The playoffs work through an association. All three leagues are completely separate, with no league championship series, and the association picks up the playoff teams. For now, there is no interleague play, and all three of them are on 154-game schedules. I may try for a custom schedule later when interleague play comes into vogue. There will come a time when the leagues split into divisions, at which point each will have a league championship series before the actual playoffs.
So on to the story.
YEAR 2 (1953)
As the second season of the PCL experiment unfolds, there is yet to be a blockbuster trade that lands a star player on the West Coast. Serviceable starters are still coming, though mostly older fellas who are just past the crest of the hill on their careers.
Charlie Ray and a young Frank House come to Hollywood in March, Paul Owens hits Portland and Neil Berry hits Oakland in April, and Bobby Harrison joins San Diego in June. There’s a flurry of moves on the eve of the trade deadline that brings Sam Zoldak to Oakland, Spec Shea to Sacramento, and Joe Haynes to Seattle, among others. Until the PCL teams build up some capital through the draft, these are the types of deals we'll see.
Across all three leagues, the pennant isn’t really in question. The PCL is the closest, with Oakland slowly pulling away. Portland makes a run, closing to within five games with about a month to play, but the lead never gets any closer.
The drama at the end of the season comes in the battle for playoff spots. In the PCL, the Angels lead the Beavers by a game on the final day. Portland needs a win and an L.A. loss. They get one – L.A. loses 3-2 to San Francisco, but Portland loses 3-1 to Seattle. The second playoff spot belongs to the Angels.
In the National League, Brooklyn runs away with the pennant, with Milwaukee 10 games back. Meanwhile, the Phillies lose their last four games and the Cardinals win their last four to overtake the third spot. Fans in Philly riot in the streets.
In the AL, the Yankees rack up 111 wins to finish 23 games clear of second-place Cleveland. The Philadelphia A’s hold off the White Sox by three games for the third playoff spot. Rioting stops in Philly.
There are two triple crowns this year – the Yankees’ Yogi Berra bats .404 with 50 home runs and 159 RBIS. The 50 dingers tie with teammate Mickey Mantle, so maybe there should be an asterisk on his triple crown? In the NL, Duke Snider goes .357/53/170.
The playoffs are set. The Yankees will face the third-place Cardinals, the second-place Braves and Angels will face each other, the Oaks will face the second-place Indians, and the Dodgers will face the third-place Athletics.
The two PCL teams get swept in the first round. The league is still not quite on par with the other two, so not a huge surprise. The big surprise comes at the bottom of the bracket, where the defending World Series champion Dodgers are swept by the AL third-place Athletics. The streets of Philly swell with celebratory riots.
All three American League teams advance to the semifinals.
In the semifinals, the Yankees take down the Braves, 4-2. On the other side of the bracket, it looks like Cleveland has once again run into a buzzsaw in the second round, but the Indians rebound from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Athletics 4-2.
Philly fans once again take to the streets to voice their disappointment through riots.
In the World Series, the Indians go up 3-0 on a stunned Yankees team. The Yankees battle back to 3-2 before the Indians seal the championship with a 2-0 victory, courtesy of a complete-game shutout by Steve Gromek, who allows three hits and two walks. Not to be overlooked is an heroic effort by the Yankees’ Vic Raschi, who also throws a complete game, allowing two runs on four hits and four walks, with five strikeouts.
Berra and Snider are the obvious picks for MVP. Snider is the unanimous pick, while Berra has one first-place vote stolen by teammate Mickey Mantle. In the PCL, Hollywood’s Bobby Prescott is the unanimous choice for his second MVP, with Rookie of the Year Wally Moon of Portland a distant second. Prescott went .344 with 28 homers and 96 RBIs. He led the league in runs (109), triples (16), slugging (.581) and batter WAR (8.9).
The draft rolls around in December, and sees 17-year-old SP Don Drysdale go first overall to the St. Louis Browns. 18-year-old CF Frank Robinson, back for a second attempt at catching on, goes second to Detroit, 19-year-old SS Andre Rogers is third to Portland, 22-year-old 1B Joe Cunningham goes fourth to Cincinnati, and 17-year-old 3B Harmon Killebrew is drafted fifth by the Chicago Cubs. Also worth mentioning is 19-year-old RF Roberto Clemente, sixth overall to Pittsburgh.
Of last year’s top five, four signed, and two ended the season with the Major League Club: Ernie Banks, who was first overall in 1952, wins the NL Rookie of the Year award for Cincinnati after batting .327 with 24 home runs, and Ed Bailey, who was fourth overall by the Cubs, finishes .275 with 19 homers in 93 big league games.
All of this year’s top five picks sign with their MLB organizations. In fact, the only first-round pick to go unsigned is 17-year-old 2B Bill Mazeroski, who was 24th overall to Oakland. Frank Robinson, meanwhile, goes straight to Detroit to take over the starting CF position, putting Johnny Groth out of a job. Groth batted .304 last year, so that’s not a trivial move. He did have just four home runs, though.
More relocation drama happens early in 1954. The St. Louis Browns have had basically no fan support after last offseason’s attempt to flee back to Milwaukee, from whence they came in 1902. Ownership has given the team no support – they had to recycle the least-damaged game balls late in the season. After a disappointing 53-win season, the Browns ask for permission from the AL to move to Baltimore, which has been lobbying for a team for years.
The AL ownership agrees, on the condition that part-owner Bill Veeck,
persona non grata among AL ownership, is bought out. Owner Jamie Taylor takes majority control of the organization, and the Browns slip out of town to set up shop in Memorial Stadium as the Baltimore Orioles.
The Great Migration is just getting started as owners take a hard look at old facilities, difficult city councils, and lackluster fan support. Team owners have dollar signs in their wandering eyes.