I once lived in Troy, New York, home of the Troy Haymakers, “One of original nine teams that formed baseball’s first all-paid professional league – the National Association…”

Providence RI, neighbor to my current home town of Pawtucket, has a somewhat more glorious baseball past as home to the Providence Grays, a member of the National League and winner of the first World’s Championship:

[The 1884 Providence Grays] were led by ace pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn, who is still remembered for winning a record 59 games that year and leading the Grays to the pennant. When the team’s other pitcher defected to a rival league in July, it looked like the Grays’ season was over, but “Old Hoss” offered to pitch the rest of the team’s games. The Grays went on a twenty-game winning streak and blew past their hated rivals, the Boston Red Stockings.

When the season was over, the Grays had won the league title by five games. They then played the New York Metropolitans, champions of the rival American Association, in a three-game championship series, and won all three games. It wasn’t officially called the “World Series”, but the Grays became undisputed world champions.

The Providence Grays Vintage Base Ball Club recreates that 1884 team, playing to the rules of the time.

(h/t KidoInfo)