During the summer of 1901, the two Lowell-based teams broke away from the three-year old Massachusetts League to organize a new league, which they brazenly called the Massachusetts League, forcing the established league to change its name to the Massachusetts Central League. In addition, the new league recruited the players off the Hudson squad to relocate to South Framingham and added a team in Maynard and two Boston teams, Somerville and Cambridge. Somerville lasted just one game before dropping out of the league, but Cambridge proved to be one of the league’s best teams.
The breakup between the Lowell squads and the Worcester-based teams did not end the acrimony between the two groups. The struggle between the two organizations would go on for years with serious repercussions for all concerned.
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