Industrial Baseball of NoVA

The Industrial Baseball League is the premier showcase for top level unlimited age talent in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Our players are current college, ex-college and ex-professional players all of whom want to continue to play competitive baseball.

We play a 20-30 game regular season schedule with a post-season double elimination tournament. The schedule has been augmented in past years with preseason tournaments, regular season tournaments and post-season tournaments as well as some barnstorming by certain teams up and down the eastern seaboard. One of the preseason tournaments we've played in is the Reno Powell Memorial Weekend Tournament in Hagerstown MD. During the regular season we participated in the Tallgren Baseball Games for Leukemia. Tallgren Tournament highlighted some of the top Unlimited and Semi-Pro talent in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The tournament began in 1987 and was run by Bruce Fasick of Iron Baseball out of the Prince William County area in mid July. All proceeds for the tournament going to the fight against Leukemia. 

Our post-season schedule starts in early August, after our league tournament has completed. We belong to two premier national amateur baseball organizations. The National Amateur Baseball Federation, run by Charlie Blackburn (NABF Est. 1914) and the American Amateur Baseball Congress, run by Joe Cooper (AABC Est. 1931). Both leagues have regional and national tournaments that our league has attended. On top of this schedule, a few of our teams picked up extra games by barnstorming throughout the local and regional baseball area. Others add extra games by playing under different names in the Chesapeake Independent Baseball League. This is a Sunday only league based in Southern Maryland.

The history of the league is composed of a number of branches: We are currently the Industrial Baseball League of Northern VA. Our roots stem from the Credit Union Baseball League (Est. 1979). Tony Johnson, the founder of this league, referred to the league as the Industrial League of Virginia in his Sandlot Hall of Fame Biography. Our ties are also seen in both the Industrial League of MD, VA, and D.C. (formerly the Tri-County League Est. 1957; Charlie Blackburn is the founder of this league) and the Industrial League of Washington, D.C. (Est. 1914). In 1970 a merger occurred taking the old D.C. league and melding it into the Maryland league to form a top level baseball organization. In 1992 the Industrial League and the Credit Union/Industrial League of Virginia merged to form the best of the best. This group formed an All Star team that traveled to Cuba in September of 1993 and won a Bronze Medal in the "3rd, World Club Championships." Many of the teams in all three leagues have won the Washington, D.C. Home Plate Club (Est. 1951) Team of the Year Awards (Sam Rice Memorial Award) as the top team in the DMV.

Over the years teams have come and gone, but strong teams of note over the past 40 years that take all three leagues into account and bring us to where we are today are as follows: The Industrial League of D.C., Union Printers (Est. 1908). This team has been a member of each of the different leagues that came together to form the Industrial Baseball League. They are still active as a tournament team in the Printers National Tournament held each year in Florida and as recently as 2002 they won the Printers National Title. The Washington Black Sox (Est. 1928) run by Doffey Jones was formerly an old Negro League team that barnstormed through the Chesapeake League and the Mid-Atlantic Negro League until 1963 when the Negro Leagues folded. At this time they became a full-time member of the Industrial Leagues of both D.C. and Maryland. Doffey Jones still owns and operates Black Sox Park in Southern Maryland. The Industrial Baseball League of MD, VA and D.C. was an incredible league with many strong teams. Atlantic Masonry was among the strong teams in this league whose highlight was forming the 1973 Metropolitan All Stars for winter games in Puerto Rico. They also formed the Bicentennial Baseball Team that traveled to Korea in the summer of 1976. The summer games with Korea were kept alive through the 1994 season long after Atlantic Masonry had disbanded. Fairfax Furniture managed by Woody Harris was the strongest team in the league. This team ran like a steam roller through the league for more than 20 years and even pulled down the prestigious York Colonial Labor Day Weekend tournament title in 1975. Mercury Van Lines was also among the elite of this tough, strong league who won a league title or two around the ever-present Fairfax teams. Van Lines was a constant threat in regional and national tournaments through 1994. 

The Credit Union/Industrial League of Virginia was the class of the south side of the Potomac. The Apple Credit Union team was the team to watch in the league with their power arms and power hitters.  They racked up runs faster than most people could put hitters up to the plate. They took 10 titles in 13 seasons. 

The Industrial Baseball League of Northern Virginia brings all the branches together. The Fedlock baseball team (previously known as AJ's and Classic Printing in the late 80's and early 90's) is a top team in the league. This team along with the Union Printers (listed above), took most of the titles in the early, mid and late 1990's. The Fedlock team was the Washington, D.C. Home Plate Club - Sam Rice Memorial Award Team of the year for their second place finish in the NABF (2001), World Series in Louisville, KY. Under any name, FedLock is a constant threat to take a league, state or regional title. Iron Baseball is another of the class members of this league. Iron got stronger with the 1998 merger of the Diamond Baseball Club. Since then regular season and tournament titles (as well as Chesapeake League titles) have been attained several times. Iron is the team that hosts the Tallgren Baseball Games for Leukemia each year in mid summer in the Prince William County area. Many times this tournament has been held at Pfitzner County Stadium, ex-home of the Nationals minor league baseball 'A' ball team.  Since the turn of the century, the Senators, FedLock and now the Potomac Clementes have taken turns winning league regular season and league tournament titles.  

Harold Baines, Pete Schourek, Rick Crushore and Mike Colangelo are just a few of the 100 + Major League ball players who have participated in the Industrial Baseball League.

- Bob Schnebly, Semi-Pro Baseball Historian

http://www.bobschnebly.com