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The Magpies
The origins of the State Capitals League
No-one can remember exactly whose idea it was to establish a new major league for baseball. What is remembered, though, is that on a cold winter evening in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2005 a group of 30 wealthy yet obscure businessmen, who all loved the game, met to put the wheels in motion.
They wanted in on the baseball action and to run a major league team. Major League Baseball, however, seemingly didn’t want their money and their enthusiasm. All had attempted in the late 1990s and early 2000s to take over ownership of an MLB franchise; all were swiftly and rudely rebuffed by the league. If this major league doesn’t want us, they decided, maybe we’ll just go and set up our own.
By 2007, the group had a plan in place. They would spread the national pastime’s new league across the nation: each franchise would be based in one of the state capital cities. The new league would bring top-level baseball to cities and parts of the country that hadn’t seen it before. The league structure would mirror MLB of old: 14 teams in 3 divisions in a Western League and 16 teams across 3 divisions in the Eastern League. The rules of the game would be the same as MLB, but they would make their product more accessible by stripping away some of the complicated rules around rosters and structures. No waivers, options, qualifying offers, 40-man rosters or non-tendering. All players not on the 25-man active roster would form their franchise’s sole minor league roster. Type A and Type B free agency rules would continue. The designated hitter rule would operate throughout the whole of the league.
The new league would take time to organise. New stadia would be built. Players would need to be found. Backroom staff recruited. Television deals negotiated. Their target was to launch the league in 2017. It would be called the State Capitals League.
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