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In July 1872, the first baseball club forms in Seattle. The club is called Dolly Varden, after the common name of Salvelinus malma, a species of small anadromous (salmon-like) char found in North Pacific waters. The fish in turn was named for the colorful character in the Charles Dickens novel Barnaby Rudge. How's that for sports trivia?

Sources:

Thomas Prosch, "A Chronological History of Seattle from 1850 to 1897" (typescript, dated 1900-1901, Special Collections, University of Washington Library), 220.; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Website (http://www.fws.gov/).

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