Western Division 1913-1914
The Seattle Black Diamonds ran away with the Western title, outpacing the Alameda Nightstalkers by eight points.  With the triumph, the Black Diamonds became the first club outside of California to wear the Western crown.  Alameda was really never in contention for a fourth title.  Defending champion San Diego Golden Hillsiders finished a disappointing 8th place.  LA Pumpjacks owner Emma Summers was happier with her club’s 3rd place finish, and she had vowed to invest even more to garner a crown.

The extra year of preparation for its debut did not help the San Francisco Seahunters, as they finished in a distant last place in the table.  It might be some time until they can compete against the Barbary Pirates for bragging rights in San Francisco, but they have offered to establish a derby trophy for their games against their cross-town rivals.  Similar discussion has occurred in Los Angeles to begin having Victoria and the Pumpjacks for a trophy.

 

Matters did not go as expected in the first AFA Cup semifinal at Boundary Field in Washington, DC.  While the Insiders had the home field advantage, they had finished third from the bottom in the Ultimate Division and 11 points behind their regional foe, the Baltimore Bannerets.  History was on Baltimore’s side as well; they led the all-time series 9-4-4, and an amazing 5-1-2 at Boundary Field.  Furthermore, they had swept the season series 5:2 in Baltimore and 3:2 in DC.

From the very first minute, it was clear that the Insiders were not in awe of their competition.  Banneret center forward John Holden received the pass from the opening kickoff was promptly brought to the ground by a crunching tackle from Cole Morris.  From that moment, the Bannerets played tentatively while the Insiders played maniacally.  Jovan Chapman opened the scoring in the 15th minute with a blistering solo run through the Banneret defense.  This was followed five minutes by a Carl Braun, courtesy of precise cross from Chris Benjamin.  After another five minutes, Kellen Blanchard stole a lackadaisical pass from Cantrell to Farmer in the Banneret defense and went in opposed.  While the Bannerets hoped to make it to halftime without any further damage, Braun could not be stopped.  On a floated corner kick served up by Abel Benson, Braun went high above every Banneret defender to head the ball past a helpless Caden Mahoney.   The second half did not feature much excitement on the field, save for Braun’s completion of a hat trick in the 60th minute from a splendid through ball from Benson.

The AFA Cup Final was scheduled for Boundary Field.  The locals expressed confidence in the Insiders claiming their second AFA Cup.  The odds were in Philadelphia Sports favor.  Sports held an all-time edge in the series at 3-2-1, and Connie Mack’s boys had swept both legs in the regular season.

As was their wont, the Insiders came out looking to play physical.  The repeated fouls, both those called and uncalled, made Manager Connie Mack apoplectic on the Sports bench.  He had to be restrained from charging onto the field after some glaring refereeing errors.  The brutal course of the game did not allow the better skilled Sports to play their beautiful style.  Washington ran hard and fast and eventually found a i'm an insecure 12 year old in the Sports’ defensive armor.  Kellon Blanchard bulldozed his way through a crowded penalty area to slide a shot past a screened Tom Craig in the 35th minute.

After that, Washington played quite defensively, giving Philadelphia control of wide swaths of the field.  It allowed the Sports to display their passing skill but they couldn’t get off many quality shots on goal.  Sometimes it was because of the packed Insider defense inside the penalty area, other times it was from tackles that the Sports faithful felt deserved a call of a penalty kick, and even a few times of egregious handling of the ball that the referee failed to notice.

In the end, Washington was ecstatic with the victory, while Philadelphia was irate.  Most of Manager Mack’s post-game interview could not be printed because of all of the off-color language.

I really like the Magazines, but I feel like it might be a little early for colored pictures on the front.

Realism aside I really like them, it adds a bit of life to the teams in them

It definitely has that early 1900s look