The Pecan Park Eagle

Major League Baseball in 2011 includes 30 teams. 16 of these clubs play in the National League and 14 play in the American League. Back in 1953, MLB consisted of only 16 original franchises in both leagues altogether and had not changed since 1902, when the original Milwaukee Brewers moved to the midwest and became the St. Louis Browns,

The years following World War II produced ” a new ballgame” for the sport. With increased prosperity, expanding leisure hours, migration of the population west and south, competition from new commercial diversions, and the increased mobility that came from new highway construction and commercial jet plane travel, baseball began to cast off the skin of sameness that it had worn for over a half century.

By 1953, change in the basic order of Major League Baseball had become desirable, practical, and necessary. Just weeks prior to the start of the 1953 season, the Boston Braves of the National League moved to the midwest to become the Milwaukee Braves. The following season, the St. Louis Browns of the American League moved east to become the Baltimore Orioles.

MLB franchise owners were just getting warmed up.

In 1955, the Philadelphia A’s of the American League moved to the midwest to become the Kansas City Athletics.

Heels cooled for two seasons, but the big thrombosis to original site stability was coming hard and fast. In 1958, in the boldest, first ever dual franchise shift in MLB history, Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants of the National League moved to the west coast to become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, respectively.

The next original franchise shift came with a twist. In 1961, the Washington Senators of the American League moved to the midwest to become the Minnesota Twins, but they dared not abandon our national capital to a cold bed. The American League remedied the potential for backlash from Congress by creating a new expansion franchise club, also now called the new Washington Senators. Plus, to keep things even and to build their own beach head in the west, the American League created a tenth franchise called the Los Angeles Angels for play in 1961.

In 1962, the National League evened the numbers score by fielding two new franchises of their own: The Houston Colt .45’s and The New York Mets.

Several other shifts and changes have occurred since 1962, including the Braves moving on from Milwaukee to Atlanta – and the Athletics moving on from Kansas City to Oakland, plus various other expansion changes that have almost doubled the original long-term number pf major league baseball teams from 16 to 30.

In a playful mood this morning, one that frequently visits me, I thought it might be interesting to see what the two leagues would look like if they had been allowed to shift, but not expand their memberships from the original eight clubs that made up the major leagues through 1952.

Here’s what they would look like today:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Baltimore Orioles

Boston Red Sox

Chicago White Sox

Cleveland Indians

Detroit Tigers

Minnesota Twins

New York Yankees

Oakland Athletics

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Atlanta Braves

Chicago Cubs

Cincinnati Reds

Los Angeles Dodgers

Philadelphia Phillies

Pittsburgh Pirates

Saint Louis Cardinals

San Francisco Giants

It doesn’t take long to see that franchise relocation alone would have fallen far short of baseball’s need to keep up with the growth and shift of the nation’s population. Oakland would have been the only AL club on the west coast – and that would have been an economic disaster for the league.  Atlanta would have been the only southern city in either big league – and would have been uncool as well.

No, it took adding our Houston Astros and all those places that dribbled big league ball into the desert, mountain, and southern hinterlands to make this thing work as well as it does. Let’s just keep it up.

And on another frivolous note, but one that rankles me nonetheless: The next time MLB adds a franchise team, can we get someone to coach the innocent new owners away from these wrap-around nicknames like “Diamondbacks” and “Devil Rays”? Those also get shortened in the media to wheezy nicknames Like “D Back” and “D Rays”. At least, the Tampa Bay club had the sense over time to shorten their monikers to simply “Rays”.

While they are at it, also get MLB to discourage the adoption of regional or state identities as their formal franchise names. Four of our current clubs could be building a much truer identity today as the Denver Bears, Phoenix Firebirds, Miami Marlins, and the Anaheim Angels – had the game insisted they be themselves from the start.

Tags: MLB franchise moves

This entry was posted on July 18, 2011 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.