Quote:
Originally Posted by Trebro
I'd say probably not earlier than 1890, and even that would be pushing it. I'd say the 1880s are fine for the South, because remember the American Association had teams in St. Louis and Richmond, VA at one point.
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The AA put teams in all sorts of goofy places in 1884. The AA tried to field a 12-team circuit to counter the Union Association, which also put teams in all sorts of goofy places (like Altoona, PA and Wilmington, DE). 1885 saw a return to a certain degree of sanity, and bush-league towns like Richmond were jettisoned.
The problem with southern cities wasn't necessarily the travel. Louisville, after all, was represented in the major leagues off and on until 1899. Rather, it was the size of the cities that prevented them from joining the bigs. Apart from New Orleans, Richmond was the biggest city in the old south in the 1870s and '80s, and it was a good deal smaller than Providence, the smallest city in the NL. Memphis surpassed Richmond by 1900, but it was still smaller than places like Toledo and Omaha. The first time a city in the south (aside from New Orleans) appeared in the top 20 cities was in the 1950 census, when Houston jumped to number 14.