The Brief History of BMW

BMW was founded in 1916.  Although many people think the logo for BMW comes from an airplane propeller spinning with the blue sky in the background, the logo actually comes from the Bararia white and blue flag.

The 12 Cylinder V12 engines that were created in 1916 were almost used in automobiles for Austro-Daimler.  However, the V12 engines were first used in airplane production which was the original plan for the Company.

In 1919 production of aircraft was prohibited.  BMW began to go in another direction around that time.  They started design of the Victoria, a motorcycle, which was actually built by a company in Nuremberg.  The R32 was the first motorcycle produced by BMW in 1924.  It had a 500cc engine and was a huge turning point for BMW.

From prior to World War II through 1945, there were over 30,000 planes that used BMW engines.  The Company was bombed during World War II and had a hard time recovering after the war was over.

In 1951, it looked as if the Bavarian Company was on it’s way to recovery.  In 1959, Hebert Quandt kept Dailmler-Benz from taking over BMW and Mr. Quandt had up to a 50% share in the Company.  The Quandt family still has a 46% stake in BMW today.

With the introduction of a 700 2-Cylinder model in the 60′s along with some late 60′s and early 70′s model, BMW was well on it’s way to the BMW that we all know today.  In 1994, the Company began production outside Germany.  Today, the Company has a 750 Million Dollar expansion in the works to the Greenville, South Carolina plant that has been in place for years.

BWM sales are on the rise in 2010 after a dip in the economy in 2009.  The future looks bright for one of the world’s Top 20 brands according to Forbes magazine.

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How Would You Like to Own a Piece of Our History?

For the most part when it comes to commemorative coins the United States Congress authorizes commemorative pieces that lionize and honor American individuals, places, events, and institutions. Although these coins are legitimate tender, they are not coined for common circulation instead they are merely coined as “art”. Each commemorative coin is produced by the United States Mint in closed quantity and is only accessible for a specific amount of time. As far as I can tell the World Trade Center coins found underneath the Twin Towers have yet to become a part of the Mint coin program, frankly I don’t really understand why! However, these coins are a part of another program; the PCGS also known as the Professional Coin Grading Service which is the premier Internet site for collectors of coins.

These coins in particular that were found in the vaults can be worth a lot of money (from a few hundred on up to a few thousand), so under advanced security measures the coins were loaded into Brinks Armored vehicles and sent to Collectors Universe a parent company of the well-known Professional Coin Grading Service.

This particular organization is the archetypal company for collectors of coins. Once this organization collected all of the coins they then continued on to catalog, grade and encapsulate in the Professional Coin Grading Service high security tamper resistant capsules along with a specially designed commemorative United States Flag insert that identifies the coins as a genuine artifact. This is how you can actually tell if a coin is legit or not and is produced like this as a part of the grading and collection guide which can be seen on their website.

There are numerous different coins being commemorated for this particular event including the 2000 World Trade Center ground zero recovery gold eagle, silver eagle, and also a few uncirculated 1993 silver eagle gem. To buy these coins you can spend anywhere from on up to 00+. These coins truly are a piece of our history and it’s definitely a part, if you could choose any part, that you should have in your collections!

It doesn’t matter if your a master at collecting these types of coins or materials or if you are just starting out, or if you are going to hold on to these for personal reasons or sell these for some cold hard cash, this is a noteworthy part of history that you can take possession over starting right this very moment. I have known of quite a few people that have inducted these coins in to their own little collection because they had a loved one or knew someone in the World Trade Center bombings, so something like this means a lot to them not only for personal reasons but for remembrance of loved ones lost. These coins are anything but gaudy, in fact they are simply amazing to even glance at in image view. I can only imagine what they really look like in person! If you think you would be interested in something like this, check it out the next time your online. I think you will be really surprised by the craftsmanship of these coins! Absolutely stunning!

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History Of Baseball Uniforms In The Major Leagues

Baseball Uniforms in the Major Leagues: The Evolution of the Battle Suit

As you enter the ball park to take your seat, one of the first things that you notice is the players’ uniforms. There is a very good chance you don’t know a single one of the people on the field personally-it’s the colors on their uniforms that immediately tell you whether he is friend or foe. As well as helping you bond to the team, much like a flag for your country, they keep you aware of the fact that you are just a spectator, and that they are the professional baseball warriors.

Just as seeing your favorite players in their uniforms excites you and makes you proud to be a fan, for a player there is a huge sense of pride and belonging to walking on to the field with a team full of other players proudly wearing the same jersey, looking at all the fans out there. There, in one of the stands, a player sees a fan with his jersey on. Just as these uniforms remind the fans that the people in uniform are the players, these uniforms tell the players, “I am a soldier of baseball, and this is my team.

Ever since history has been recorded, throughout all the various battles and wars our planet has seen, there has always been a great sense of pride revolving around the uniform, or armor, a great aura that that you just can’t put your finger on. This as well applies to the brilliantly colored and designed uniforms of baseball.

History’s first record of an official baseball uniform was that of the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York City, and was introduced in 1849. The uniform consisted of a white flannel shirt, a straw hat, and blue wool pants. Today’s baseball uniforms are a far cry from this. Synthetic fabrics used in simple yet intricate patterns of colors. Well, are uniforms didn’t just change overnight, the styles changed, little by little, over time.

In 1868, knickers are introduced to the game of baseball by the Cincinnati Red Stockings. These were more comfortable to play in and allowed the players much more movement. These also showed a very important feature of the team’s uniform, their red stockings. Colors and patterns on uniforms were played with a lot between 1880 and 1890. 1882 saw the rise and fall of multi-colored uniforms to correspond to a player’s position, while the only discerning factor between the teams was their stocking color. In 1888, three major league teams, Washington and Detroit of the National League, and Brooklyn of the American Association, introduced stripes on their uniforms. The checkered uniform, though short lived, was introduced by the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in 1889. Brooklyn remained as the trend-setters for baseball uniforms, bringing back their checked uniform again in 1907, 1916, and 1917. They also had a trial with satin uniforms in the ’40s and became the first major league team to put numbers on the front of their jerseys in ’52.

The timeline of changes can go on and on, down to the tiniest details, but thanks to the trial and error of baseball warriors and their commanders before us, we have the uniform today that is recognized by the masses, yet retaining the mystique and pride surrounding uniforms of all types.

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Lviv history

Lviv history is as colorful and amazing as a city itself. It is filled with interesting events and outstanding figures. Today Lviv is more than 750 years old and it has lots of stories to tell you! City situated on the crossing of two profitable trade routes developed and flourished rapidly and became one of main trade centers of medieval Europe. Afterwards while being a part of different countries, Lviv borrowed some parts of culture and knowledge from invaders. Later on it transformed not only to an architectural gem, but also to the modern capital of scientific, spiritual and artistic life.

The Rulers of Lviv

From 1256 till today – Who Ruled Lviv and Whom the City Belonged to.
1256 – 1340 – Lviv as a part of Halychyna-Volyn Principality
1340 – 1349 – Lviv under the rule of boyar oligarchy of Dmytro Detko from Przemysl and Danylo from Ostrov
1353 – Lviv under the rule of Lithuanian Prince Lubart Gedyminowicz
1372 – 1378 – Lviv under the rule of Governor Wladyslaw Opolczyk, practically under Hungarian protectorate
1378 – 1387 – Lviv under the Hungarian rule
1387 – 1772 – Lviv under the rule of Rzeczpospolita
1772 – 1918 – Lviv under the rule of the Austrian Empire
1914 – 1915 – Lviv under the rule of Tsar’s Russia
1918 – Lviv under the rule of the West-Ukrainian People’s Republic
1918 – 1939 – Lviv under the Polish rule
1939 – 1941 – Lviv under the rule of the USSR
1941 – 1944 – Lviv under the rule of Nazi Germany
1944 – 1991 – Lviv under the rule of the USSR
From 1991 – Lviv as a part of independent Ukrainian state

The Old Lviv

Situated just like Rome on seven hills, among the woods, in the valley of the Poltva River, Lviv was always noted for both an advantageous strategic position and an exceptionally beautiful landscape

Once a powerful prince of Halychyna-Volyn Principality Danylo Halytsky traveled through these parts. He stopped here for a moment and realized that he would stay here forever. Burgomaster Bartlomiej Zimorowic, the most distinguished chronicler of Lviv, described this event in the following words: “Seeing at the very border of his domain a hill which was advantageous in military terms, protected down below by a circle of forest-covered valleys and the very steepness which could hold the enemy back, he immediately ordered that a fortress be built here and decided to move his residence to this place”. The High Castle was to be guarded by a large military unit which would protect the treasures stored there.
In 1248, with the aim of strengthening international dynastic connections, Danylo Halytsky had his son Lev married to Princess Constance, the daughter of King of Hungary Bela IV, and granted the city, which was named Lviv after his son, to the newly married couple. Constance was a Catholic and often yearned after her home land and her religion. Lev decided to make his beloved wife a present in the form of the Catholic Church of John the Baptist, constructed in the Roman style.
Under the Castle Hill stood the prince’s palace and the prince’s court Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas. 750 years ago life was at full swing in the Old Rynok Square. Merchants from both Europe and Asia came here: Europeans dealt in cloth, leather, silver and weapons, Greeks and Armenians – in silk, eastern roots and wine.
In the 70s of the 13th century Ukrainian Prince Lev Danylovych moved the capital of his powerful state, whose borders reached as far as the Vistula River and the Black Sea, from Halych to Lviv. But the historical Fortune turned her back on the Halychyna-Volyn Principality: weakened by constant raids by Mongol-Tatars and intestine strife, it became an easy prey for the Kingdom of Poland.

The Times of Ukrainian Independence

Being an indisputable capital of Ukrainian culture, spirituality and national identity, Lviv has always played a major role in the development of democracy and struggle for Ukraine’s independence.

All state-creating processes related to gaining and consolidating the independence of Ukraine originated in Lviv. It was here that the first mass actions in support of independence were taken; the participants of these actions were persecuted and beaten by special police units.
On September 17, 1989 Lviv became the site of the largest demonstration in support of revival of Ukraine’s independence and the Greek Catholic Church of the time. One hundred thousand people participated in it. The life chain of conciliarism between Lviv and Kyiv on January 21, 1990, when millions of Ukrainians joined their hands, was a landmark on the way to the rebirth of the Ukrainian state. On April 3, 1990 a blue and yellow state flag was hoisted above Lviv City Hall. When the Act on State Independence of Ukraine was passed on August 24, 1991, the following day hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Lviv celebrating this event.
In 1999 Lviv became a sort of  capital of Central and Eastern Europe. It was the only city in the entire history of Ukraine to simultaneously receive the heads of nine states during the Summit of Heads of Eastern and Central European States.
Lviv has always been and still remains the detonator of nation-creating and democratic processes in the Ukrainian state. Our city became the main stronghold of the Orange Revolution in November-December 2004, when Ukraine was in the focus of attention of the entire world. Seventy percent of Lviv’s people took part in the actions aimed at defending the democracy in Lviv, and every third resident of the city stood his ground in Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. In autumn of 2006 Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary.

Under the Rule of the Soviet Totalitarianism

In September 1939, as a result of collusion between Stalin and Nazi Germany, Lviv became a part of the Soviet empire. In September 1939, as a result of collusion between Stalin and Nazi Germany, Lviv became a part of the Soviet empire. Unification of the Ukrainian people in a single state and partial Ukrainization of education and culture was outweighed by mass totalitarian repressions against the Western Ukrainians unseen before in history. Tens of thousands of people from Halychyna were sent to concentration camps and exiled to Siberia. Resistance of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army against the Soviet regime lasted until late 50s. In 60s and 70s Lviv became the scene of several widely known trials of dissidents – Vyatcheslav Chornovil, Bohdan Horyn, Ivan Hel, Iryna and Ihor Kalynets. They all contributed to Ukraine eventually gaining independence.

Return to Poland

After the Austrian Empire’s defeat in World War I, according to the will of victorious European powers, Lviv once again fell under the Polish rule.

Despite the fact that the action for independence taken by the Ukrainians in November 1918, the creation of the West-Ukrainian People’s Republic, and the unification with the Great Ukraine suffered a defeat in the end, they did establish a basis for Ukrainian independence and conciliarism. The reign of Polish authoritarian regime in Lviv during 1919-1939 only served to intensify the resistance of the Ukrainians and consolidate them in the fight for their rights.

Pragmatic and strict constructivism replaced the “golden age” of Austrian secession of early 20th century in local building style. The territory of Lviv was considerably expanded at the expense of several suburban districts. The city’s population grew from 210 thousand in 1910 to over 300 thousand right before World War II.

Falling under the Austrian Rule

It was inevitable that the general crisis of the Polish state in the 18th century was reflected in Lviv’s status. Constant sieges, frequent epidemics and fires lead to a considerable diminution of the city’s population.

The ultimate loss of its dominating position as a large trade city standing at the intersection of strategically important routes practically ruined Lviv. The Polish state became so weak that three powerful European countries – Austria, Prussia and Russia – decided to simply divide its territory among them. In September 1772 the Austrian Empire’s troops entered Lviv, and for the next century and a half the city found itself under the rule of one of the European powers.

The reforms introduced by the new authorities resulted in positive changes in the state structure, as well as in education and culture. Adhering to the principles of enlightened absolutism, Emperor Joseph II carried out a church reform. All monasteries of Lviv which could not prove that they were actually involved in educational, social, medical or charitable activities were closed. Their premises were used for barracks, hospitals, prisons and educational institutions. During Emperor Joseph’s reform, a number of Ukrainian churches in the old part of the city – Pidzamcha – were destroyed. Dismantling of the city walls which had played their historical role long ago was started in 1777. The city was expanding, new buildings were being erected, new streets and squares were appearing. In the late 18th – first half of 19th century the architectural style of Classicism became predominant in residential and civil construction. Cultural life flourished in Lviv under the Austrian rule. Two theatres of European importance were built here: Skarbkivski (M. Zankovetska) Theatre and Grand City (Opera and Ballet) Theatre. The University was reorganized, and publishing business was developing in Lviv. In 1870 Lviv was granted the right of local self-government. It became a truly European city. An Austrian journalist who paid a visit to Lviv could not find any differences between our city and the major cities of Europe: the buildings were the same, the stores and coffee-houses were the same, the way of life and traditions were the same. In Austrian Lviv technical and scientific inventions were born, and the most advanced technologies of the time were implemented. It was one of the first cities in the Empire to see gas (and later electrical) street lighting, motor transport, and telephone communications. In 1894 the first electrical tram was launched in Lviv, long before this happened in Vienna. Later the best railway station in the Empire was constructed here. But despite the liberalization of political and social life under the sceptre of Habsburgs, the Ukrainians continued to fight for their spiritual and political freedom. In 1837 progressive-minded young scientists Markiyan Shashkevych, Ivan Vahylevych and Yakiv Holovatsky published “Rusalka Dnistrova” – a book that was written in the language of simple people. This was a bold challenge and an action against national oppression of the Ukrainians. The book was banned by censors, almost all printed copies were destroyed, and persecution of the authors was started. During the Spring of Nations of 1848 the Supreme Ruthenian Council in Lviv proclaimed rebirth and conciliarism of the Ukrainian nation. In general, the relatively liberal policy of the Austrian Empire with the inevitable tinge of the primordial principle “divide et impera” (divide and rule) did facilitate the preservation of Ukrainian identity unseen in any of the other regions of Ukraine under the rule of any powers in any times.

Turks, Tatars and Swedes at the City Gates

In 1672 Turkish Sultan Mehmet IV, having conquered the entire Podillya, charged his vassal Kapudan-Pasha and his ally Hetman Petro Doroshenko with the task of conquering Lviv.
In the autumn of that year Lviv was surrounded by the largest army in its entire history, numbering 230 thousand people. Polish active forces – the dragoons that were sent by the King to defend the city – were quick to flee the danger, since they didn’t believe it was possible to confront such a huge military force.
Virtually all nobles and wealthy citizens left Lviv, but Burgomaster Bartlomiej Zimorowic swore in the rest of the people of Lviv. They took an oath not to leave the city under any circumstances, and to take their stand till the end. There were a little over a thousand of them. But the miracle happened: the enemy who outnumbered the defenders by 230 to one still failed to breach the city walls. Kapudan-Pasha agreed for a ransom of 80 thousand Thalers, out of which Lviv could pay only 5 thousand. The Turks took ten hostages, including two Ukrainians, and intended to hold them until the city paid the ransom in full. The entire city saw them off to slavery with tears of gratitude in their eyes. Citizen of Lviv Jakiv Nyrka joined the hostages on his own volition. For seven long years they stayed in Turkish captivity, until the city was able to pay the amount in full. Not all of them came back alive.
In 1675, three years after the unsuccessful siege of the city by the Turkish Sultan’s troops, a large Tatar army set off for Lviv. King Jan III Sobieski hurried to Lviv with his army. Queen Marysienka also came here with her entire court. For a long time she knelt down and prayed for the salvation of the city in the Cathedral and the Jesuit Church – and not in vain. According to English historian Connor and French historian Salvandi, Lysenytski Fields near Lviv saw a quick military victory the likes of which had been hardly known in the world’s history before. Talented commander Jan Sobieski routed almost 50 thousand of well-armed Tatars and Turks with just seven thousand of his own troops. The remains of the Tatar army fled home in shame. And in 1695 Hetman StanisЕ‚aw Jablonowski defeated the Tatars near Lviv once and for all. After that they never dared appear under the city walls.
But eventually, for the first time in centuries, Lviv was taken by an enemy. It happened in 1704. Dressed in a private soldier’s uniform, the 23-year-old King of Sweden Karl XII leading several hundred of his men managed to do what hundreds of thousands of Tatars, Turks, Moldavians and Cossacks could not do for centuries.
On September 6, 1704, in the dead of the night, the Swedes took the Discalced Carmelites Monastery. Right at that time City Commandant Franciszek Galetski was fast asleep mere dozens of meters from what was happening in the Gunpowder Tower. Upon hearing screams and gunshots he gave the order to hold the line, while fleeing himself to the other end of the city – the Jesuit Collegium.
Several hundred Swedish dragoons led by General Stenbock decided not to wait for artillery and infantry and attacked the city gates, which were left unlocked and unguarded. In several minutes, having easily overcome the resistance of Hungarians from the hired royal infantry, the Swedes were already in the City Hall, whose clock showed eight in the morning. During the assault a defender from Kornyakta Tower shot the hat off the Swedish King’s head. But there was little consolation in this. For the first time in almost four hundred years Lviv was taken by an enemy. This event signalled the coming of new times – and these times were not so favourable for Lviv.

Cossacks of Khmelnytsky under the City Walls

One of the most severe and controversial sieges of Lviv was the first siege by Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648.
Even now there is a dispute in the intellectual circles as to who really Khmelnytsky was for Lviv: a liberator from the Polish rule or a savage conqueror from the East who wanted to plunder the European city and wipe out its population.
It was the year of 1648. The war of liberation of the Ukrainian people from the Polish rule was gaining intensity. The Polish nobility had recently suffered a crushing defeat under Pilyavtsy. A huge force consisting of Cossack and Tatar troops as well as armed peasants appeared under Lviv’s walls, intent on plundering the city. Some Tatars and Cossacks even brought as many as ten horses each. They thought they’d load the loot they had dreamt about on those horses.
Those living in the outskirts sought refuge behind the city walls, women and children hid in churches and monasteries, and the rest of Lviv’s citizens who stayed in the city decided to defend it to the end. Cossacks and Tatars burned and pillaged the city’s outskirts. Cossacks used the buildings outside the walls to fire upon the city with deadly accuracy. To deprive them of this opportunity, the defenders decided upon a desperate step – to burn the outskirts. When hundreds of buildings were set on fire at night, it appeared as if people found themselves right in the middle of hell. In the morning, nothing but charred ruins lay on all four sides of Lviv. Khmelnytsky was starting to realize that taking the city will be no trivial feat. Even the fact that someone from the outskirts showed the Cossacks the water pipe that ran from Poltva to the city didn’t help much. The pipe was blocked, and, according to the chronicler, people behind the city walls “were forced to drink water with sewage”.
Khmelnytsky turned from the siege to the reasonable tactics of negotiations. For several days Lviv hosted the ambassadors – Ukrainian colonel Holovatsky and Tatar transport driver Piris-Aha. The people of Lviv showered the experts with gifts: silver sabres decorated with rubies, golden belts and several thousand zlotys. Of course, after such a reception the ambassadors convinced Khmelnytsky and Tuhai-Bei that the city is very poor and cannot pay much. In the end, the ransom cost Lviv several times less than the amount the city could actually pay in money and goods.
Cossacks appeared under Lviv’s walls once more in 1655, when Khmelnitsky with the aid of a large Russian army failed to conquer the city the second time.

The Sieges of Lviv

Among its numerous historical achievements, Lviv can boast the fact that for three and a half centuries no adversary could conquer the city. During that time Lviv survived about a hundred sieges.
Lviv lived through sieges by Turks, Tatars, Moldavians, Cossacks and Russian troops. At times, the enemy’s forces were dozens or even hundreds of times larger than the defenders’, but the attackers failed to take the stronghold of the King’s city.
One of the first known sieges of Lviv occurred in 1286. A Tatar Khan called Telebuha surrounded the city and sent his ambassadors to Lviv to negotiate the city’s surrender. As the old legend goes, before showing the city to Tatar ambassadors, women rolled scores of empty barrels into the streets and set them upside down. Then they swept the remains of wheat, flour and grain from their closets and covered the tops of empty barrels with them, making the barrels look like they were full. In addition to that, they let all remaining poultry and cattle out of the pens to run squealing and shrieking through the streets.
After the Tatar ambassadors saw this, they came back to Telebuha and sadly told him that the city had so much poultry and livestock that it could easily endure even a long siege. According to the chronicler, the Khan, infuriated with this news, “stood under the city walls for two more weeks without taking military action, and if he caught any people who ventured outside the besieged city, he stripped them naked and let them go. And many people froze to death like that, since it was a very cold winter”.

The Height of Lviv’s Prosperity

In early 17th century Lviv became the largest city of Ukraine in terms of population, which doubled that of Kyiv. The trade power of Lviv was being restored.

In 1606 a merchant from Gdansk named Martin Groeneweg described Lviv in the following way: “All cattle driven from Podillya and Moldavia to Italy goes through this city. I have travelled through half the Europe, I’ve been to the most famous cities of the world, but nowhere have I seen so much bread. There’s a lot of beer and honey here, too, and not just local, but also imported. Wine is brought from Moldavia, Hungary and Greece. Sometimes you can see over a thousand barrels of wine stacked in Rynok Square. In this city, like in the Market of Venice, you can meet people from all over the world in their national clothing: Cossacks in large furry hats, Russians in white hats, Turks in white turbans, Germans, Italians, Spaniards in short clothes. Whatever language you speak, you’ll find it here. The city lies far from the sea, but when you see a crowd of Cretans, Turks, Greeks and Italians gathered around barrels of malmsey in Rynok Square, still dressed for sea voyage, you might think that there’s a port right outside the city gates”.
Lviv counsellor Johann Alnpeck wrote about the city of that time: “Lviv supplies the entire Kingdom of Poland with various silk fabrics, carpets and odoriferous roots in sufficient quantities. Here one can find everything for human consumption. Besides, food prices are incredibly low here, attracting many people of different nationalities to the city…”
Lviv was considered to be the largest wine storehouse in Europe. Thousands of barrels of wines from Greece, Cyprus, Sicily and Spain, which were collectively called “malmsey” at the time, were stored in Rynok Square and other places. Later the wine was distributed through the countries of Europe and the East. A chronicler of that time remarked that any citizen of Lviv – be it a merchant, a doctor, a pharmacist or a craftsman – either traded in malmsey or sold it in a tavern.
But good times tend to be followed by not-so-good times. In the late 17th and especially the early 18th century Lviv declined again. Sieges, wars, breakdown of the Polish state and demands of the new historical era again put Lviv in the category of insignificant and non-influential cities for some time.

The Whimsical Fortune

The trade power of Lviv elevated its significance as the most important Eastern European city. However, in the late 15th century the Fortune stopped smiling on Lviv: the Turkish Empire expanded to the West, conquering Crimea and the Balkans. The trade routes were severed, bringing a disaster to entire generations of Lviv merchants. The Archbishop of Lviv practically mourned over the state of the city in his letter to the King: “The people of the city have lost their wealth and turned into beggars. Those who were affluent yesterday, even the patricians, are now begging for a piece of bread or await their death in hospitals”. The fate dealt its final blow when the terrible fire of 1527 destroyed almost the entire city. But the people of Lviv were not the ones to give in to despair. Before the Turkish expansion, our merchants provided the entire Europe with red and black caviar as well as rare salmon fish brought through Genoese and Venetian colonies above the Black and Azov Seas. After losing these sources of profit, the people of Lviv started to breed fish themselves in rivers and ponds. This fish – fresh, salted and dried – became one of Lviv’s main exports to Europe, and a trademark of the city. Foreign merchants remarked: “Pike from Lviv is eaten in Vienna, despite the fact that Danube, which is quite rich in fish, flows right there under the seven bridges… Lviv pike deserves the highest praise, it can be compared to that caught at one time between the two bridges in Tiber and highly valued by the Romans”. The other important item of Lviv export was wax. The city’s authorities vigilantly controlled the quality of this product and awarded it the trademark with the city’s coat of arms – a small lion. The importance of wax quality for Lviv can be easily seen in the fact that its counterfeiting was punishable by death. The wax from Lviv was known all over Europe. It was even brought as far as England and Spain.

The forests around Lviv were extremely rich in fur-bearing animals. Wolf and lynx furs and elk skins were highly valued in Europe and especially in the East. Sable furs were in particular demand. During the single year of 1588, Lviv merchant Jarosz Wedelski exported 30 thousand (!) sable furs, while craftsman Dmytro did the same with 3 thousand of self-made hats.

The Trade Mission of Lviv

Throughout its history Lviv has always been a large trade centre and, for some time, the most well-known Eastern European city in the entire Europe. There was only one city of Eastern Europe marked on the French geographical map of 1492, and it was Leopolis. Lviv owes its exceptional trade mission to its geographical location at the optimal intersection point of roads leading from the East to the West and back. Outstanding merchant talents were cherished among the people of Lviv from the beginning of time. Almost every citizen of Lviv was a natural-born merchant genius. The people of Lviv were noted for their experience, wit, courage, energy, and incessant aspiration for enrichment. In the 14th-15th centuries merchants were mostly citizens of German and Armenian origin. Traditionally, precious fabrics, carpets, valuable roots, spices and fruits were transported from the East to Europe through Lviv, while clothes, weapons, silver and gold jewellery, and leather found their way from the West to the East. In 1379 Lviv obtained the so-called right of storage. It meant that all merchants who were not from Lviv and transported any goods from the East or West through Lviv were obliged to put their goods up for sale in the city for two weeks. What they hadn’t sold, they could carry further. Of course, the deft merchants of Lviv bought these goods up at dumping prices, thus becoming wealthier themselves and making the city wealthier, too. The Magistrate of Lviv did its best to assist it citizens. Only members of the city’s community had the right to freely purchase goods from visiting merchants and sell these goods at stores. Foreign merchants were forbidden to perform trade transactions between themselves under the threat of confiscation of their entire stock.

The City Conquered by Poland. The German Lviv

King of Poland Kazimierz III took advantage of the Principalit’s weakness and managed to conquer Lviv twice, in 1340 and 1349. Several decades later our city fell under the rule of its western neighbours for long centuries to come.

After Lviv became a part of Poland, King Kazimierz did not remain indifferent to the High Castle – this, as a chronicler wrote, “uniquely shaped hill in the Sarmatian land, and built on this sky-high hill a tall stone castle resembling a lute”

Now it is hard to say what made Kazimierz move the city centre from the Old Rynok Square to the swampy plain of the Poltva River. One of the possible reasons is of topographic nature: the old city had no prospects of growth since it was surrounded by hills and woods. But most likely Kazimierz III, being an experience politician, wanted to create in this new location a completely new city which would unconditionally obey the Polish state – and there would be no place left for the subdued Ukrainians in such a city. The Polish King decided to develop Lviv using the most advanced construction technologies of the time. Unwilling to trust either Ukrainians or his own Polish people, he invited craftsmen and builders from Germany. Thus in the 14th and 15th centuries Lviv became virtually a German city. Even the deeds of Lviv Magistrate were written in Saxon dialect of the German language. Records of the city’s expenditures and taxes collected in the 15th century testify to the fact that Germans formed the majority of Lviv’s population. At that time, Gothic architecture was predominant in the city.

But the year of 1527 brought the most terrible fire in the entire city’s history: the German Gothic Lviv which was similar in appearance to modern Tallinn or Gdansk was burned to the ground. In despair, the inhabitants wanted to leave the city, but later changed their minds and decided to rebuild it. The new Lviv of the second half of the 16th century was a completely different Renaissance city built by Italians. Architects from the Northern Italy, invited to Lviv by the Magistrate, managed to create wonderful examples of Renaissance architecture which combined Italian features with local construction trends.

Fedorov, the First Printer

Book printing played an extremely important role in the development of the Ukrainian culture and the struggle of Ukrainians for their rights. It was in Lviv that Ivan Fedorov (also known here as Fedorovych) printed the first Ukrainian book.
Most likely he came from somewhere on the Ukrainian-Belorussian border, having obtained education and learnt his profession in European universities. In 1564, when Fedorov lived in Moscow, he printed the first book in Russia – “The Apostle” – but was forced to flee persecution and chose to come to Lviv: “…all the wicked, the worst of the worst was after me. But with God’s grace I came to the blessed city called Lviv. And, having said my prayers, I started the work dedicated to God, spreading the God-inspired dogmas”.

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History of the Mexican Flag

Since its inception as a symbol of independence in 1821, the Mexican flag has undergone several changes. Its current version, designed in 1968, symbolizes the faith, history and national pride of the country and stands as a source of inspiration for the Mexican people.

The Colors
The vertical green, white and red pattern adorning the flag from left to right, illustrates the hope, union and purity, respectively. The year 1821 marked the end of the 11 year war with Spain, resulting in Mexico’s freedom from colonialism. The color green is a token of the hope that ultimately led them to victory and that continues to be an enduring quality of the people. The purity, as represented by the white stripe, exemplifies the strong Catholic faith upholding the values of the Mexican people.

The Centered Eagle
Centered in the white band, an eagle stands majestically, in profile position, with one of its talons resting upon a group of cacti and the other talon, along with its beak, grasping a snake. The image is framed below by a semi-circular pattern of laurel leaves. The emblem points back to the legendary Aztec founding of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan, which is now the capital, Mexico City. In the tale, the gods of the Aztecs told them to settle wherever they saw the eagle and the snake. Finally, the red band symbolizes the blood spilled during the war of independence, evoking the memory of those who fought so bravely to liberate them and the sense of unity that the battle of independence ushered in.

Previous Iterations
The previous versions of the flag’s design testify to the different political stages that Mexico went through following their 1821 victory. The colors of green, white and red were firmly established at that time and would remain relatively unchanged, save the minor alterations made to the band ratios. However, the eagle in the 1821 version was facing right, as opposed to the current image, which has it facing left and a golden crown was placed upon its head.

When the Republic was formed two years later in 1823, the crown was removed and the snake, along with the laurel leaves, was added. In 1864, the crown upon the eagles head returned, and the emblem placed in each of the four corners of the flag. Every year on February 24, the Fiesta of the Flag is celebrated and the 1968 rendering of it is given official recognition.

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The History of Patriotic Jewelry in the United States

America is a country that from the very moment it declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776 has taken great pride in the fact that it is a free nation; a unified nation, a government created by the people, for the people and of the people. This sentiment is echoed throughout its songs, its holidays and many of its traditions.

This patriotic feeling is also represented by the physical appearance of its citizens, particularly following any great event at which national pride is drawn into question. Take for example the celebration of America’s Independence Day. Anyone who has ever attended one of these feasts has had the happy occasion to look up from eating their chilli dog or barbecue (depending on which part of the country they’re in) and seeing hundreds of individuals proudly displaying the stars and stripes. Although for many this has become more a matter of rote than an actual expression, there are none who are willing to forget what it took for their country to be able to declare itself fee.

Perhaps nowhere is this patriotic sentiment as evident as in the jewelry worn by the people of the United States. Jewelry is intended to be a measure of personal expression, with the style and colours representing the inner soul of the individual. In today’s society that personal expression tends to take a larger and flamboyant form. Its people were in no way, shape or form the first to use their jewels to display their patriotic pride. For as long as the country has been able to boast its freedom men, women and children have boasted brooches and tie tacks in various patriotic symbols. Small pins and watches have also been popular for as long as anyone alive today can remember. Historically, the stars and stripes, the American flag, has been the preferred form for these symbols to take. During and following WWII a new era of patriotic jewelry emerged as women began to allow themselves to step out of the box that dictated how they must look and wear jewelry that displayed newfound freedom. Lady Liberty and the American flag were still the insignia of choice, with the American Eagle beginning to make an appearance itself.

Following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre patriotic jewelry again got another boost as Americans were anxious to show that the terrorists had not diminished their national pride. American again proudly boasted the symbols of their country on their clothing, on their wrists and hanging from silver jewelled pendants from around their neck. Being the era that it is, this patriotism often takes a more spectacular form (is there any part of the human body that cannot be pierced?) and in addition to the classic venues the red, white and blue adorns the noses, eyebrows, chests and belly buttons of America’s citizens.

Few occasions give greater cause for celebration for the citizens of the United States than the declaration of its independence; as long as America is free its citizens will proudly display their patriotism through the accessories they wear, just as they have always done.

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The New York Yankees hailed as the most successful MLB team in the history of professional baseball

October 2010 was a month that brought an out of imagination surprise for the baseball lovers when New York Yankees lost to Texas Rangers in the 2010 American League Championship Series. The defeat was a huge shock as Yankees is a team with highest all-time regular 2009 season winning percentage of .568 while Rangers have a record of lowest wining percentage.  The Ranger’s victory was credited to their home field advantaged that they got at the ALCS venue Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Yankees have previously faced Rangers 3 times in postseasons and Yankees won all the meetings. Yankees have 27 won out of 40 World Series appearances, the best winning record of any team in the baseball history.  NYY have distinct record of playing against every National League pennant winner in the World Series except the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies.

October has gone and now the Yankees are gathering their spirits to revive their image as the next World Series Champions. Derek Jeter. Jeter has played his entire baseball career with Yankees and he is the most remarkable Yankee player and also the best shortstop player and his hiring is Yankees top agenda. Despite of the Derek’s age (36) factor both parties are confident to close the deal because Yankees already had lost its principal owner, former PA announcer and longtime Yankee icon, former player and manager (all passed away) during 2010. The fans are always see New York yanked live so they are looking for the cheap new York Yankees tickets from different locations.Now you can buy online New York Yankees Tickets ,

After the unexpected loss against Ranger, critics are of the strong view that New York Yankees are in an absolute need to bring back their staring pitcher Cliff Lee whom they broke deal in July and traded him with Rangers. He is the first person to pitch three 10-plus strikeout games in just one postseason and he was extremely helpful to lead the Rangers towards World Series victory. However the rude behaviors of the Yankee supporters towards Lee’s wife Kristen Lee (they threw beer and spitted in her direction) have crushed the NYY chances to get back pitcher this off-season.

CC Sabathia, the most expensive pitcher in the history of New York Yankees underwent an arthroscopic surgery to correct a small meniscus tear in his right knee on Friday morning. The knee injury was an issue for the left hander for most of this season. It was the Yankees second season with CC and Yankees won all three of Sabathia’s playoff starts.

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The History Of The Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers were established in 1896 and were one of the charter members of the American League. In their history, they have won the World Series four times (1935, 1945, 1968, and 1984). In addition to their World Series titles, they have won 10 AL Pennants.

They are one of four charter AL teams that still play in the same city, with the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, and Cleveland Indians being the others. Furthermore, the Tigers were a part of the Western League, which was the AL’s minor league forerunner.  The Tigers are the only team remaining from the Western League that still plays in its same city under the same name.

In 1905, the Tigers acquired outfielder Ty Cobb.  Cobb would go on to have one of the most decorated careers in baseball history, setting several records that still stand today.  He played for the Tigers for 22 seasons, with the final 6 as player-manager.

Cobb helped lead the Tigers to three AL pennants.  All three times, the Tigers lost in the World Series.  They returned to the World Series in 1934, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.  They repeated as AL champions the following year, advancing to face the Chicago Cubs in the 1935 World Series.  The Tigers were able to beat the Cubs in six games for their first World Series in franchise history.  Game 6 was won by the gutsy pitching of Tommy Bridges and the clutch hitting of left fielder Goose Goslin.

The storied franchise enjoyed arguably their greatest season in 1984 when they won a league high 104 games. They were in first place in their division for the entire season.  They swept the Kansas City Royals in the AL Championship to advance to the World Series where they faced the San Diego Padres.  They went on to defeat the Padres, 4 games to 1, for their first World Series in 16 years.

In 2003, Detroit made history in a way they would have preferred not to.  With a record of 43-119, the Tigers set the AL record for losses in a year.  They came within one loss of tying the New York Mets for the most losses in Major League history.  Poor pitching and hitting contributed to the poor record, as the pitching staff had an ERA of 5.30 and the batters averaged an anemic .240.

The 2003 record-setting season took place in a time period where the Tigers had become synonymous with losing.  They had not had a winning season since 1993 and were written off as playoff contenders early in the season.

In 2006, the Tigers fortunes changed.  After a typical slow start, the Tigers seemed to be ignited by manager Jim Leyland’s tirade in which he berated his team for its lack of effort.  The Tigers went on to win 95 games, good enough for a wild card birth in the playoffs.  After defeating the Oakland Athletics in the AL Championship Series, they Tigers advanced to their first World Series since 1984.  They would eventually lose in five games to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

While the Tigers have not enjoyed any playoff success since their trip to the World Series in 2006, they are a completely different franchise from the perennial loser that was always predicted to finish last in their division.  This year is no different.  As the 2010 season begins, expectations are night and day different from what they were eight years ago.

This film was made based on Pennant’s life story, “Cass” starring Nonso Anozie as Pennant, and directed by Jon S. Baird

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History of the MLB

For well over a century, Major League Baseball has been an important aspect of American culture.  The sport of baseball originated from the English game of rounders and was tweaked and added to until it became the beautiful game we have today.  Its popularity grew rapidly, and eventually several professional leagues came about.

Major League Baseball currently consists of two leagues – the American League and the National League.  There were several other defunct leagues that are considered a part of Major League Baseball, and their stats and records are included with those of the two current Major Leagues.

Major League Baseball uses 1869 as its official founding year.  That was the year of the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.  Many others believe the MLB began with the founding of the National League in 1876.  The American League wasn’t founded until 1901.

Before the NL came into existence, players were not bound by contracts and could jump at any time to higher-paying clubs.  Teams were not required to play the full schedule of games and would often forfeit if they were no longer in the running for the league championship.

There were dozens of other competing baseball leagues in the early days of the NL.  The NL was considered “major” because it held a dominant position in the major cities, particularly New York City.  With relatively more fan support than their small-town counterparts, the big city clubs of the NL could raise more revenue to sign the best players.

The most successful of the competing leagues prior to the founding of the AL was the American Association that lasted from 1881 to 1891.  For several years, the National League and American Association champions met in a postseason championship series.  This was the first attempt at a World Series, and the tradition continued with the American League replacing the American Association a few years later.

Despite being separate leagues with different rules, the AL and the NL gradually began a joint organizational structure and essentially operated as a single league.

In the early days of the MLB, games tended to be low scoring and were dominated by pitchers such as Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Mordecai Brown, and Grover Cleveland Alexander.  The period from 1900 to 1919 is commonly referred to as the “dead-ball era.”  The term came about because of the practice of using the same baseball throughout each game.  By the end of the game, the baseball would be misshapen and soft and as a result it became much harder to hit it very far.

Everything changed in the 1920s when Babe Ruth emerged as the best hitter baseball had ever seen.  After spending a few years with the Boston Red Sox, Ruth was acquired by the New York Yankees.  In his first year with the Yankees, he hit 54 home runs and batted .376.  His .847 slugging percentage was a MLB record until 2001.  He hit more home runs than any other team except for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ruth’s hitting prowess is credited with furthering the popularity of baseball.  At the time of his retirement, he held virtually every hitting record and had led the New York Yankees to seven pennants and four World Series titles.

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson made his major league debut for the LA Dodgers.  He was the first black MLB player in history.  He overcame the bigotry and hatred of fans to become one of the greatest and influential athletes of all-time.  He is credited with paving the way for other black baseball players to be able to play in the MLB.  Prior to Robinson, they were required to play in the Negro leagues.

Starting with the acquisition of Ruth and continuing up until today, the New York Yankees have been the most successful team in MLB and in professional sports.  They lead all MLB teams with 27 titles and 40 pennants.  The St. Louis Cardinals are second in titles with 10.

The history of the MLB is held in higher regard than perhaps any other professional sports league.  It has been around for several generations now and today the MLB consistently ranks in the top two sports leagues in the world in terms of revenue.  As long as the records exist, there will be players and teams trying to break them with millions of fans watching earnestly.

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The History of Connie Mack Stadium

Connie Mack Stadium, Shibe Park: one of the most historical and influential baseball parks in the illustrious history of United States sports.  The first entirely steel and concrete park constructed, it set architectural and aesthetic precedents that would not be broken for decades to come, and ensured its place in the hearts of the Philadelphian people, and well as in the infamy of American baseball history.  From its construction to its demolition, it provided a well organized and unparalleled experience for casual fans and baseball aficionados alike, and a fitting home for the Philadelphia Athletics, and later, the Philadelphia Phillies, as well as several historic Negro League contests as well.  The history of the park is a long and complex one when viewed in the broad context of the times.  The very essence of the park lies in its location and the effects it had on the surrounding neighborhoods, and the destruction of the park had much to do with the destruction of the communities surrounding it as well as the aftermath of the Second World War and the phenomenon of White Flight.  The construction of Connie Mack stadium holds its own unique and equally fascinating set of mysterious circumstances, including the building materials of the park as well as the reasons for its construction.  The stadium was built as a new and more viewer friendly alternative to the old and decrepit Columbia Park in 1909.  Connie Mack’s history in operation paints a vivid picture of the times, and the park endured several ownership changes throughout its heyday, as well as serving as a crux for several sports controversies, such as the admittance of blacks into the rosters of traditionally all-white baseball teams.  The effect it had on the surrounding neighborhoods is also undeniable and intricate, forming a relationship with the surrounding communities that disintegrated with the fall of the outskirts of Philadelphia to poverty.  The moves and decisions the owners of the park made had a profound effect on the surrounding areas, including the erection of the “Spite Fence” in 1933 that broke the strong ties between North Philadelphia and it’s baseballs teams.  Serving as the home to several World Series as well as serving as an endless source of entertainment for an entire city, it is easy to see how Connie Mack stadium has secured itself in the hearts and minds of classic baseball and sports fans.  From name changes to game changes, Connie Mack stadium stood resilient, defiant to a changing world and a changing city, never surrendering to the whims of men, nor to the variable opinions of the times.  The game may have changed, but the historic places in which the games took place have remained the same, a valiant testament to the endurance of the official sport of America.

Connie Mack stadium was a stadium constructed to house several Philadelphia sports teams in the first half on the twentieth century.  However, a cursory glance into the rich history of the complex reveals that such a curt description does not begin to describe such a place.  The stadium served as home to several successful and prestigious sports teams throughout history, including the Philadelphia Athletics and the Philadelphia Phillies, both of which played baseball in the historic stadium.  The stadium was constructed with financial backing by Connie Mack and Benjamin Shibe, two owners of an upstart, unheralded baseball club called the Philadelphia Athletics. 

The Philadelphia Athletics were founded in 1901 with the help of Benjamin Shibe and Connie Mack, which coincided with the year that the American League was formed.  Connie Mack was delegated to be the manager of the baseball affairs while Shibe, a prominent sporting goods manufacturer, dealt with the business component of owning a sports club. The original stadium of choice for the Athletics was Philadelphia’s Columbia Park, also located in North Philadelphia, although they moved to Shibe Park following its construction in 1909.  After several successful trades organized by Connie Mack, the Philadelphia Athletics became routine contenders in the American League, and won nine pennants throughout the franchise’s history, earning the Athletics the prestigious title of the “Most Successful Philadelphian Sports Team of all Time”.  Several World Series were also conducted at Shibe Park, resulting in five World Series victories for the Philadelphia Athletics, in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, and 1930.   In addition to housing the Philadelphia Athletics, Connie Mack stadium also served as a home to the Philadelphia Phillies, the Athletics national league counterparts, in the latter part of the first half of the twentieth century. 

The history of the Athletics hardly tells the entire story, however.  The interactions between Connie Mack and fellow athletics owner Benjamin Shibe became an important component in understanding the history of Connie Mack stadium as the two owners aged.  Benjamin Shibe originally owned the majority of shares relating to the stadium, and thus named the stadium with his namesake, Shibe.  Connie Mack possessed a marginal amount of shares and was considered to have been primarily the sports face of the franchise.  However, following Shibe’s death in 1922 his shares were divided amongst his several offspring.  Connie Mack then began to command a larger amount of shares relating to the park’s ownership and finally, following the death of Shibe’s last son in 1936, Connie Mack maintained full ownership of the park and of the team.  Mack, notoriously tight fisted as an owner, secured his place in history as one of the most conservative, though successful, managers and owners in Major League Baseball history.  Once quoted as preferring a team to get off to a hot start yet finish fourth to boost ticket sales, Mack became infamous for attempting to squeeze every last dollar out of his successful franchise.  One prime example of this was a conflict Mack had with the surrounding neighborhoods in North Philadelphia in 1933 regarding the sale of seats on top of people’s houses surrounding the stadium.  Mack contended that the neighbors had no right to profit from his personally owned stadium and sued the surrounding communities attempting to generate money from this practice.  After promptly losing the law suit, Mack ordered the fences around the stadium to be extended in height, preventing the majority of the surrounding communities to view his contests without paying.  Although this practice did initially generate revenue for the club and its stadium, the long terms effects of the fence were disastrous, cutting the team off from the communities that supported it.  In doing so, Mack very well may have contributed to the downfall and sale of the club in 1954.  Shibe Park remained a staple of Philadelphia sports until it’s demolition in 1976 in favor of the new Veteran’s Stadium, built in South Philadelphia.

Benjamin Shibe, co-owner of the Philadelphia Athletics with Connie Mack, constructed Shibe Park. It was the first stadium made of concrete reinforced steel. Connie Mack wanted the stadium to be a lasting monument capable of supporting the weight of hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.  The facade was designed in French Renaissance style by Benjamin Shibe designed.  The walls were brick with terra cotta ornamentation.   The copper roof was made of green slate.  The words “Shibe Park” were engraved over the main entrance and the words “Entrance to Grandstand” were engraved over the adjacent entrances. 

Shibe Park, which had been constructed at a cost of three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars on a six-acre site that had been vacant lots, woods, and the Philadelphia Hospital for Contagious Diseases, had been home to the Athletics since it opened in 1909. Located at 21st Street and Lehigh Avenue, it had originally seated twenty three thousand, ten thousand in the grandstand and thirteen thousand in the bleachers, plus an additional area in centerfield that was often used for standing-room patrons and could accommodate up to ten thousand standees.  Shibe Park in Philadelphia and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh both opened in 1909 and were the first two ballparks to be constructed entirely of steel and concrete.

Connie Mack was a baseball titan and probably the most important figure in Philadelphia baseball history. He had a very impressive career in baseball himself then continued on to manage pro teams. In 1891, he became involved in Ban Johnson’s Western League. The Milwaukee club is where he accepted a job as manger and running the business affairs for the club for four years. These four years were very important to his career. During the four years, he learned more about the game than he had ever learned. He took in and absorbed everything he could while he worked behind the scenes for the club. It truly was a learning experience. Meeting new contacts and connections was one of the greatest benefits. His connections with Ban Johnson lead to a promising new business offer. Johnson was friends with Benjamin F. Shibe. Shibe was a partner in the A. J. Reach and Company. He was fascinated and a fan of the old Athletics of which his partner was a member. In 1880, he became a stockholder in the Athletic Club of the American Association. The club went bankrupt in 1890 but he still was very interested in it. He took charge of Athletics at that time. This action was taken due to his loyalty for baseball as the greatest American sport and pastime. Shibe was not only a fan of baseball; he manufactured baseball equipment as well. He was responsible for the evolution of baseball itself through his manufacturing of gloves, bats, masks, and other equipment. His love for the game resulted in his decision to have the Athletics join the American league. He finically backed Mack and the two created the Philadelphia Athletics in 1901. Shibe became the president and Mack, the manger. With the new team, the club had an immediate need for ball park to play its home games. The new manger, Mack, found a suitable vacant lot that was bordered by 29th Street, Columbia Avenue, 30th street, and Oxford Street in North Philadelphia. Shibe and Mack took out a ten year lease on the property and constructed a small stadium for a meager ,000. The park was christened Columbia Park because it was bordered by Columbia Avenue. It was a small stadium and had the seating capacity of only 9,500 people. The seating was wood grandstands from home plate to first and third bases that extended on either side. Open bleachers also bordered the foul lines. The park was so small that that the Athletics dressed in a small club house under the bleachers. The away team even had to change in their hotels before the game. The stadium didn’t even have dugouts, players sat on wooden benches. The Athletics did well in their first few seasons and became very popular. The small wooden ball park often had to shut its gates on thousands of fans when tickets sold out. The 1902 and 1905 seasons made it clear that the park could not hold all its fans when the Athletics won the American League Championships. Mack and Shibe were not satisfied with the seating capacity. They envisioned a larger park that would hold larger crowds which would result in higher profits. The result was decision to build a new ball park. The Final game was on October 8th 1908.  After the 1908 season, the athletics abandoned Columbia Park for good. They moved to their new stadium, Shibe Park, which was much larger. Columbia Park stood for three more years then was knocked down to build homes. This was the place where Philadelphia baseball history began and where many famous players started their career.

The A’s and the Philadelphia Phillies originally played in the same ballpark called the Baker Bowl. Because of the A’s popularity, their owner Ben Shibe, decided to purchase new land and build a new ballpark.    The A’s played their last game on October 3, 1908, separating the two teams.  They played their first game at Shibe Park on April 12, 1909, 30 years before the Phillies moved there.  During these 30 years there were many changes made to the stadium that made it more appealing to the fans.  By 1940, Shibe Park had a new tenant, NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.  Because of the two baseball teams, a Philadelphia fan was always able to see a baseball game between the months of April and September.  In 1953, Shibe Park was renamed after the manager of the A’s for 50 years, calling it the Connie Mack Stadium.  After the 1954 season, the A’s moved to Kansas City, leaving the Phillies to buy the stadium for million.

During the 1960s, the Phillies sought out a new ballpark, due to bad location, lack of parking, and deterioration.  The voters throughout Philadelphia voted to build a new multi-purpose stadium for both the Phillies and Eagles in 1964.  The Phillies played the last game at Connie Mack Stadium on October 1, 1970.  That following year they moved to the new stadium, the Veterans Stadium.  In 1971 and several years to follow, Connie Mack Stadium was vandalized and used as a junk yard.  The stadium was finally demolished in July 1976, during the All-Star Game held at the Veterans Stadium, and is now the site of a church.

Connie Mack stadium and the surrounding area in which it was built, North Philadelphia were just as, if not more inseparable, as the teams that played within the walls of the complex.  The connections between the neighborhood and it’s beloved Shibe Park were held until the park was demolished in the nineteen seventies.  However, several of the economic changes that the neighborhood underwent affected Shibe Park in positive and negative ways as the years progressed, and ultimately it was economic changes that drove the ancient stadium from North Philadelphia and caused a new complex, Veteran’s Stadium, to be built in a newer and more attractive area, South Philadelphia.  These economic changes were not always direct results of actions by the stadium and teams, but rather to a larger socio-economic context that included the rise and fall of industrialism, the Great Depression, World War II, and white flight.  All these factors contributed to economic rises and declines in the area, and eventually ran the neighborhoods into a downward spiral of decay from which it has since struggled to recover from.

From the time Shibe Park was constructed until the nineteen thirties and the Great Depression, North Philadelphia had been a hub of industrial wealth and might in Philadelphia.  Factories were erected in many places, and the area began producing its own income.  It became so popular and wealthy an area, that many of the rich industrialist owners of the factories began to construct new and elaborate townhouses in the North Philadelphia area.  All these environmental successes contributed to the choice of Benjamin Shibe and Connie Mack to construct a new and more modern baseball park than ever in the area.  This new park brought even more wealth to an already booming area, and boosted the economy to record heights.  This period of success would not be the epitome of the North Philadelphian economy in the twentieth century.  With the arrival of the Great Depression and the nineteen thirties, much of the factory production that enriched the area earlier in the century ceased, and the companies that provided the much needed work for the area folded.  Shibe Park, now run entirely by Connie Mack and his associates, bore the full brunt of this economic decline, which manifested itself into an uncomfortable amount of empty seats at the ballpark.  Discouraged, Mack lashed out at the fans, suing many of them for attempting to profit from his team by allowing spectators to view the games from the top of their homes at competitive prices.  Although Mack lost the suit, he ordered a large fence be erected around the stadium to prevent these practices from occurring.  This became known as the “Spite Fence” and was a feat duplicated by several other teams who faced similar challenges.  The fence produced an unwanted downside, and inadvertently choked an already downward spiraling area away from one of its major sources of entertainment.  Connie Mack had left his mark on the neighborhood. 

The fifties brought a new advent of social and economic change.  As the cities in America grew larger and more crowded, wealthier, usually white Americans chose to leave the crime and cacophonous noise of the city behind and settle in the rural outskirts of the urban area.  This area eventually became known as suburbia, and the new white America was born.  No longer would cities represent an accurate cross section of the population, but rather a cross section of the people who could not afford to leave.  Many black families who could not afford to move to these newly settled areas chose to stay in the cities, and watched as their neighborhoods succumbed to crime, lack of funding, and poverty.   This phenomenon became known as “white flight” and possibly served as the last nail in the coffin of aging Connie Mack stadium.  As poorer black families moved in and the area became racially integrated, the economy of the neighborhoods took one last, disastrous turn downward, plunging the area into outright poverty.  Connie Mack was no longer a sports complex in an affluent and supportive area of Philadelphia.  North Philadelphia became a burden on the stadium, preventing it from drawing customers due to the downtrodden nature of the neighborhoods that surrounded it.  Connie Mack stadium’s destruction in 1976 marked the end of a long legacy of sports in Philadelphia, and strangled one last vast source of income from the North Philadelphia area.  Although much of the area has been the focus of gentrification projects throughout the nineties and into the twenty-first century, it still remains a poverty stricken and statistically dangerous area with little to no signs of improvement.

The final days of Connie Mack stadium were spent in silent reflection.  The new and far away Veterans Stadium had taken the place of the once glorious complex, leaving it to crumble in the declining neighborhoods of North Philadelphia.  However, although destroyed by fire and fan looting, the stadium could never lose its sense of pride.  Connie Mack stadium had been one of the longest stadiums in use in the Philadelphia area.  It had served as a host for numerous pennant wins, World Series games, and winning seasons by not only its chief proprietors, the Philadelphia Athletics, but also by several other baseball clubs in the area, such as the Philadelphia Phillies.  The complex began its life as Shibe Park, the brainchild of two aspiring baseball entrepreneurs, Benjamin Shibe and Connie Mack.  Throughout the years it gained the reputation of a winning stadium, and served as the home for the Philadelphia Athletics until their departure in the nineteen fifties.  Not only did the stadium break tradition by its reputation for winning ball clubs, but it broke architectural traditions as well, being the first stadium to be constructed using concrete and steel, a distinct sign of the times.  The park was constructed for many reasons, including the dreams and objectives of Benjamin Shibe and Connie Mack.  It was constructed in 1909 in North Philadelphia because at the time North Philadelphia remained the industrial and wealthy capital of the Philadelphia area.  Though its construction reflected the simple reasons of profit and location, the construction process itself became a massive feat of engineering, commanding a large amount of money relative to the times and employing thousands of workers. 

The construction site of the complex made its home atop a plot of land once used by many other sites, including the ever infamous Philadelphia Hospital for Contagious Diseases.  As important as the construction was the destruction of the park, which took place in 1976.  The area had begun a steady decline into poverty, a phenomenon aptly duplicated by the stadium itself, which had been reduced to charred rubble by fire and unsympathetic looters.  The complex lay dormant for several months before it was finally demolished in July.  As the world changed in the nineteen seventies, it is important to note that the construction of Veterans Stadium was astronomical in cost compared to the cost of construction for Shibe Park.  Ironically enough, Veterans Stadium did not outlive the venerable Connie Mack Stadium, and was promptly demolished before it could reach forty years in operation.  The destruction of Connie Mack stadium was as much linked to the destruction of the Philadelphia Athletics and the unsuccessfulness of the Philadelphia Phillies.  Combined with several poor choices on the part of the management of the complex, such as Connie Mack’s notorious “spite fence”, these reasons allowed Connie Mack stadium to meet its end after almost seventy years in service to baseball fans. Almost as instrumental as the destruction of the park itself was the story of the neighborhoods that surrounded Connie Mack stadium, the North Philadelphia area.  Once a rich and prominent area in Philadelphia, North Philadelphia was shredded by the economic repercussions of such events as the Great Depression and World War II, turning into an unappealing habitat for the destitute.  This caused a never before observed phenomenon known as “white flight” in which the white residents of the area left the city in search of new and more secure area, suburbia was born.  North Philadelphia was not the only victim of this precipitous decline; however, it was shaken at the very foundations by the events of the thirties, forties, and fifties.  North Philadelphia has become a haven for gentrification projects and community improvement initiatives but still remains extremely volatile and unstable in nature.  Connie Mack stadium was not only one of the most historically significant and locally popular ballparks in American history, but also one of the most influential, in design, and in the communities surrounding the park.  Although it is now demolished, it remains a symbol of Philadelphian engineering and management, a stark testimony to the ingenuity of men such as Benjamin Shibe and Connie Mack, two men who dared to dream. 

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