Blue Ridge League
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1915 |
| Inaugural season | 1915 |
| Ceased | 9 February 1931 |
| No. of teams | 6 (1915–1917) (1920–1929) 4 (1918, 1930) |
| Country |
 United States |
| Last champion(s) |
Chambersburg Young Yanks |
| Most titles | Hagerstown (5) |
| Official website | blueridgeleague.org |
The Blue Ridge League (BRL) was the name of two minor league baseball organizations that operated in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States.
The first league operated for the better part of sixteen years, from 1915 through 1918, and 1920 to 1930. It was a Class D league in the old classification system that ran from Class D up to Class Double-A, and had teams from Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The league was founded by Charles W. Boyer in 1915, as part of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. Boyer, former president of the original South Atlantic League, served as the league president in the BRL inaugural season. Due to internal problems, Boyer resigned as president the first week of the 1916 season, being replaced by James Vincent Jamison, Jr. Jamison was at the forefront of the league until it ceased its operations shortly before the beginning of the 1931 season.
The BRL play officially began in 1915 with six teams from Chambersburg, Frederick, Gettysburg, Hagerstown, Hanover and Martinsburg. The team to win the most games during the regular season was declared the pennant winner. Through the 1917 midseason, Chambersburg replaced Cumberland when this team refused to pay its annual forfeit fee. The league shrank from six teams to four in 1918, with teams representing Cumberland, Hagerstown, Martinsburg and Piedmont, and ultimately disbanded after three weeks of play due to the lack of players during World War I.
Due to the aftermath of the war and the 1918 flu pandemic, the BRL did not resume operations until 1920, with Chambersburg, Frederick, Hagerstown, Hanover and Martinsburg rejoining the action, as well as the addition of the Waynesboro franchise to bring again the six-team format. Since 1928, the two teams with the best records compited in a series of play-off games to determine the League Champion. Gradually, six Major League Baseball franchises started their affiliation with the league, among others Cleveland Indians (Frederick), Detroit Tigers (Hanover), New York Yankees (Chambersburg), St. Louis Cardinals (Waynesboro) and Philadelphia Athletics (Martinsburg), Washington Senators (Hagenstown). But after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Detroit and St. Louis dropped their affiliations due to heavy financial losses. Only the teams of Chambersburg, Frederick, Hagerstown and Waynesboro returned in 1930, the BRL's last ever season.
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