How much different would baseball be had a THIRD major league come along to stay?

Estil

Do any of you older baseball fans remember back a few decades ago, when the National and American Leagues were treated like seperate leagues rather than "leagues in name only" that they are today? Well, some people back then thought that someday there'd be a third major league. For example, do you remember how the Pacific Coast League in 1952-58 had "open" classification (between AAA and major league status) and some players (especially Ruth and DiMaggio) thought the PCL actually had comprable talent compared to the majors? Well, it had seemed like the PCL would've indeed become a full-fledged major league (remember, there were no major league clubs west or south of St. Louis back then), but then the advent of televised ballgames, cheaper air travel and especially the Dodgers/Giants moving to California shattered the PCL's major league aspirations. Then a couple years later, there was talk of making a rival "Continental League" but this idea was killed once National League baseball was brought back to New York in 1962. As far as I know, there has been no serious talk of trying to make a third major league since then.

But suppose things happened a little differently. Suppose the PCL had become a third major league? How much different do you think baseball would've turned out, up to the present day, with three major leagues? And how would the All-Star game and World Series work with three leagues?

Morgoth

I think even if the PCL joined as a 3rd league there would of been enough restructering to allow for a World Series. Maybe we wouldn't have a National and American league, maybe East and West instead. I do believe that it would of made the league integrate faster if the west coast had major league teams beginning in the 40's.

RipublicaninMass

What is the deal with the "Federal" league? I noticed this league is widely followed and collected.

Brian48

The modern leagues for the top four sports (baseball, football, basketball and hockey) are too institutionalized now and too firmly entrenched. The US just isn't that large any more and is shrinking everyday. Unless it's a different sport altogether, I really doubt you will ever see another league take hold for any of the big four ever again. With the exception of the AFC and NFC combining to become the NFL, every upstart league has failed since, the ABA, WHA, USFL, and the recent XFL. The XFL might have been hard to take seriously, but it's too bad the USFL didn't make it. They obviously had some great talent in the league.

ziggy29

<< <i>What is the deal with the "Federal" league? I noticed this league is widely followed and collected. >>

The Federal league was an attempt at a third major league in 1914 and 1915. Many star players jumped their contracts and played for the Feds.

ziggy29

<< <i> The XFL might have been hard to take seriously, but it's too bad the USFL didn't make it. They obviously had some great talent in the league. >>

The USFL failed primarily when it decided to go head-to-head with the NFL and play at the same time of the year. None of the networks wanted the USFL while it competed with the NFL on other networks. It might have succeeded as a spring football league under a different set of circumstances. That it was also signing away some of the top talent coming out of college also made it an adversary from the start.

These days there's too much of a barrier to successfully coexist with the NFL, NBA or MLB. If you want to see a league that's learned how to coexist with the NFL, look at Arena football. For one, they don't play against the NFL (their seasons are at different times of the year). Secondly, they don't sign and draft away top NFL-caliber players like the USFL did -- basically Arena football gets some of the best players that don't make an NFL roster for the most part. And finally, they have learned how to complement, not compete with, the NFL by serving as a "developmental league" for possible future NFL players.

But as far as going head to head and becoming direct competitors with one of the big leagues, I don't see that happening today.

There was a very real chance of a third major league starting in the mid 1950s but that started going away when the Dodgers and Giants went west, and Branch Rickey's idea of a Continental league went down for good when the AL expanded in '61 and the NL in '62. That took most of the remaining good potential markets for a new league.

If there were a third major league which was "accepted" by the AL and the NL, and bound to an modified National Agreement, the post-season would be trickier. I suspect by now they would have merged into the AL and the NL much like the AFL-NFL merger. Had such a league formed by 1960, we probably don't see the expansions in 1961-62 or 1969 which brought the AL and NL from 8 to 12 teams each.

Michigan

The USFL (1983-85) never did compete directly against the NFL in the fall. The plan was to do that starting in 1986 but the league
folded before that plan was carried out.

athleticsfan

<< <i>The US just isn't that large any more and is shrinking everyday. >>



What?


<< <i>With the exception of the AFC and NFC combining to become the NFL, every upstart league has failed since, the ABA, WHA, USFL, and the recent XFL. >>



The ABA merged with the NBA in 76.

baseballfanatic

Just like the NBA absorbing some teams from the ABA, the NHL absorbed a few from the WHL also