Baseball, as it could have been.
The Ball Club Register is an online museum of speculative baseball history: real towns, original clubs, and unwritten records. Each exhibition presents a ball club in full through its history, ballpark, uniforms, people, records, photographs, and surviving artifacts.
Current Exhibits
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![A member of the Saratoga Springs Fascinators posing for a team portrait in The Hatbox dugout, circa 1930s.]()
Saratoga Springs Fascinators
Permanent Collection · Gallery 001
Saratoga Springs, New York · 1928–1942
A resort-era ball club organized around the rhythms of the Race Course, where two squads met each evening after the final post.
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![A member of the Albany Orange Wonders posing for a club portrait circa 1940s]()
Albany Orange Wonders
Permanent Collection · Gallery 002
Albany, New York · 1949
A postwar ball club whose 1949 Netherlands tour carried Albany’s friendship with Nijmegen onto the baseball field.
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![A member of the Tyler Roses poses for a portrait in Cotton Belt Park circa 1940s]()
Tyler Roses
Permanent Collection · Gallery 003
Tyler, Texas · 1908-1953
An East Texas ball club shaped by Tyler’s rose industry and railroad economy, where Cotton Belt Park stood among freight yards, packing houses, and warehouses.
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![A member of the Davenport Deadheaders poses for a club portrait circa 1940s]()
Davenport Deadheaders
Permanent Collection · Gallery 004
Davenport, Iowa · 1921-1952
A west-end ball club rooted in Davenport’s freight yards, factories, and municipal greenhouses, where spent blooms covered the field after every home victory.
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![A member of the Burnet Blue Bonnets poses for a club portrait circa 1940s]()
Burnet Blue Bonnets
Permanent Collection · Gallery 005
Burnet, Texas · 1922-1951
A Hill Country ball club built by railroad men, granite-yard hands, ranch workers, and clerks, where twelve dark-blue caps gave a local institution its name.
From the Reading Room
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![Three women in clothe hats studying a race program near the Saratoga paddock in 1927.]()
Why Do People Wear Hats to Horse Races?
Racegoers came to Saratoga to watch the horses and one another. Explore the history of racing hats, summer fashion and the headwear tradition behind the Saratoga Springs Fascinators.
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![Rose Queen and court riding a flower-covered float through downtown Tyler in 1936.]()
Why Tyler Is the Rose Capital of America
Tyler’s rose identity was cultivated in nursery fields, packing sheds and festival streets. Discover how the industry made Tyler the Rose Capital of America and inspired the Tyler Roses.
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![Historical reconstruction of women scrubbing State Street during Albany's first tulip festival in 1949.]()
The History of the Albany Tulip Festival
Born from Albany’s postwar friendship with Nijmegen, the Tulip Festival transformed a gift of Dutch bulbs into one of the city’s defining traditions. Discover how the Orange Wonder tulip and the first festival of 1949 gave Albany a new civic identity.
