PCL as 3rd Major League

[wsucougs]

A few versions back, someone created a 1950s version of the MLB where the PCL became the 3rd Major League. It used real rosters, and in the draft all 3 leagues were eligible to draft real major leaguers.

Anyone have this for OOTP 17?

Thanks

[Orioles1966]

That's a good idea. Maybe move LA Dodgers and SF Giants over to the PCL and make it more legit. Then replace LA and SF in MLB with expansion teams.

When the second version of FHM was released I did the same thing with AHL and ECHL(made them Major League).

[T-Bone]

This sounds very interesting, although I don't know if I want a league with 8 of the 24 teams in California. Definitely need to move some of the franchises.

[Elektranaut]

How was the world series organised in this set up?
Indeed how would it have been if the PCL had become a Major League

[eriqjaffe]

I did a setup like that once, but I merged the PCL into MLB. Half of the PCL teams went into the AL and half into the NL. I split the leagues into East and West divisions to avoid having teams finish in 12th (although it might have been a better idea to let the PCL teams normalize to MLB talent levels first - it gave the existing MLB teams in the West divisions a much better chance at the playoffs than teams from the East).

Somewhere I have a document with an alternate timeline of franchise shifts and ballpark changes. The Dodgers and Giants never moved to California, and there would never be a Seattle Mariners franchise, that sort of thing. I've attached it, in case anybody's curious.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Elektranaut

How was the world series organised in this set up?
Indeed how would it have been if the PCL had become a Major League

That was one of the issues which worked against a third major league in real life.

For what it's worth, Branch Rickey floated a three-way World Series idea in the Aug. 23, 1959, issue of The Sporting News in connection with his Continental League. Below is the relevant portion of the article.

According to Ricky, the 1963 series will be a round-robin. This, he says, is how it will be handled:

"It's October, 1963. The Yankees, let us assume, win the American League pennant, the Chicago Cubs prevail in the National League and the Houston Continentals win in our league. The series opens at Yankee Stadium with New York playing the Cubs."

With that settled, baseball's elder statesman poured himself a second cup of coffee, relighted a well-chewed cigar and outlined the following schedule for the next five games of the series.

Game No. 2—New York vs. Houston at the Stadium.
Game No. 3—Chicago vs. New York at Chicago.
Game No. 4—Chicago vs. Houston at Chicago.
Game No. 5—Houston vs. New York at Houston.
Game No. 6—Houston vs. Chicago at Houston.

"What a lovely thing that will be," the 77-year-old Rickey said. He brought his right hand down hard on the table and the dished jumped.

"Judas Priest, I'd love to see that. The team that loses four games first will be eliminated, but just think of it. Each team will play two series games at home before it can be eliminated. The others will continue until one wins four games.

"I figured out this plan mathematically and it would be impossible for the series to be decided in less than eight games or more than eleven. Anyone who cares to check will find out it's correct."

ETA: After quickly playing around with Rickey's plan, I'm not sure it actually works as it was described, unless there were some details omitted from the article.

For example, using the given schedule, it's possible for a club to win four games without either of the other clubs having lost four games. See the example below; teams in bold are the winners of the game.

Game 1: CHN at NYA (NYA 1-0, CHN 0-1, HOU 0-0)
Game 2: HOU at NYA (NYA 2-0, CHN 0-1, HOU 0-1)
Game 3: NYA at CHN (NYA 3-0, CHN 0-2, HOU 0-1)
Game 4: HOU at CHN (NYA 3-0, CHN 1-2, HOU 0-2)
Game 5: NYA at HOU (NYA 4-0, CHN 1-2, HOU 0-3)
Game 6: CHN at HOU (NYA 4-0, CHN 1-3 HOU 1-3)

Presumably, if something like this happened the Yankees would not yet be considered the Series winner since neither of the other clubs had lost four times yet. Maybe Rickey meant a club had to win five games to be declared the Series winner?

[thehef]

The PCL voted in Dec 1945 to become a major league, but was turned down by the NL & AL. Announcing the vote, NL President Ford Frick indicated that the PCL would soon be ready but was not quite there yet, primary because the league had "neither the income nor the seating capacity to move into the big show next season." (The PCL was told to come back the following when better prepared to present its case.)

PCL President Pants Rowland's request did not include playing the winner of the World Series, nor did he envision paying major league salaries. The presumption was that he knew the PCL was not ready yet, and that the request was merely a first step towards eventual major-league status. In fact, the PCL, along with the Int'l League and American Assn had just been awarded AAA status the week before.

(Seems that the PCL of that era would've been better suited for inclusion as a major league had it included stronger cities such as Houston, Dallas, Denver, as opposed to those like Sacramento, Vancouver, Portland - cities that to this day have neither MLB nor NFL teams.)

Had the PCL been granted ML status sometime in the late 40's or early 50's, would it have been too soon in the evolution of sports playoffs to consider a wild card as a 4th playoff team? Or perhaps the PCL would not have been part of the NL/AL playoffs (& World Series) until - what might have been - the inevitable inclusion of a 4th major league, made up of the eight biggest cities - six of which would become major league cities anyway - in the IL and AA...

We'll never know. But we can speculate away

[Padreman]

Easy fix on the World Series is this. There's was another proposed 3rd major league that included teams in New York, Denver, Buffalo, Florida among others the Continental league. My suggestion would be to have the American League and National League together asked two sub leagues then have the Pacific Coast league and the continental league together as two separate sub legs then have Pacific Coast league and the continental league together as two separate sub leagues been have them together in league Association with a playoff format. That will be the true World Series

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_League

Or you always bring back the federal league

[Le Grande Orange]

The Major Leagues, in 1952, set down the criteria which were needed for an existing league to apply to MLB to be accepted as a major league:

• A minimum of eight member clubs
• An aggregate population of at least 15 million in the member cities
• A minimum park capacity of 25,000 for each member club
• An annual average paid attendance of at least 3.5 million over the three-year period preceding its application
• A balanced schedule of at least 154 games
• Adoption of the major league minimum salary rule, and with no maximum salary limit
• Become signatories to the Major League Agreement and the Major-Minor League Agreement
• Adopt the uniform major league players contract and agreement
• Join in the players pension plan, or adopt a comparable plan of its own
• It must file its application at least six months prior to the meeting in which said application would be considered, and at least ten months prior to the opening of the season it wishes to operate as a major league