The latest additions to our Defunct Baseball collection pull two short-lived ball clubs out of late-19th-century Colorado mining country: the Aspen Silver Kings of 1889 and the Leadville Angels of 1896. Two towns built on silver, two summer seasons of independent league baseball, and two designs we just sent through the press.
Aspen Silver Kings (1889)
The Silver Kings took the field in 1889, the same year a young Aspen was riding a silver-mining boom that briefly made it one of Colorado's wealthiest towns. Funded in part by mining magnate David Hyman, who donated the land for the ballpark, the club joined the independent Colorado State League and played to crowds of miners and merchants. They finished third in the standings before the franchise quietly folded mid-season on July 29 of that same year. Aspen would field teams again in 1895, 1896, and 1898, but the Silver Kings, the first of them, never returned.
The shirt design leans into that mining-town origin: the batter on the front swings a miner's pickaxe instead of a bat, with "SILVER KINGS BASEBALL CLUB," "EST. 1889," "ASPEN, COLO.," and "Colorado State League" all set in heavily distressed vintage type.
Available in: Unisex T-Shirt · Women's T-Shirt · Long Sleeve · Hoodie · Sweatshirt · Tank Top
Leadville Angels (1896)
By 1896, Leadville was already past its silver-rush peak, but the high-altitude mining town still had enough fight in it to field a ball club. The Angels played a short summer season in the independent Colorado State League, going 5-3 under manager Harry Grier and finishing second in a six-team field that ran from May 2 to July 15. Their rivals that year included the Aspen Miners, the Pueblo Rovers, and the Denver Gulfs (small towns with big-league pride). Like most late-nineteenth-century mountain franchises, the Angels burned bright and brief.
The design plays on the team name with a literal touch: a vintage batter mid-swing with a pair of feathered angel wings spread behind him. "Angels" runs across the front in a flowing cursive script, with "1896 BASEBALL CLUB," "COLORADO STATE LEAGUE," and "LEADVILLE, COLO." stacked in clean distressed block lettering below.
Available in: Unisex T-Shirt · Women's T-Shirt · Long Sleeve · Hoodie · Sweatshirt · Tank Top
Browse the rest of the collection
Both designs join a growing roster of forgotten Minor League ball clubs we've put back on cotton. See the full lineup at Vintage Defunct Baseball Teams.