Northern Pacific had a Baseball Team?

weekendrailroader · **Joined:** Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:02 am **Posts:** 293

Several years ago, my Grandpa used to run an adult family home up in Anacortes, WA. I stayed there every so often, hanging out with Grandpa, doing work around the house, and the like.

I remember wearing a T-shirt to Grandpa's house once that had the Northern Pacific Railroad logo emblazoned on the front (even then I was more interested in railroad history than current-day railroads). An elderly lady who was cared for there (she was 90, if I remember correctly) saw my shirt and asked me "Do they still have their baseball team?"

Of course, I was thoroughly confused. I explained that the Northern Pacific was a railroad, and not a baseball team. Not long after I got home, I found this photo online:
http://digitum.washingtonhistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fboland&CISOPTR=0&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=0&DMOLDSCALE=15.00000&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMTHUMB=1&REC=5&DMROTATE=0&x=88&y=12

Looks like I had spoken too soon. It seems that the Northern Pacific had a baseball team after all.

So, does anyone know the story behind this photo? It's in the Washington State Historical Society archives, so I'm guessing the team played in Washington. Was this a railroad-sponsored team? Was it railroad-owned? Did other railroad have sports teams?

Hopefully someone knows something of this seemingly little-known section of railroad history and can share it here.

Meanwhile, I'll keep Google-ing. :)

weekendrailroader · **Joined:** Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:02 am **Posts:** 293

Further research yields another photo, this time of the Kansas City Southern baseball team:
http://www.texarkanaoaklawnrotary.org/?attachment_id=226

It seems these railroad teams may have played in whatever minor league was available in the area. Back to Google...

weekendrailroader · **Joined:** Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:02 am **Posts:** 293

Unitah Railroad team: http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Uintah_History&CISOPTR=1006

Fort Worth and Denver City Team: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txtarran/photos/davis-5.htm

jd johnson · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:50 am **Posts:** 399

Even the Morehead and North Fork Railroad had a baseball team.
Photos are at the Rowan Co. Library.

JD Johnson, Morehead and North Fork Railroad

alcoguy1 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:02 am

I don't know about the Northern Pacific baseball team, but I think it was fairly regular for railroads to have sports teams, bands, choirs, and social clubs. I know the Western Maryland had at least a bowling team, a social club, and a band. I know the Lehigh and New England sponsored a little league team.

brettcog2000 · **Joined:** Thu May 05, 2011 8:36 am **Posts:** 159

Pensy's team

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www. ... 46IgdXGvvQ

Japaneese National Railway Team was the Kokutetsu Swallows

UP Team

http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/special_tra ... ball.shtml

Pictures of the N&W team

http://imagebase.lib.vt.edu/browse.php? ... /rec/sport

I know of a couple of Railroad Bands, the Erie had a LOT of them. They were brass bands orginized by "shop". The railroad provided the uniforms and instuments (you can still every once in a while come across an instument ingraved Erie Railroad Co.) Here is a website about the Erie Bands
http://www.buggler.net/Clack/erie/eriebandhist.html

The D&H had a VERY VERY good band from the Oneonta, NY complex.

The NS still has a band to this day, it's called the Norfolk Southern Lawmen, and is the official band of NS. They are NS employees and get paid by the railroad to play. Not too bad of a group either. Check them out

http://www.norfolksouthernlawmen.com/

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:43 am

I have this crazy brain. Someone says something, and I think of something else. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maSp2IHqlbk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUFpx91KKWM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX850IpzKkk

Richard W. · **Joined:** Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:27 pm **Posts:** 157

The Seattle Electric Company who operated the Seattle street railway system had at least one team that was from the Fremont carbarn.

Richard Wilkens

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

Yes, it was common to have sports teams and other clubs and organizations.

On a somewhat related note, Boeing has a model railroad club, complete with a large layout until recently, (currently being relocated) and a yearly swap meet. It is an official company club, and I think you have to be a Boeing Employee to join. http://www.bemrrc.com/ They have many other employee activities as well.

However, BNSF does not, as far as I know, have a model airplane club.