When it comes to fan allegiance these days, New Haven is caught smack in the middle of a turf war between New York and Boston.

But for one season in the summer of 1875, New Haven was home to its own major league franchise — the New Haven Elm Citys. And on the corner of Howard and Spring Avenue, just a few blocks from the New Haven Register building on Long Wharf, sat the city’s major league ballpark.

Nowadays, acquiring a major league franchise, if one can get through the political red tape, requires roughly a billion dollars. Yet in 1875, if a team had a suitable field and could muster $3,000 for expenses, you were in.

New Haven’s brief foray into the world of major league sports was rather inglorious.

Read Chip Malafronte's complete story.