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LONGER ABA SCHEDULE ON THE HORIZON; EXPANSION POSSIBLE
150 GAMES PLANNED FOR 1905; APBL & MWBA MAY GO TO 18 TEAMS; NEW STANDARDS FOR 1910

New York, NY (12/10/1903) – The annual Winter Meetings of the American Baseball Association Executive Committee take place in New York City during the early part of December, with mundane discussion of rules and regulations typically the norm. The ABAEC is made up of the presidents of the APBL & MWBA, select owners, some front office members, and current & former players. The main topic of this year’s meetings was the makeup of the schedule going forward, all overseen by the head of the ABA: the Commissioner of Baseball. It was there that the normally mundane became quite interesting.

After going under the ABA umbrella in 1890, the American Professional Baseball League moved from a 112-game schedule to 132, while the Midwestern Baseball Association went from 108 to 130. The two leagues’ schedules remained slightly different until 1898, when the MWBA added Columbus & Toledo to its ranks to match the APBL’s sixteen-team lineup. Since then both leagues have run a 132-game seasonal schedule, with the two starting their seasons on the same day and ending them on the same day as well. This arrangement was what made the first President’s Cup possible in 1901, but after three years a new baseball league had the ABAEC thinking about new ideas.

For its inaugural season in 1903 the independent Pacific Coast League decided that, because of the weather on the West Coast, their ten teams would be able play 144 games, easily the longest season in existence. The ABA executives watched the PCL season closely because conventional wisdom thought there wasn’t a market for fans to watch league play well past the end of August. The first-season success of the PCL proved otherwise.

This gave the Executive Committee an idea: If a brand-new independent league like the PCL can play 144 games, why can’t we do better? So, the EC took a look at the teams in the two leagues and came up with a plan for a 150-game schedule that would be discussed and drawn up for the 1905 season. At the same time, with America’s population continuing to grow at rapid pace the EC discussed the possibility of another round of league expansion. The members quickly realized that a fair, 150-game schedule would be possible with both 16 and 18 teams in a league, so two plans were worked up:

• NO EXPANSION: League has 16 teams (2 divisions x 8 teams)

• All teams play each other 10 times (5 home, 5 away in a pair of 5-game series)
• 15 other teams x 10 games = 150 games

• EXPANSION: League has 18 teams (2 divisions x 9 teams)

• Teams play fellow division members 12 times (6 home, 6 away in four 3-game series)
• Teams play opposite division 6 times (3 home, 3 away in a pair of 3-game series)
• 8 same-division teams: 8 x 12 = 96 games
• 9 opposite-division teams: 9 x 6 = 54 games
• 96 SD games + 54 OD games = 150 total

In real life, schedules varied in length from 130-150+ games in the 1890s and early 1900s, with the standardized 154-game schedule created for the 1904 season (link) and lasting until 1960, with exceptions being made during the World War I years.

The “12 + 6 Format" was currently in use by both leagues, so expansion to eighteen teams in the APBL & MWBA wouldn’t even require a change in the way games are scheduled. Adding two NBBO teams wouldn’t be much of a problem for the APBL, since the Northeast was the population center of the United States and there were NBBO markets easily big enough move up to APBL status. However, the prospect of expansion was a larger problem for the MWBA.

When considering expansion for the Midwestern Baseball Association, adding one of two teams would be easy. It was thought that if the New York Metropolitan Area could handle four pro teams then Chicago could handle three. That would mean bringing in the Cook County Railriders from the Great Lakes Baseball Conference. The Railriders joined the GLBC in 1898 and they’d been slowly improving, climbing from 10th to 7th to 5th to 4th place over the past four seasons.

But, what of a second team? Taking a team from the Prairie League, like when the MWBA brought four in from the PL for 1890 season, was out of the question. The two largest stadiums in the current PL? St. Joseph’s (MO) William Waddell Field at 7,741 & Des Moines’ (IA) Raccoon River Park at 6,214. Not big enough. What about the GLBC? The majority of that league’s stadiums held 4,000-6,000 people, so finding another team to bring along with Cook County would be difficult. Dayton? They were recent (1900) champions and their venue held 8,500, but that would put five MWBA teams in Ohio. Grand Rapids’ stadium had a capacity of about 9,000, but they’d never finished higher than 3rd in the GLBC. Cleveland? The Buckeyes were just two years removed from amateur status and still finding their footing as a pro outfit, but the city doubled in size from 1880 to 1900 and now had 400,000+ people. That meant Cleveland could potentially handle two pro teams. Detroit? Michigan’s largest city still had only one pro or semi-pro team, so adding a second Detroit club to the MWBA would mean creating one from scratch or taking an amateur club straight to an ABA league, which hadn’t been done since the APBL’s creation in 1871.

Even if the MWBA decided not to expand it would still mean the leagues could play a 150-game schedule in 1905, with the APBL having 18 teams and the MWBA having 16. 150 games were a certainty.

In addition, the Executive Committee decided that, due to the parade of new stadiums in the two ABA leagues in recent years, it was time for new stadium standards. It was decreed and signed that:

• Starting in 1910, two-thirds of stadiums in each ABA league must hold at least 15,000 people and seat at least 10,000
• Venues that don’t reach the 15,000 mark must have a capacity of 10,000 or better
• new or renovated parks must use modern construction techniques – no more all-lumber tinderboxes

To go along with this, the Commissioner of Baseball made another decree

• ANY LEAGUE meeting the above standards is eligible to join the ABA, beginning the next season

This raised the possibility of multiple ABA leagues. Three? Four? Who knows – as many as eventually fit the criteria would be accepted. It could potentially make the President’s Cup chaotic, but that could be figured out on the fly.

Even though the 20th Century had just begun, the men who made decisions about the makeup of the highest level of the sport decided that it was time for another new era of professional baseball.