Dover Senators
The Dover Senators, based in Dover, Delaware, played in the Eastern Shore League from 1923 to 1924 and again in 1926, though Dover's professional baseball history begins earlier still. The town first fielded a team in the 1889 Delaware State League, a five-team independent league of Delaware cities, and won that league's championship at 8-2 before it folded entirely on July 25, 1889, less than two months into the season. The Senators name returned for a single 1925 season under the alternate name Dover Dobbins, and the franchise came back again as the Dover Orioles (a Baltimore Orioles affiliate) from 1937 to 1940, then the Dover Phillies from 1946 to 1948.
The 1923 Senators won the Eastern Shore League pennant at 51-24 under manager Jiggs Donahue, then beat the Blue Ridge League's Martinsburg club 4 games to 2 in the Five-State Championship. That pennant-winning roster included a 20-year-old catcher playing under the name Frank King, a pseudonym used to protect his college eligibility. His real name was Mickey Cochrane, and Dover marked his professional debut; he was pressed into service as Dover's catcher because the team didn't have one. Cochrane hit .322 with 5 home runs in 65 games for Dover that year before moving on to the Philadelphia Athletics, where he became a two-time American League MVP, a three-time World Series champion, and a Baseball Hall of Famer.
Dover produced a second future Hall of Famer the very next year. Pitcher Red Ruffing joined Dover in 1924 after starting his career in the Class B Three-I League, and his contract was purchased by the Boston Red Sox later that same season. Ruffing went on to a 22-year major league career split between the Red Sox, Yankees, and White Sox, finishing 273-225 with a 3.80 ERA, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967.
The Eastern Shore League was a Class D league that ran on the Delmarva Peninsula across three separate stretches: 1922 to 1928, 1937 to 1941, and 1946 to 1949, with teams drawn from Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia.
