Newport Colts

The Newport Colts of Newport, Rhode Island, went 70-37 in their first season, 1897, under manager Mickey Finn, and finished in a dead heat with the Brockton Shoemakers for the best record in the New England League. Reference accounts credit Newport with the championship; how the tie was broken is a detail the Newport and Brockton papers of September 1897 would settle. Pitcher Marvin Hawley led the league with 24 wins.

The Colts played at Basin Field, built in 1893 on railroad land near the harbor. The grounds are still there under the name Cardines Field, still hosting baseball every summer, and are among the oldest ballparks in continuous use anywhere in the country.

The 1898 season ended in July when the league folded with Newport in fourth at 26-28; player-manager Mike Kelley led the league with 56 runs scored, and outfielder Jack Gilbert led it in stolen bases with 36. Gilbert did it again in 1899 with 53, and pitcher Gussie Gannon went 17-6 for the league's best winning percentage, as the Colts went 52-46 and claimed the second-half pennant in a four-team league. That claim was disputed too: Manchester allegedly played six games on the final day to pass Newport, the league credited only two of the wins, and Portland reportedly refused to meet Newport in a championship series. The league did not return in 1900, and neither did the Colts.

Newport had one more professional club, the Ponies, who went 5-5 in the Class D Atlantic Association of 1908 before that league collapsed on May 21 after three weeks of play. No professional team has called the city home since.