{{Short description|American baseball club during only 1909}} The '''Youngstown Indians''' were a Minor League Baseball club that competed during the 1909 season in the Ohio–Pennsylvania League.<ref name="sp217">''Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide'' (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1910), p. 217.</ref> The team showed great promise at the outset of the season but finished with a disappointing 46–78 record, placing last in the league.<ref name="sp217"/> The league championship that year went to an Akron franchise, which closed the season with an 81–40 record.<ref name="sp219">''Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide'' (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1910), p. 219.</ref>
== Origins ==
The short-lived Youngstown Indians team succeeded other minor league clubs in Youngstown, Ohio, including the championship Youngstown Ohio Works and Youngstown Champs.<ref name="Filchia258"> {{cite book | last = Filchia | first = Peter | title = Professional Baseball Franchises: From the Abbeville Athletics to the Zanesville Indians | year = 1993 | publisher = Facts on File | location = New York | pages = 258 }}</ref> The 1907 sale of the Ohio Works team to investors in Zanesville, Ohio, paved the way for the establishment of the Champs.<ref name="Zanesville-signal">{{cite news | title = Franchise, Team and Marty Hogan are Coming Here | work = The Zanesville Signal | page = 1 | date = February 18, 1907 }}</ref> Like the Ohio Works club, which won two consecutive league championships, the Champs were sponsored by local industrial leader Joseph A. McDonald and his brother, Thomas.<ref name="vindy-yo-05-02-20">{{cite news | title = Youngstown's Old Circus Grounds | work = The Youngstown Vindicator | date = May 2, 1920 }}</ref> The Champs won the 1907 championship of the Ohio–Pennsylvania League,{{cn|date=November 2022}} but the following year, their season was cut short when the owners of the Youngstown franchise "threw up the sponge in mid-season".<ref name="sp217"/> In 1909, the newly established Youngstown Indians secured the backing of a stock company in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and were managed by W.R. Terry.<ref name="sp217"/>
== Controversy ==
The challenges facing the Youngstown Indians reflected perennial difficulties within the Ohio–Pennsylvania League, including weak financial support for teams and uneven ticket sales.<ref name="sp217"/> The ''Spalding Guide'''s Youngstown-based correspondent, W. A. Mason, noted that support for the league in that city had eroded because of the local club's poor performance. "Youngstown had the tailend team and the fans had been used to winning ball", Mason wrote. He added, however, that the league, "taking together the gate receipts and the moneys received from the sale and drafting of players", proved to be a "moneymaker" for the first time since its establishment.<ref name="sp217"/>
Despite its improved financial situation, the Ohio–Pennsylvania League narrowly escaped the prospect of dissolution late in the 1909 season. As the ''Spalding Guide'' reports, the league's unraveling was prevented only by the guidance of the league president, Sam L. Wright,<ref name="sp217"/> who had earlier managed the Youngstown Champs.<ref name="Marion-Mirror-03-11-1907">{{cite news | title = Youngstown Deal Settled; And Fans in That City are Now Happy | work = Marion Daily Mirror | page = 3 | date = March 11, 1907 }}</ref> Toward the end of the season, Wright took the extraordinary step of backing the Youngstown Indians, when their New Castle owners "gave it up". This move preserved the eight-team league,<ref name="sp217"/> which also included teams from Akron, East Liverpool, McKeesport, New Castle, Canton, and Steubenville.<ref name="sp219"/>
== Dissolution ==
At the close of the 1909 season, the club came under the co-ownership of former Indians manager Terry and business partner Paul Powers.<ref name="sp217"/> Renamed as the Youngstown Steelmen, the team competed in the Ohio–Pennsylvania League during the 1910 and 1911 seasons.<ref name="Filchia258" /> The Steelmen joined the Central League in 1912, and that year, narrowly lost the pennant to a rival franchise from Fort Wayne, Indiana, placing second in the league.<ref>''Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide'' (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1913), p. 190.</ref>
== References == {{reflist}} {{Ohio-Pennsylvania League |state=collapsed}}
Category:Defunct minor league baseball teams Category:Defunct baseball teams in Ohio Category:Sports in Youngstown, Ohio Category:Baseball teams disestablished in 1909 Category:Baseball teams established in 1909 Category:1909 establishments in Ohio Category:1909 disestablishments in Ohio Category:Ohio-Pennsylvania League teams