Posted By:
Adam BaxterGreetings,
Nice to finally see a post about this often overlooked league.
The Quincy Shipbuilders were only around for one New England League season (1933). The Shipbuilders, like most teams in the league,were a minor league affiliate of a Major League club (Detroit Tigers). Their manager Hal Weafer was called up to big leagues with the Chicago Cubs in 1920, but never saw action and had to settle for a long minor league career instead. The team got off to a good start but ended up finishing with 28 wins and 47 losses, putting them second to last in the league. Part of the problem was playing on their home turf at Fore River Field. It was not an enclosed ballpark and the team had problems collecting admission from spectators. In June of '33 the team moved to Nashua, NH renaming themselves the Nashua Millionaires and after just two months they moved again, this time to Brockton as the Shoemakers. The move to Brockton didn't help and that was pretty much it for the Shipbuilders.
I looked up Oriental Carella's name in the minor league section of SABR's (Society for American Baseball Research) website and could not find any info on him. His name also does not appear on the 1933 team roster. It's possible that he only played in the New England League for a few games that season, which could account for his abscence from the records or that he played under an alias (Not an uncommon practice in the old days).
If you'd like to find out more about this league there is a great book that was recently published called "The New England League: A Baseball History 1885-1949" By Charlie Bevis. The Quincy Historical Society would be another source worth checking out as well.
Would love to see a pic if possible. If you have any more questions, please feel free to post them here or you can email me at zeenuts@gmail.com. Thanks for sharing.