baseball clubs in this map are the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Phillies logo isn’t included, but you can see Philadelphia in the far upper right of the main map.

All the other teams on the map are minor league ball clubs. Their parent MLB clubs are indicated by icons depicting the MLB clubs’ colors and logos. For example, the blue, orange, and gray circles are New York Mets minor league clubs (or farm clubs); the blue and sky-blue circles with the maple leaf are Toronto Blue Jays farm clubs; the teams with the red tomahawks are Atlanta Braves farm clubs, and so on.

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April 16, 2008

Baseball of the Upper Midwest, circa 1992.

Filed under: Baseball,Hand Drawn Maps — admin @ 6:48 pm

I drew this map around 15 years ago, in autumn 1992 through to early 1993. I ended up doing 3 of this type of map: one of the Northeast (which I’ve already posted); this one; and one, of the South, that I will post later this spring. These maps combine Big League ball clubs with all of the minor-league ball clubs in the region.

The Major League Baseball clubs in this map are the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, the Cincinnat Reds, the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Toronto Blue Jays, and the Pittsburgh Pirates emblems are also shown: those two cities are just east of where this map is cut off.

All the other ball clubs on the map are minor league baseball teams. These teams are all affiliated with a Major League Baseball parent-club. [A few of these clubs are defunct; and some have changed names, and/or affiliation] . The affiliations are indicated on the map by the smaller MLB-club-icons, next to each minor league team’s logo.

To see my map: “Baseball of the Northeast, 1992,” click here.

To see more of my hand-drawn baseball maps, go to the Categories section on the upper right of the screen, and click on “baseball.”

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January 8, 2008

NFL Timeline, with Map: 1920-1933 / A history of the Dayton Triangles’ franchise; and a brief mention of the 1926 NFL-champions the Frankford Yellow Jackets, and the 1928 NFL-champions the Providence Steam Roller / Plus an illustrated list of all defunct NFL teams that played at least 4 seasons.

Filed under: Hand Drawn Maps,NFL>Thumbnail Histories- -(APFA, NFL, AAFC Teams),NFL/ Gridiron Football — admin @ 5:00 pm

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The early days of the National Football League are criminally under-reported. In America, there is a gigantic publishing industry for books on baseball… the glorious days of yore, and all that. Academic sorts just love going on and on about baseball’s storied past. Meanwhile, the amount of books on professional gridiron football’s wild and wooly formative years is scant. I think publishers think Joe-six-pack NFL fan doesn’t read books, let alone buy them. There might be some truth to this, because after all, NFL football appeals to the short attention-span viewer, with its segmented run of play, flashy graphics, and over the top style of reporting by the announcers.

Very few NFL fans know about the Dayton Triangles, the Frankford Yellow Jackets, and the Providence Steam Roller.

The Dayton Triangles were an original team from the APFA, which was formed in 1920. [The American Professional Football Association became the NFL in 1922.] The Triangles wore dark-royal-blue-and-white uniforms, with zebra-striped sleeves. The Dayton Triangles played 10 seasons in the league, before moving to Brooklyn, NY, in 1930. **{See this history of the Dayton Triangles.}

The Triangles became known as the Brooklyn Dodgers when they moved east, in 1930. This team had no affiliation with the Major League Baseball club known as the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Brooklyn Football Dodgers played 16 seasons in the NFL, from 1930 to 1945, when they were forced to merge with the NFL’s Boston Yanks. {See this.} The Boston Yanks moved to New York as the Bulldogs, then the Yanks, but were sold back to the league, in 1952. This franchise was awarded to a group of businessmen in Dallas, Texas, in 1952, but the Dallas Texans of 1952 couldn’t draw enough fans to the Cotton Bowl, and went belly-up. As it was in the middle of the season, the league took over the club, and played the last couple of games as a traveling team with a base in Hershey, PA. The last two games the Dallas Texans played after being taken over by the league were as the home team versus the Chicago Bears in the Rubber Bowl in Akron, OH on Thanksgiving Day in 1952 [the only game the hapless Dallas Texans of the NFL ever won], and against the Lions in Detroit.

The NFL does not recognize the link between the original Dallas Texans (1952), and the second Baltimore Colts (1953-1984), even though the roster of the old Texans (including players like Art Donovan, and Gino Marchetti) was transferred to the Baltimore Colts, in 1953. {see this.} The second Baltimore Colts also maintained the blue and white color scheme of the old Dallas Texans (as well as that of the Dayton Triangles). [The original Baltimore Colts played 3 seasons in the AAFC, and one season in the NFL, from 1947 to 1950, and wore green and silver uniforms.] Here is a great article written by NFL historian Bob Carroll (at DaytonTriangles.com), {‘How to get from Dayton to Indianapolis by way of Brooklyn, Boston, New York, Dallas, Hershey and Baltimore }. The second Baltimore Colts existed from 1953 to March 29, 1984, when owner Robert Irsay, threatened with seizure of his franchise by the Maryland State Legislature (due to a dispute over the stadium), snuck the team’s entire possessions out in U-Haul moving vans, at 3 in the morning… destination, Indianapolis, Indiana, and the newly built Hoosier Dome. The Indianapolis Colts have remained in their dome stadium since then, finally winning an NFL Title in last season’s Super Bowl. {See this article, from USA Today, during last year’s NFL playoffs.}

The Frankford Yellow Jackets and the Providence Steam Roller are the last two defunct teams to win an NFL championship. The Frankford Yellow Jackets were in the NFL from 1924 to 1931, and were from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They sported dark blue and yellow uniforms. They won the NFL Title in 1926. The Providence Steam Roller, from Rhode Island, were in the NFL from 1925 to 1931. They wore black, with orange trim. They won the NFL Title in 1928. They played in a 10,000 seat bicycle velodrome (seriously). {See this.} Basically, the Great Depression killed off both these teams. The NFL was no money-making venture back then, to say the least.

Click this icon for a list of all defunct NFL teams that played at least 4 seasons..

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December 6, 2007

Football Clubs of Northeast Italy.

Filed under: Hand Drawn Maps,Italy — admin @ 8:37 pm

This map is part of my map of Italian Football Clubs (unfinished). Crests are sized proportionally to average attendances from 2006 [To see "Italian Calcio" post of September 24, 2007: Click on "italy" in Categories. It will be right below this post].

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November 26, 2007

Negro League Baseball, 1920-1950.

Filed under: Baseball,Baseball: Negro Leagues,Hand Drawn Maps — admin @ 7:16 am

Negro Leagues map

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Denied entrance into Major League Baseball by the color barrier, black ballplayers organized leagues of their own. These were the Negro Leagues, which existed between 1920 and 1957. The primary leagues were the Negro National League (1920-31; and 1933-48); the Negro Southern League, a minor-league (1920-40); the Eastern Colored League (1923-28); and the Negro American League (1937-57). [For purposes of this map, records will only go to 1950, after which the Negro American League, the last negro league, essentially played exhibition games.]

There were many standouts in the Negro Leagues, and 34 players have been elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame. The first five elected were Satchel Paige (the legendary right-handed pitcher); Josh Gibson (catcher, and home run king); James ”Cool Papa” Bell (center fielder, and base-stealer extroardinaire); Buck Leonard (first baseman, slugger); William “Judy” Johnson (third baseman, with a .349 lifetime batting average); and Oscar Charleston (outfielder, and slugger, with a blend of power and speed; and a .376 lifetime batting average). More information about the Negro Leagues can be found at www.blackbaseball.com, and at the Negro Leagues e-Museum @ http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/, among other good sites.

I drew the main map in 2001. I added the flanking segments in 2007. I have included the 17 most prominent Negro Leagues ball clubs.

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November 22, 2007

Portsmouth Football Club.

Filed under: English Football Clubs,Hand Drawn Maps — admin @ 9:51 am

Today is Thanksgiving in the USA, and I am giving thanks to the roof over my head, my family and their continued health and happiness, this old e-machine that can still (slowly) do the work I demand of it, and to the fact that my favorite sporting club is sitting in 6th place in one of the top leagues in the world. That would be plucky Portsmouth FC of the English Premier League, affectionately known as “Pompey.” Portsmouth was the traditional home base of the British Navy, all through the years of Empire, and the naval presence there is still strong. It is a very working-class town, as opposed to the more upper-middle class Southampton, 15 miles northwest. The two have one of the biggest rivalries in English football, and there was much glee in Portsmouth when Southampton FC were relegated in 2005. Pompey almost were relegated the following season, but pulled off one of the greatest escapes in Premier League history, going from 9 pts. down, to safety, in the last 10 games. They did this by virtue of two things: the return of much-loved manager Harry Redknapp earlier that season, and a cash-infusion from new ownership that allowed the wheeler-dealer Redknapp to make some crucial player acquisitions during the January transfer window. I decided on Portsmouth as my club because I love their passionate fans, and I am drawn to teams that have to struggle to keep their heads above water. Portsmouth, in their dilapidated stadium, with their working class fan base, punching above their weight, really reminded me of the soccer club I lived and died for as a youth…the Rochester Lancers of the old North American Soccer League. I later found out that Harry Redknapp had played, and coached, in the NASL, with the Seattle Sounders from 1976 to 1979. Here he met Milan Mandaric, then owner of the original San Jose Earthquakes. Harry had come up through the West Ham United system, playing midfield for the East London club from 1965-72, with 147 appearances and 7 goals. He ended his English career at Bournemouth in 1976, and then went to the US . Years later, when Mandaric decided to buy (and basically rescue and revive) Portsmouth FC (he loved how devoted the Pompey faithful were), he appointed Redknapp (who had just managed West Ham for 6 seasons) as Director of Football. Redknapp eventually became manager in 2002, guiding Pompey back to the top flight for the first time in 15 years, in 2003. So that NASL vibe I felt with Portsmouth was real.

Portsmouth FC has less cash-flow worries since Alexandre Gaydamak bought the club in 2005. Since avoiding relegation in 2005, they have been steadily improving. They finished 9th last season, just missing out on qualifying for Europe, in the UEFA Cup. Under Harry, Pompey has always played a brand attacking football, and the team has been fun to watch these last 5 seasons. Redknapp is much loved by his players, and has an avuncular style that has endeared him to the public. His acumen in the transfer market is legendary. He’s kind of like a used car salesman, but with footballers. Now with more cash at his disposal, Redknapp has been acquiring (and attracting) a higher caliber of player. Portsmouth’s defense (never a strength) has improved considerably, and they recently won an unprecedented 4 straight games on the road. The club is also improving infrastructure like it’s training facillities, and they finally put a roof over the re-built away stands. Fratton Park is still the smallest venue in the Premier League, but the club plans to build a new, state of the art stadium/commercial complex/luxury co-op development, on land reclaimed from the English Channel. Last time I checked, it was slated for a 2010 completion, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Whatever the outcome of the perpetually delayed new stadium, Portsmouth FC”s future looks bright.

Special thanks to these websites: FootballGroundGuide[dot]com[dot]uk, and Stadium Guide[dot]com for the photos, and Colours-Of-Football[dot]com for the kits.

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