History of baseball in the United States

Part of the History of baseball series.

The major leagues move west

Baseball had been in the West for almost as long as the National League and the American League had been around. It evolved into the Pacific Coast League, which included the San Francisco Seals, San Diego Padres, Hollywood Stars, Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Oaks and teams in Portland, Salt Lake City and Denver at various times.

Related Topics:
Pacific Coast League - San Francisco Seals - San Diego Padres - Hollywood Stars - Los Angeles Angels - Oakland Oaks

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The PCL was huge in the West. It developed players like Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. A member of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues it kept losing these great players to the National and the American leagues for less than $8,000 a player.

Related Topics:
Ted Williams - Joe DiMaggio - National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues

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The PCL was far more independent than the other "minor" leagues, and rebelled continously against their Eastern masters. Clarence Pants Rowland, the President of the PCL, took on baseball commissioners Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Happy Chandler at first to get better equity from the major leagues, then to form a third major league. His efforts were rebuffed by both commissioners. Chandler and several of the owners, who saw the value of the markets in the West started to plot the extermination of the PCL. They had one thing that Chandler did not: The financial power of the Eastern major league baseball establishment.

Related Topics:
Pants Rowland - Kenesaw Mountain Landis - Happy Chandler

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No one was going to back a PCL club building a major-league size stadium if the National or the American League was going to build one too, and potentially put the investment in the PCL ballpark into jeopardy.

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Up to this time, major league baseball franchises had been largely confined to the northeastern United States. The first team to relocate in fifty years was the Boston Braves who moved to Milwaukee in 1953. In Milwaukee the club set attendance records, and more teams moved: the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore, and the Philadelphia Athletics to Kansas City.

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In 1958 the New York market ripped apart. The Yankees were becoming the dominant draw, and the cities of the West offered generations of new fans in much more sheltered markets for the other venerable New York clubs, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. Placing these storied, powerhouse clubs in the two biggest cities in the West had the specific design of crushing any attempt by the PCL to form a third major league. Eager to bring these big names to the West, Los Angeles gave Walter O'Malley, owner of the Dodgers, a helicopter tour of the city and asked him to pick his spot. The Giants were given the lease to the PCL San Francisco Seals digs while Candlestick Park was built for them.

Related Topics:
Brooklyn Dodgers - New York Giants - San Francisco Seals - Candlestick Park

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The logical first candidates for major league "expansion" were those PCL teams that already had major league money in them. The Los Angeles Angels, who were one of the first expansion teams in over 70 years in major league baseball, left the PCL in 1961 (soon the California Angels, the Anaheim Angels, and, as of 2005, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim); and the Athletics, who moved again, settling in Oakland in 1968.

Related Topics:
Los Angeles Angels - Oakland

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The other 1961 expansion team was the Washington Senators, who took over the nation's capital when the previous Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. 1961 is also noted as being the year in which Roger Maris surpassed Babe Ruth's single season home run record, hitting 61 for the New York Yankees, albeit in a slightly longer season than Ruth's. Expansion continued in 1962 with the addition of the Houston Colt.45s and New York Mets to the National League.

Related Topics:
Washington Senators - Twins - Roger Maris - Houston Colt.45s - New York Mets

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In 1969, the American League expanded when the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots defected from the PCL and joined the league. The Pilots stayed just one season in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee and becoming today's Milwaukee Brewers. The National League also added two teams that year, the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres. The Padres were the last of the core PCL teams to be absorbed. The Coast League did not die, though. It reformed, and moved into other markets, and endures to this day as a Class AAA league.

Related Topics:
1969 - Kansas City Royals - Seattle Pilots - Milwaukee Brewers - Montreal Expos - San Diego Padres

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The last team move of this time period was in 1972, when the second Washington Senators moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and became the Texas Rangers. Baseball would not see another team move until Major League Baseball announced near the end of the 2004 season that the Montreal Expos would begin play in Washington, DC in 2005 as the Washington Nationals. In 1977, another expansion occurred as the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays joined the American League, the last expansion until four teams were added in the 1990s. The Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins joined the National League in the 1993 expansion, and in 1998, in a second expansion, the Arizona Diamondbacks joined the National League and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays joined the American League. In order to keep the number of teams in each league even, Milwaukee changed leagues, and is a now a member of the National League.

Related Topics:
1972 - Texas Rangers - Major League Baseball - 2004 - Washington, DC - 2005 - Washington Nationals - 1977 - Seattle Mariners - Toronto Blue Jays - 1990s - Colorado Rockies - Florida Marlins - Arizona Diamondbacks - Tampa Bay Devil Rays

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As of 2005, there are 16 teams in the National League, and 14 teams in the American League.

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