In 1959, a group led by Branch Rickey announced plans for a Continental League with teams in Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York and Toronto. Different than former rival circuits such as the American Association, Players’ League or Federal League, Rickey and his associates envisioned a complementary league. However, they folded August 2, 1960 before playing a game after the big leagues announced plans to field teams in a few of the markets.
Since then, Major League Baseball has almost doubled to 30 teams, from 16, spreading west like the Continental League proposed. What’s interesting, though, is that amidst the glut of expansion, a new baseball league could still work. Many cities besides Buffalo could accommodate a team and hundreds of ex-big leaguers in their 20s and 30s currently populate the minor leagues, independent ball and the international circuits.
Baseball could theoretically have a league at least like the XFL in football for talent and general interest. With good financial backing, fan support and patience, it could become sustainable. Here’s an idea of how it might look:
The Classic Division:
1. Brooklyn
Population: 2,465,326 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets, Short-Season A)
Notes: Why not bring big league baseball back to Brooklyn? New York supported three baseball teams for years, and this borough boasts over 2 million people, with no professional team as of this writing (just so long as the Nets remain in New Jersey.) As a bonus, a modernized replica of Ebbets Field could be built.
2. Buffalo
Population: 292,648 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: Buffalo Bisons (Mets, Triple-A)
Notes: This is the only Continental League city lacking major league baseball 50 years later, perhaps because Buffalo’s population has fallen more than 50% in this time. Still, the rate of decrease is no longer as rapid, and Buffalo has the largest ballpark in the minors, Pilot Field, capable of enlarging to big league capacity.
3. Montreal
Population: 1,620,693 (2006 Canadian Census)
Current baseball team: None since 2004
Notes: I don’t think this was a bad baseball city. I just think the Expos sucked something fierce by the time they left for Washington D.C.
4. Louisville
Population: 256,231 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: Louisville Bats (Reds, Triple-A)
Notes: A June 2008 article from RBI Magazine says it best: birthplace of the Louisville Slugger for god sakes. Give them an MLB Team!
5. Memphis
Population: 650,100 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals, Triple-A)
Notes: The 18th-largest city in the 2000 census, plus a geographical rival of Louisville. When the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis some years ago, they tried to rename themselves the Express, in honor of FedEx (headquartered there) but the NBA quashed it. In my league, there are no such restrictions.
6. Indianapolis
Population: 781,870 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: Indianapolis Indians (Pirates, Triple-A)
Notes: The third-largest city in the US without a professional baseball team, after San Jose and San Antonio, Indianapolis is a former Negro League town and between the Pacers and Colts has traditionally treated teams well.
The Territorial Division:
1. San Antonio
Population: 1,144,646 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: San Antonio Missions (Padres, Double-A)
Notes: This is the largest American city without a big league team. Kind of surprising it doesn’t even have a Triple-A club (or an NFL team for that matter.)
2. Sacramento
Population: 407,018 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: Sacramento River Cats (A’s, Triple-A)
Notes: Call me biased, since this is my hometown, but Sacramento is a great baseball city. The weather is sublime in the late spring and early fall, and the River Cats play in a jewel of a riverfront ballpark, Raley Field, which could be expanded from its current capacity of 14,000.
3. Las Vegas
Population: 478,434 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: Las Vegas 51s (Blue Jays, Triple-A)
Notes: This is again where my bias will show, as there’s been talk in recent years of my Sacramento Kings moving here, and I think putting a baseball team in Las Vegas could avert this. That being said, I think Sin City could well accommodate a ball club and that casinos would purchase many stadium luxury boxes for high rollers.
4. Honolulu
Population: 371,657 (2000 US Census)
Current baseball team: None since 1987
Notes: Honolulu has gorgeous weather and no professional teams currently, and modern technology eases travel there. This area is ripe for expansion and would make a perfect spot for All Star games.
5. Portland
Population: 529,121
Current baseball team: Portland Beavers (Padres, Triple-A)
Notes: Almost as large as its neighbor Seattle, Portland surprisingly only has one professional team, the Trail Blazers of the NBA.
6. Vancouver
Population: 578,041 (2006 Canadian Census)
Current baseball team: Vancouver Canadians (A’s, Short-Season A)
Notes: Vancouver is another beautiful city in the Pacific Northwest that could support a higher level of baseball than it does.
Awesome concept. Although, I really don’t think Buffalo would support a big league team. Now, you could sell me easy on some of those huge Mexican cities. I can’t figure out why some of the biggest cities in North America haven’t got an MLB team yet…especially since the Spanish speaking players would love to sign there.
I considered making Mexico City one of the cities (Guadalajara or Monterrey are possibilities as well) but I don’t know if the economic parity would be there. A Mexican team could work better in the MLB where revenue sharing could provide funds that might not be there at first with ticket sales or local television; still, I don’t know if there would sufficient revenue to share in this new league.
What about New Orleans and San Juan? Or dare we hope, Havana?
New Orleans and San Juan are both conceivable choices. I like Havana, but I doubt people would go for it, especially since Cuban players might have to defect in order to play for the local team. That could get dicey.
This is exactly what the Golden Baseball League is trying to do: http://www.goldenbaseballleague.com. I actually worked for the San Diego Surf Dawgs who have since folded. It is the team Rickey Henderson played for. Canseco has also played in this league but ended up having big problems with them.
The guys who started this league are Stanford Alum and they had solid connections that have allowed them to bring on a lot of investors. Many coming from the Tech Industry and Silicon Valley. Since they haven’t been too successful their model seems to bring on new investors for each team when the other investors get tired of losing money. It may just take the right investor/gm running the team to make them profitable. When I was with San Diego I believe 1 or 2 teams were actually profitable. Originally they started with a team in Tijuana but then before the season the scoreboard was stolen and they decided the team wasn’t a good idea. Looking at the website now though it looks like they finally got the Tijuana team going.
No kidding. I came across the Golden Baseball League in my research for this post, and it seemed like another of the glorified independent circuits, like the Atlantic League or Northern League. I didn’t realize it had designs on being a rival pro outfit.
Yea, thats true. Maybe they don’t have a goal of directly competing but I think its their end goal. I think in this day and age its nearly impossible to start a competitor but just paying players more money. You need the media to help and ESPN isn’t going to help in fear of pissing off the major organizations. The best opportunity is for basketball i think. Pro teams could get all the 17 and 18 year olds and pay them good money instead of going to college. There are a lot of guys out there that would rather do that and then they could fill in veterans or guys just out of the league.
If only there was a way to compel US basketball players to stay at least three years in college. American hoops seems to keep getting more and more lax, while the game has picked up steam elsewhere. Case in point: Brandon Jennings, who struggled abroad but kicked ass his first month in the NBA.
I dont think the Continental League will ever become a Major League becasue the Major Leagues will block any team that will join this league or fight the Continental like like NFL did when the USL move to the fall season.
If it does become a Major league the league should also thing about Rochester NY and Norfolk Area.
Doesn’t the MLB still have the anti-trust exemption?