Summer of '49 Baseball League
First sim: Late Spring 2002
Seasons Played: Currently May 1963 (started in 1949); 14 seasons
Number of Human Owners: 20 (16 in 1949-1954, 18 in 1955-1960)
Number of Guys to Own their team in all 14 years: 9
Number of Guys to Own a team who have dropped and come back when time/life allowed: 2
URL: http://www.so49.com
Your team (if applicable): N/A
Dynasties: 4 with 1 'Legendary' dynasty (the Indians 1949-1953 won 4 flags and 2 World Series titles; the Dodgers 1950-1953 nabbed 3 flags and a title in 1950; the Philadelphia Phillies 1952-1958 won 5 NL flags, 3 straight from '56-'58, and claimed titles in 1952 and 1954; the greatest dynasty, however, belongs to the Detroit Tigers whose run ostensibly began in 1952, got rolling for good in 1956 and is still going -- 7 flags, 3 consecutive titles '56-'58 with 5 overall. When fans want to know why the reserve clause was broken in 1963 a lot of people point to Motown...)
1948 World Series Winner (1948 is the actual first, simmed, season of SO49 history...)
Boston (N) beat Boston (A) 4 to 3
1949 World Series Winner
Boston (N) beat Cleveland 4 to 1
1950 World Series Winner
Brooklyn beat Cleveland 4 to 2
1951 World Series Winner
Cleveland beat Brooklyn 4 to 3
1952 World Series Winner
Philadelphia (N) beat Detroit 4 to 2
1953 World Series Winner
Cleveland beat Brooklyn 4 to 2
1954 World Series Winner
Philadelphia (N) beat Boston (A) 4 to 0
1955 World Series Winner
Minnesota beat Philadelphia (A) 4 to 0
1956 World Series Winner
Detroit beat Philadelphia (N) 4 to 1
1957 World Series Winner
Detroit beat Philadelphia (N) 4 to 0
1958 World Series Winner
Detroit beat Philadelphia (N) 4 to 3
1959 World Series Winner
Minnesota beat Detroit 4-3
1960 World Series Winner
Detroit beat Minnesota 4-1
1961 World Series Winner
Pittsburgh beat San Francisco 4-0
1962 World Series Winner
Detroit beat Minnesota 4-1
SO49 began by simming the entire 1948 season and started, 16 owners in tow, with the 1949 Amateur Draft. The league doesn't follow the actual course of MLB history (re: expansion, relocation) and expanded for the first time in 1955
(Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Constellations in the AL). The year before the shift westward began when the Boston Red Sox (AL) bolted for riches in San Francisco while the New York Giants (NL) were lured to the Twin Cities of Minnesota. The league realigned into 4 divisions following the 1956 season
[Detroit is the only team ever to win the AL East to date; San Francisco is the only AL Western flag winner; Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Pittsburgh have all won division crowns; Minnesota and the Chicago Cubs have reached the summit in the NL West] . The St. Louis Browns relocated across Missouri, to Kansas City, in 1958 and the Washington Senators packed off to the American Northwest (Seattle) in 1960. The league expanded for the second time in 1961: Atlanta Generals (NLE) and Houston Colt .45s (NLW). The Philadelphia Athletics joined Atlanta in bringing baseball to the American south when they shifted to Miami that same season. The current alignment seems set for the distant future and there are no likely relocations on the horizon as baseball's vision of 'manifest destiny' has been fulfilled in part. A new round of expansion is expected later in the decade. The reserve clause was broken in 1963
[the league added finances in order to improve parity].