The McKeesport Tubers played in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a Monongahela River mill town ten miles southeast of Pittsburgh built around the National Tube Works. The city was calling itself Tube City by 1907, the same year the Tubers name first appeared, when the club joined the Pennsylvania-Ohio-Maryland League. No account survives of who chose the name or when it was settled, but the connection to the city's own moniker is direct.
The Tubers moved to the Ohio-Pennsylvania League in 1908 and played there through 1912, sitting out only the 1911 season. A period listing of the circuit's nicknames confirms McKeesport as the Tubers alongside New Castle's Nocks and Erie's Sailors. The run ended abruptly when the club disbanded on July 17, 1912, one of five franchises to collapse or relocate during a season that also cost the league its National Association membership. McKeesport returned in 1914 as the Royals, went 2-2, and folded again.
The name came back in 1934 in the Class D Pennsylvania State Association, where the club ran as the Tubers in 1934 and again from 1936 through 1938, alternating with borrowed identities as the Braves in 1935 and the Little Pirates and Little Braves at the end of the decade. The 1937 season was the shortest of them. McKeesport shut its gates on June 10, a month into the schedule, along with defending champion Jeannette, leaving the Association with four teams and forcing a mid-season restart of the entire league.
The Tubers name was not confined to baseball. A McKeesport Tubers basketball club played in the Central Basketball League in the same era and won league titles in 1909-10 and 1910-11, giving the city two professional teams under one industrial nickname.
The Ohio-Pennsylvania League was a Class C circuit founded in Akron in 1905 by veteran ballplayer Charlie Morton, fielding teams across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia before folding in 1912.
Retro Baseball Revival celebrates historic baseball teams with unique apparel, honoring their legacy and bringing history to one-of-a-kind clothing with our old school retro baseball tees from defunct Minor League Baseball teams. All of our high quality apparel is designed, printed, and shipped within the USA. This collection features 100% original designs based on the history and nicknames of historic minor league teams.
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Size Guide: True to size
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