INFO

Boulevard Park, Washington isn’t the kind of neighborhood you usually think about much. It’s an intermediate point between Seattle’s boundary line and its surrounding towns; slow waves of through traffic cut through its otherwise quiet demeanor, and the library, lone bar, and parks are its only sources of activity most days of the year.

The last of these is bustling a little more than usual today, with the inaugural practice of the North SeaTac Recreational Baseball Club. A smattering of prospective players from the area have gathered on the grounds of Sunset Playfield; the turnout of 18 is low but barely suitable. A couple hours in, and most eyes are toward the grass—fielding ground balls, working through pitching fundamentals—but a couple of the outfielders cast their gaze upward just in time to see the sky open up.

A cascade of meteors descend from the heavens. Their appearance is almost fictional; sparkly light and an ethereal whistling trailing behind bright yellow, star-shaped forms. They scatter all over the greater Seattle area, with a few small specks reaching to states and countries beyond.

Practice stops in its tracks. The just-assembled team watches star after star disappear beyond the towering treeline, not a crash or a panicked scream to be heard from their surroundings. One last whistle is heard from the skies, louder than the rest; few can whip around in time to see its impact directly on top of home plate before white light engulfs the field.

Everything feels gentle. Even as the energy tears gashes of magical light into skin, coaxes wings out of backs, and claws out of hands. Even as extra eyes open up, ears change shape, and feathers sprout out of skin.

The light eventually clears. All traces of the meteor are gone, the infield left perfectly intact. Eyes dart around to teammates; changed, crackling with newfound energy. They almost miss an envelope resting on home plate, and the catcher stumbles forward on new legs to pick it up. Inside, an ornately decorated letter simply reads:

“CHOOSE YOUR NAME, TEAM. DON YOUR UNIFORMS, DUST OFF YOUR STANDS, READY YOUR CROWDS. YOU HAVE ONE WEEK.

WELCOME TO THE SHINY LEAGUE.”

The Boulevard Park Memorials are a fictional baseball team created as part of the online simulation site MMOLB. Their location and imagery is based off the creator's childhood neighborhood of Boulevard Park, Washington. In this universe, the team started as an community building effort by the Fellows of the Boulevard Park Library, championed by Juli Mäkelä. Originally intended as a recreational community-building effort, supernatural events out of the team's control catapulted their team into a full-time commitment.

In MMOLB, the Memorials compete in the Shiny League, a collection of teams whose owners all support the Seattle Shine of the Greater League. The creator's canon is that the Shiny League's rise to prominence came from a supernatural event where a shower of falling stars infused with some sort of fae/angelic energy pummeled the greater Seattle area with the descent of the Shine from some heaven above.

All of the players were originally normal humans (and remain mostly humanoid), but many have inherited enhanced fae/ghostly/magical traits from the infusion of energy. Outside of their baseball professions, they stay mostly integrated in normal life, and have a variety of living situations in the greater South Seattle area.

Deep green (#132F25) is the color of our Pacific Northwest surroundings: darkened needles of native fir and spruce, the shaded forest hikes that they compose, and the layered mountainscape visible beyond the Rainier Valley.

Pale red (#CE7267) is the color of things that last despite all brought upon them: paint holding strong on wooden fences, faded signs of tenured local businesses, and inset bricks on the sidewalks of Des Moines Memorial Drive.

Light silver (#E9E9E9) is the color of hope and progress: book pages from greater King County’s founding library, fresh airplane parts out of the local Boeing plant, and the wisps of clouds over the early summer landscape.

Gold (#CEB88B) doesn’t have an eloquent description yet, but think something related to the military memorial aspect of the two main roads through the neighborhood?