Does Chicago Have 2 Baseball Teams?

The Cubs and the White Sox, the two major league baseball teams that call Chicago home, have shaped the city’s baseball history.



However, the history of baseball in Chicago spans a wide range of competitions, from minor leagues to major leagues.

In August 1851, amateur teams from Joliet and Lockport played a game in the Chicago region for the first time.



As early as August 1858, the Excelsiors were reporting on the Union Baseball Club’s first game in Chicago, which was formed in 1856.

After the Civil War, baseball’s popularity soared in the Windy City. A total of 45 amateur teams were competing in the city by the year 1867.

The result of games between amateur, company, and youth teams was reported in Chicago newspapers by 1870.

In 1887, the city’s eight strongest amateur teams decided to form the Chicago City League in response to the increasing attendance at games between the city’s best amateur teams.

These teams rose to the level of semiprofessional baseball as a result of the players receiving a portion of the gate receipts from the enclosed ballparks.

A decade after its heyday in 1890, the Chicago City League was disbanded in 1895 when the better clubs preferred to play in an independent league with a more lucrative schedule.

Both spectator attendance and overall level of play grew steadily from 1900 to 1910 in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, which included a dozen enclosed ballparks.

Semipro teams including Logan Squares, Gunthers, and East Side West Ends all formed during this time period in Chicago.

Amateur baseball in Chicago and the industrial leagues saw similar growth. There was a time in Chicago when amateur baseball served as a substitute for softball.

Football leagues sponsored by churches, corporations, fraternal orders, and banks were all represented in the city’s daily reports.

In 1909, the Chicago City League reopened with six teams, including the African American Leland Giants, one of many teams that emerged as a result of baseball’s racial discrimination.

At least three of these teams were regarded as “professional.” Baseball’s first successful night game under artificial lights took occurred in Chicago on August 27, 1910, when the Logan Squares and Rogers Parks fought it out at Comiskey Park.

Does Chicago Have 2 Baseball Teams?

Yes. The Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox are two of the city’s baseball teams that compete in the two major leagues.