Dolly Vardens (baseball team)

Dolly Vardens was a recurring name used for a number of baseball teams throughout the United States in the early decades of base ball (1860s-1880s). Most were white, male squads, though there was an all-female, African-American team from Chester PA, assembled by barber-turned-sports entrepreneur John Lang in the 1880s.[1] However, the latter team was considered a novelty, rather than a competitive organization, who played for the entertainment of spectators.[2] (MLB official historian John Thorn notes, "Lang’s Dolly Vardens, created in the 1880s, are sometimes confused with several Philadelphia-area all-male clubs bearing that name as early as 1867.")[3]

The name was taken from a character in the 1841 novel Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens.

See also

References
  1. "Baseball In Skirts, 19th-Century Style," NPR.org
  2. Thorn, John, "Strangest of All Baseball Attractions!," Our Game, MLB.com, May 2, 2016
  3. Thorn, ibid.
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