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After the war The H&D League replaced the old Halifax Defense League, and operated for 15 seasons between 1946 and 1959. For the first few years, roughly from 1946-1950 the league maintained a relatively healthy balance between imported and local players; a second era spanned the years 1951 to 1955 when most clubs pushed locals aside and concentrated on a blend of veteran players and college prospects from the United States; and then the final stage from 1956 to 1959 in which clubs relied almost exclusively on young prospects tabbed as potential future stars by major-league organizations. Alongside the H&D League, moreover, there was the Central League, which operated for four years before folding after the 1949 season.
Over the years the average age of players fell, the quality of play diminished as players with less experience were signed, and fan support eroded. Attendance figures for the Stellarton Albions, one of the stalwart franchises in the league in the early years, tells the tale. During the 1951 season, when the H&D League was at the height of its popularity, the league champion Albions drew over 46,000 fans to the ballpark; seven years later they wouldn't draw a quarter of that number. In part, the league's declining fortunes can be attributed to the same forces that had led to the contraction of minor league and small-town baseball across North America, among them the coming of television and the expanded mobility and vacation options that accompanied growing numbers of families who owned an automobile. At the same time, as the league became a summer league for American college prospects, similar in its makeup to the Cape Cod League today, it lost many of the ingredients that it had made it successful earlier. By 1957 the league had shrunk from six teams to four, and further defections made it impossible to operate after the completion of the 1959 season.

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Halifax Shipyards Stars
1947
Wanderers Grounds, Halifax, Nova Scotia