Fun Facts #515 & #516 Baseball
Fun Fact #515
A Rocking way to start
By the end of the 20th Century Baseball was well known as “America’s Pastime” but it wasn't always this way. Having found its origins in the early 19th century as a variant of the game Rounders (with rules mixed in from “Tut-ball”, Stool Ball, Yard-ball and Bass-Ball) the game was not taken seriously until Union soldiers played it to pass the time in POW camps during the American Civil war –bringing it back with them.
Not long after, The National League formed in 1871with “The Rockford Forrest Citys” as one of its founding members (along side the Chicago White Stockings who became the Chicago Cubs when they moved leagues) making Rockford home to one of the original 16 Major league fields (Known today as Fairgrounds Park). However the team quickly disbanded and was repeatedly revived each time in a different league going by the following names in order “The Rockford: Hustlers, Rough Riders, Red Sox, Reds, Wolverines, Wolves, and Wakes. However to most people outside the city they were simply “The Rockford Rox”.
The Rockford Rox, they are still remembered as well –albeit not as fondly as the Rockford Peaches. Their former field is now “Fairgrounds park” and was famously the Cub’s home field for 2 years, and while it is no longer a baseball field it is still open to the public if you ever wanted to play on a former Major league Field and former Cubs field at that. Speaking of which, The Rox coined the Cubs nickname after the White Stockings had a year where they were mostly Rookies or “Cubs” to the game of football… Which is funny given the fact that the Cubs are the only team left from the original NL 16 meaning they are far from being “Cubs” anymore. The White Stockings name was later picked up by another team looking to get a boost in their starting season, a team known today as “The White Sox”.
(Sidenote: Don’t worry, The Rockford Peaches are the subject of tomorrow’s Fun Fact #516. Figured they deserved their own.) As always thank you for reading and please have a wonderful day.
Image of the 1922 Rockford Rox team taken from the RPL’s archive.
Fun Fact #516
Feeling Peachy
While the rest of the city was off to a rocky start another group in Rockford decided to take advantage of the host of semi-abandoned fields. This was the origin of women’s Baseball during World War 2 (1943 to be exact). They started by organizing meetings at the Rockford Public Library, submitting requests for supplies, looking for donations, and trying to recruit from Northern Illinois. One issue arose however was changing the colors of the donated Red Sox uniforms. Finding that Fabric dye was expensive, the team decided to go with the color peach thanks to its low demand, thus leading to the name “The Rockford Peaches”. They then went on to be one of the most successful of their league, (AAPGBL) and their only real competition was their rivals “The South Bend Blue Sox” from South Bend, Indiana. Additionally the Peaches’ Pitcher, Olive Little, pitched both sides of the first no-hitter game in Baseball history. Overall they were known for being theatrical as well in order to attract donations, but also just to have fun.
Today the Peaches are well remembered/loved by The City of Rockford, and even have their own ongoing Amazon TV show called “A League of their own” which is based upon a 1990s movie of the same name. Sadly both the TV show and movie are fictitious; just using the Peaches name and location.
If you want to learn more about Rockford’s Specific contributions to baseball history, then I’d suggest looking into the website https://gorockfordpeaches. com/
Thank you as always for reading and please have a wonderful day.
