[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Kelric

Interesting historical tidbit there, LGO. It's giving me ideas.

Good! That was my intention when I posted it.

Originally Posted by KevinTMC

I still have a little trouble with the idea that all 8 PCL teams, as-is, could have constituted a major league. It was my impression that some of them weren't nearly as strong (and rich) as the others, and that that was one of the roadblocks.

Part of it also was that the most of the existing PCL stadiums were too small. The majors had put up a fairly high set of requirements for a league to be considered a major league:

• Average paid attendance of at least 3,500,000 for the three seasons preceding to the application
• Total aggregate population of the league cites to be at least 15,000,000
• Each park to have a seating capacity of at least 25,000

In contrast, Open classification consisted of the following requirements:

• Average paid attendance of at least 2,250,000 for the five seasons preceding the application
• Total aggregate population of the league cities to be at least 10,000,000
• Total aggregate park seating capacity for the league of at least 125,000

Benefits from Open classification included clubs being allowed to retain players for five seasons before being subject to the major league (Rule 5) draft instead of the four years in lower leagues; also, players could elect to not to particpate in the draft if they chose (I believe however both these rules were changed in subsequent years). Open leagues had first picks in the draft after the AL and NL, but could not draft players from AAA class teams.

Originally Posted by KevinTMC

An intriguing, key question remains with four leagues: the post-season. I'm presuming that the first round would have AL vs. NL as usual in one series, and the two new leagues against each other in the other.

Possibly; I don't think the plans ever progressed far enough to tackle the question. My guess would be that the matchups would have been rotated over a period of years. So the first year it might be the AL vs. NL and AA vs. IL, then the next year it might be the AL vs. AA and NL vs. IL, then the third year it might be AL vs. IL and NL vs. AA.

Originally Posted by KevinTMC

Would AL vs. NL still be called the "World Series"? Would it be considered a continuation of the same old "World Series" for record purposes? Or, would the final matchup become the "World Series", and those games be added to the historical record of past Series...

I'd guess the latter, and the first round matchups would have been given some sort of name.