Let me take a moment to step back from my story and tell you a bit about Major League Baseball, the business where I work.
The
National Association and the
American Association of Baseball were established in the winter of 1889/90 and first took to the field in the spring of 1890. The two associations consisted of eight teams each and they each played a 148 games in the first championship season. The following year the season was increased to 154 games and it has remained there ever since.
The original teams in the National Association were the Boston Pilgrims, Brooklyn Barons, Chicago Cardinals, Cleveland Cougars, New York Manhattans, Pittsburgh Panthers, St.Louis Plainsmen & Washington Diplomats.
The American Association comprised the Baltimore Owls, Chicago Hornets, Cincinnati Monarchs, Columbus Brown Bears, Detroit Wolves, New York Knights, Philadelphia Phantoms and the St. Louis Ravens
Not only did the meetings over the winter of 1889/90 establish the two major league Associations, but there were a series of independent leagues, of various skill levels which were formed as well. There was no ‘farm system’ as we know it today, that was still some time in the future. Instead the leagues operated independently and sought to attract players as well as trading players back and forth among themselves.
Organized Baseball in 1989
With major league baseball located east of the Mississippi, the independent leagues filled in spots on the baseball map and in some instances harboured dreams of major league ambitions themselves.
The
Eastern League sought to bring baseball to several of the secondary cities of the North East. In its inaugural season they fielded eight teams playing a 140 game schedule. The original franchises were the Albany Senators, Buffalo Bisons, Montreal Royals, Providence Grays, Rochester Patriots, Springfield Maroons, Syracuse Stars, Toronto Loyalists.
The
Pacific Coast League brought competitive baseball to the west coast. It was still a half century before travel across the country could be done relatively inexpensively so the PCBL had the west coast to themselves. The original teams were Fresno Scarlet Knights, Oakland Reliants, Portland Scarecrows, Reno Rebels, Sacramento Prospectors, San Francisco Athletics, San Jose Bobcats, Seattle Sea Lions.
The
Southern League placed teams south of the Mason-Dixon Line and fielded eight teams playing a 140 games each. The original franchises were the Atlanta Colts, Augusta Aces, Birmingham Reds, Charleston Seagulls, Mobile Blackbirds, Montgomery Senators, New Orleans Pelicans and the Savannah Privateers.
The
Western League was the one league most closely aligned to the footprint of the American and National Associations and perhaps inevitably the most likely point of friction between leagues and perhaps the place where dreams of competing with the majors were apt to break out. The Western League fielded teams throughout the area from the Great Lakes to the Great Plains. It opened in 1890 with eight teams which were the Columbus Buckeyes, Indianapolis Hoosiers, Kansas City Blues, Memphis Millionaires, Milwaukee Creams, Minneapolis Millers, Omaha Bearcats and the St. Paul Saints. Most tellingly, the Western League placed the Buckeyes in Columbus in direct competition with the American Association’s Columbus Brown Bears.
The history of the ensuing completion between the two major leagues and the Western League is one of the key struggles in the history of baseball. It entailed franchise shifts, expansion, the creation of farm systems, the introduction of free agency, creating an annual amateur draft, the creation and destruction of fortunes, a failed attempt at creating a third (and possibly fourth) major league. It took the arrival of the great depression after the stock market collapse in October of 1929 to bring about peace and the establishment of the baseball world we know today. I will who into the whole of that history later. For my purposes now let’s confine ourselves to the development of the National and American Associations.
On the surface of things, the history of the major leagues appears to have been a fairly routine and orderly process. Despite having doubled in size since its start in 1890 there have been only three franchise relocations over 100 seasons and two of those involve the same team when the Columbus Brown Bears moved to Richmond Virginia for the 1897 season after been continually outdrawn at the box office and out performed on the field by the Western League’s Columbus Buckeyes. The Brown Bears hopes for better days in Richmond were unfulfilled as the team continued to struggle on the field and at the gate. In the winter of 1905/06 the team was sold to Phineas Rainier who moved the Brown Bears to Louisville Kentucky and renamed them after himself. The Louisville Rainiers finished last in attendance in the 1906 season and second last in the American Association standings. By late that summer it was clear that there were problems in Louisville with outstanding debts to suppliers and players. It was joked that half of their attendance most nights were creditors who had shown up looking for payment. Just before the end of the season Phineas Rainier disappeared and has never been found. The Louisville team finished the season after getting the final instalment of their salaries paid. With Rainier gone the franchise eventually devolved to league stewardship. Over the winter of 1906/07 a number of buyers were speculated on but no one stepped forward to either operate the team in Louisville or move them to another city. Rather than refer to the team as the Rainiers, local newspapers began to refer to the Louisville squad as ‘The Orphans’ and that usage stuck. A management team brought in by the American Association got the team through spring training and the start of the 1907 season. Thankfully, a group of local businessmen formed a partnership to buy the team. A ‘name the team’ contest in a Louisville paper found ‘Orphans’ was far and away the most popular choice.
With the situation in Louisville straightened away the National and American associations entered a period of stability in regards to their franchises at least. In 1918 the first minor leagues designed to serve as ‘farm systems’ appeared with the creation of the Central, New England and Texas Leagues. More minor leagues were created the following year when the Great Plains Association, Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League and the Michigan-Ontario League were created in 1919. There was also a move to assigning levels to different leagues. In 1919 the designation of Triple A (AAA) was given to Eastern League, Pacific Coast League, Western League and Great Plains Association. Both the Eastern League and the Great Plains Association were home to AAA farm teams of the majors.
The early 1920s saw the introduction of free agency in 1921 and an amateur draft in 1923. By the end of the 1920s there were leagues at the rookie level through to AAA. Both the Western League and the Pacific Coast League teams had created their own minor league farm teams as well. After the ‘peace of 1930’ the majors integrated the rest of the leagues operating in North America under the umbrella of major league baseball which created large farm system for the 16 major league clubs.
Towards the end of the Second World War there were rumours that a new major league would start up. With improvements in air travel and the increasing importance of radio and the anticipated arrival of television the idea of associations that stretched the width of the country became feasible. In early September 1945, the presidents of the two associations announced an ambitious plan to expand baseball by 50% and add four teams to each league. Additionally, the Associations would be split into Eastern and Western Divisions and a league championship series added.
The National Association announced the arrival of the Los Angeles Eagles, Minnesota Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans & San Francisco Seals. The American Association welcomed Houston Cowboys, Kansas City Kings, Los Angeles Stars and the Seattle Seawolves. The Los Angeles Stars were the first expansion team to win the World Series when they beat San Francisco in 1952 after both teams had upset favoured, established teams.
The National Association undertook its own additional expansion in 1954 when it added the Denver Desperados and the Toronto Titans. The American Association followed suit in 1960 when it added the Milwaukee Admirals and the Montreal Explorers. The Milwaukee franchise is the only other to relocate in league history when it was moved after the 1976 season by its new owner to Dallas where they became the Texans.
The most recent round of expansion took place in 1987 when two teams were added to each association. The Miami Firebirds and San Diego Friars joined the National Association and the Havana Sugar Kings and Mexico City Diablos became part of the American Association.
National Association Standings 1989
American Association Standings 1989
While the structure and playoff formats have changed over time the current structure of the majors is that each association has two eight team divisions. The division winners and the two teams with the best records make the playoffs as wild card teams. All eight teams play in the best of five Preliminary round. Then there is a best of seven League Championship to select the two teams to play the best of seven World Series.
Only five of the 32 teams in the majors have yet to make the playoffs, the four new expansion teams and the Dallas Texans. The class of the league are the New York Mammoths (formally the New York Manhattans, changed name in 1900) who have made the playoffs 42 times and won 20 World Series.
Teams with Franchise Winning Percentage over .500
Teams with Franchise Winning Percentage under .500
