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The Western League of Professional Baseball Clubs, simply called the Western League, was a minor league baseball league founded in 1893, and focused in the Midwest. In 1900, the league was renamed the American League, and declared major league status in 1901.

History

As described in Lee Allen's books, the Western League had been around in various forms since 1879, but had gone bankrupt. In a meeting in Detroit, on November 20, 1893, the league reorganized. This is the point from which the eventual American League can effectively date itself.

At that meeting, Ban Johnson was elected President, and would remain so until his retirement nearly 35 years later. Johnson, a Cincinnati-based newspaper reporter, had been recommended by his friend Charles Comiskey, former major league star with the St. Louis Browns in the 1880s, who was then managing the Cincinnati Reds. After the 1894 season, when Comiskey's contract with the Reds was up, he decided to take his chances at ownership. He bought the Sioux City team and transferred it to Saint Paul, Minnesota. These two men would be among the cornerstones of the American League.

After the 1899 season, the National League announced it was dropping Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville and Washington. This afforded an opportunity for the Western circuit to expand into those vacated cities. In a meeting in Chicago on October 11, the WL renamed itself the American League. It was still officially a minor league, subject to the National Agreement and generally subordinate to the National League. The NL actually gave permission to the AL to put a team in Chicago that year, and Comiskey moved his St. Paul club to the South Side. The AL also transferred the Grand Rapids team to Cleveland.

The way Allen characterizes it, the National was too absorbed in its own infighting to see what was afoot. After the 1900 season, the American League declined to renew its membership in the National Agreement, declared itself a major league, and began raiding National League rosters...and cities.

In addition to the original Western League, several 20th century minor league circuits used the same name. Its franchises were located west of the Mississippi River, and in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains states. Foremost among these was the WL that existed from 1902-37 and 1947-58. The WL was then classified as an "A" league, but in today's minor league structure it would be a Class AA loop. In its post-World War II incarnation, the Western League included clubs in Denver, Colorado (now in the National League), Des Moines, Iowa, Omaha, Nebraska and Colorado Springs, Colorado, now all members of the AAA Pacific Coast League.

Franchise history 1894-1900

Had transferred to St. Joseph, Missouri and Omaha, Nebraska in 1898 before returning to Michigan in 1899.

There is an inconsistency in the history of these teams as shown in Wikipedia. The previous version of this page, as well as the A's page, assert the following:

However, the Yankees page contradicts the above:

An earlier version had Minneapolis->Baltimore->New York

The Allen books merely indicate that Buffalo, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Minneapolis were replaced by Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, not necessarily in any order. The Home Team, a history of Baltimore baseball written in the 1950s by James Bready, indicates that the Baltimore franchise of 1901 was a totally new entry, not a transfer from elsewhere. Clearly, more research is needed.

Upon further research, the Minneapolis Millers are indicated to have been abandoned by the American League following the 1900 season. Stew Thornley and Ross Berstein point out that the American League saw bigger markets in the east and wanted to cash in on the former National League territory. Therefore, the Minneapolis franchise is thought to be abandoned and new franchises were added in place of Minneapolis and other abandoned cities. Some teams were indeed transferred, as was the case with the Kansas City team. However, historical documents of the early American League are foggy, at best, providing no clear picture of what happened.

One way of checking this kind of question is to review the rosters and management personnel (where available) for teams in successive years. That work still needs to be done.

Sources

  • The National League Story, Lee Allen, Putnam, 1961.
  • The American League Story, Lee Allen, Putnam, 1962.
  • On to Nicollet, Stew Thornley, Nodin Press, 1988.
  • Batter-Up!, Ross Bernstein, Nodin Press, 2002.

Independent baseball leagues | Defunct baseball leagues

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Western League (U.S. baseball)".

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