BASEBALL TL

Xen

Banned
Lets go for gold, there have been two other sports threads started recently, why not a third?

March 1953, the Boston Braves are just five years removed from their 1948 National League Pennant and are still the second team in Boston next to the American League Red Sox. Braves owner Ron Perini is frustrated with the situation, he hates Braves Field with a passion, and his pleas to share Fenway Park with the Red Sox are rejected by Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey. During Spring Training Perini approaches the other National League owners and requests their permission to allow him to move the Braves to Milwaukee. Many owners feel it is way too late to make a franchise relocation now, and tell Perini to suck it up and stick it out in Boston for the year; the move is rejected in a vote of 3-5.

As 1953 moves on, the Korean War comes to a close; and with opposition from Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley and New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham, Perini was denied permission to move the club again for the 1954 season. O’Malley and Stoneham apparently liked the short distance of travel between New York and Boston, which saved them both money. Perini was encouraged to sell his interest in the Boston Braves to a local group; that pledged to keep the Braves in Boston. The Braves crisis resulted in legal action being filed against the National League by Ron Perini, the city of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin.

Baseball faced more trouble on the horizon, unable to keep up with the St Louis Cardinals, the owner of the St Louis Browns; Bill Veeck was looking to relocate his franchise. The showman Veeck was hated by other American League owners, his attempts to move the Browns to Milwaukee in 1952 failed, and other AL owners did not want to see him in LA, publicly saying it would be a financial burden for only one team to play on the west coast. Veeck then looked to the city of Baltimore, however other AL owners wanted Veeck out of the picture altogether. After Veeck had promised to relocate the Browns to Baltimore, the American League promptly rejected the move in a landslide vote of 1-7. Unbeknownst to Veeck AL owners were very adamant about placing a team on the west coast, they just did not want Veeck to reap the financial reward. The AL forced Veeck to sell his team, not a Baltimore interest group but to one out of Los Angeles, while having just one team on the west coast would be a financial burden, it would be a temporary one. The American League encouraged the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics to relocate to San Francisco. The US Congress expressed its sincere displeasure of the possibility of losing baseball in the nation’s capital, and the Mack’s showed no interest in moving the A’s, the AL then began exploring placing an expansion team in San Francisco in 1955.

Like the situation in Milwaukee, the city of Baltimore, and the state of Maryland took the loss of the Browns to court, both leagues were being attacked by cities who had promises of teams jerked away from them by greedy owners. The legal battles prevented the Browns from moving to LA in time for the 1954 season, and kept the wayward team in St Louis for one more lame duck season, the players were uncertain if the team would play 1955 in Los Angeles or Baltimore, or possibly somewhere else. Finally in May 1954, Major League Baseball commissioner Ford Frick, NL President Warren C. Giles, and AL President Will Harridge and the cities of Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Baltimore agreed on a solution, the Browns would be allowed to relocate to Los Angeles for the 1955 season while the NL would add two expansion clubs for the 1955 season, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Baltimore Orioles. The AL also planned an expansion; it was widely believed that San Francisco was a definite, while Minneapolis and Kansas City would likely get the second expansion club. It came as a great surprise to almost everyone when the Mack brothers sold the Philadelphia Athletics to a San Francisco interest group. The A’s were to be relocated to San Francisco following the 1954 season. At all-star break the AL announced its two new clubs for the 1955 season would be the Kansas City Blues and the Twin Cities Twins. It was also agreed by the two leagues that the NL would absorb the AL Baltimore problem, and the AL wouldn’t protest when the NL placed teams in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay area, either by future expansion or by relocation.

1955 would be remembered for many things, the Los Angeles Angels (relocated St Louis Browns) opened the season against the Detroit Tigers at a packed Los Angeles Wrigley Field to bring baseball to the west coast, while the San Francisco Seals (relocated Philadelphia Athletics) opened their season the next day at a sold Seals Stadium against the defending AL champion Cleveland Indians. The four expansion clubs, Baltimore, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Twin Cities all lost a 100 or more games, and still packed their respective stadiums, it was also the first time the Brooklyn Dodgers would win a world series.

1956-1957: The Yankees led by Mickey Mangle and Yogi Berra continue to dominate the baseball world, but the big news would be the feud between Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley and New York City Planner Robert Moses. O’Malley felt Ebbets Field was no longer suitable for a Major League Baseball team, it was cramped, over crowded, the plumbing was sub par, the parking situation was a nightmare, and there was no major subway around to get Dodger fans to and from the games. O’Malley argued in order for the Dodgers to compete he needed a new stadium, and chose a site at the end of Long Island Railroad to build the ambitious Dodger Dome. Moses disagreed, wanting to build a parking garage at O’Malley’s site, and instead wanted to build the Dodgers a new stadium in Queens. O’Malley refused this stating that if the Dodgers play in Queens, they would no longer be the Brooklyn Dodgers. The site and the future stadium was then offered to and accepted by Horace Stoneham and his New York Giants, to be shared with the NFL New York Giants. O’Malley began considering moving the team to greener pastures and figured it was time for the NL to get on the west coast as well, he began secretly meeting with Los Angeles city officials about the possibility of moving the Dodgers to LA. Knowing the NL would not accept one team on the west coast for the outrageous travel expenses, he began looking to encourage another team to move to San Francisco or Seattle, the Reds, Braves and Phillies all rejected O’Malley’s plans. There was no need for them to walk into situation where O’Malley was guaranteed to make money, and their futures were uncertain. O’Malley then began pressuring the NL to expand to a west coast city and possibly Houston; however the NL still had not fully recovered from the 1955 expansion that brought the Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers into the league.

1958-1961: Feeling trapped in Brooklyn, O’Malley began to look at other cities for relocation, and Houston, Indianapolis, Louisville, Toronto and Atlanta were his favored sites. Of those cities only Houston and Toronto had MLB sized stadiums and were large and untapped markets. Many NL owners had become resentful and frustrated with O’Malley over the course of the past couple of seasons, rejected his plan to move the Dodgers to Toronto in 1959 and Houston in 1960.

Following a miserable season in 1960 the Boston Braves were sold to Ralph Wilson, the owner of the AFL Buffalo Bills. Wilson promptly moved the Braves to Buffalo (retaining the Braves nickname) to play in the newly built War Memorial Stadium. O’Malley had hoped he could convince Wilson to move the Braves and his Bills to San Diego so he could relocate the Dodgers to the Los Angeles area, Wilson wasn’t interested.

Angered at the situation and claiming he was losing money, O’Malley started selling off the Dodgers best players, and promptly sold the club to Dwight F. Davis, Jr. His exit was greeted warmly by Dodger fans, New York City officials and much of Major League Baseball, he would however be back.

In middle of the 1960 season Washington Senators owner, Calvin Griffith sold his team to Charles Finley, he would later purchase control of the expansion Twin City Twins in the off season. His first move was to change the teams name from the Twin City Twins to the Minnesota Twins.

1961-1965: For the first time since being enfranchised the Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers did not finish in 10th and 9th. The Brewers celebrated their first winning season going 82-80, while the Orioles also showed signs of improvement going 74-88, the Buffalo Braves struggled in spite of a change of scenery going 64-98 and the Brooklyn faithful watched a season that was merciless to the 50-112 Dodgers.

The World Series would become transcontinental for the first time with the Los Angeles Angels edging the New York Yankees by two games to win the AL Pennant, and go on to beat the New York Giants in the 1962 World Series, the San Francisco Seals would also appear in the World Series in 1963 losing to the St Louis Cardinals.

As part of the 1964 worlds fair celebration baseball fans were treated to a hard fought Subway series between the New York Yankees and the New York Giants, a world series won by the Yankees in seven games. But the country was changing, and growing, baseball would have to change and grow to keep or be left behind

1966-1973: 11 years after the first expansion MLB would expand again, the American League expanded into the south placing an expansion team in Houston (Astros) and Atlanta (Flames), while the National League expanded to the west coast with a team in Los Angeles (Stars) and Oakland (Oaks). Walter O’Malley returned to baseball and the NL with the Los Angeles Stars, playing his home games in the newly built Anaheim Stadium. Both leagues were divided into two divisions for the 1966 season

AL East: Atlanta Flames, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Washington Senators

AL West: Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros, Kansas City Blues, Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Seals

NL East: Baltimore Orioles, Brooklyn Dodgers, Buffalo Braves, New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates

NL West: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Stars, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Oaks, St Louis Cardinals

The first play off between the winner of the east division would play the best three of five game series against the winner of the west division, and 1966 proved to be exciting in both leagues.

The New York Giants held off late season charges from the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles to win the NL East, the Brewers edged out the Cardinals to win the NL West.

The hard hitting, great fielding Washington Senators swept the Kansas City Blues in the last three games of the season to move past the New York Yankees to win the AL East, while the Angels overcame a nine game deficit at the all star break to knock the Seals out of first place in the AL West.

The Brewers defeated the New York Giants 5-2 at Giants Stadium in Queens to win their first trip to the World Series, while the red hot Angels swept the Senators in three games. The Brewers faced the heavily favored Angels and stunned the baseball world winning the 1966 World Series in five games.

By 1967 Americans had come to prefer football over baseball, which was culminated with the Green Bay Packers trouncing the Kansas City Chiefs in what would come to be known as Super Bowl I. It was also the year the Dodgers left Ebbets Field for the newly built Dodger Dome. Robert Moses lost much of his power and influence in New York by the mid 1960’s, allowing for the Dodgers to pressure the city for a new stadium to be shared with the AFL New York Titans, the St Louis Cardinals would win the 1967 World Series, and the Detroit Tigers won the 1968.

The Brooklyn Dodgers had not had a winning season since 1961, and had lost 100 or more games every season between 1962-1967, shocked the baseball world in 1969, winning 102 games and beating the Baltimore Orioles for the NL East title by just three games, went on to sweep the Chicago Cubs in the National League Playoffs and would miraculously sweep the defending world champion Detroit Tigers to win only the organizations second World Series title (the other coming in 1955).
As a new decade dawned, baseball continued to evolve; the Washington Senators owner Charles Finley took advantage of the popularity of color television to change his team’s uniform to loud colors of solid red, white and blue uniforms. Cookie Cutter Stadiums continued to pop up, with new stadiums in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati opening. Too many this symbolized baseball severing its ties with its rich and colorful past. The American League added Designated Hitter rule in 1973.

In 1972, the Baltimore Orioles won their first ever World Series defeating the New York Yankees in just six games in a strike shortened season, however their celebration would be short lived, baseball legend and the man who broke the color barrier Jackie Robinson died shortly after. The Baseball world mourned the man that braved the slander to pave a way for all baseball players regardless of race to play at the top level. He was honored perhaps most of all by Kansas City, the Blues announced that off season they would change their name to the Kansas City Royals, and their new stadium which was set to open in April would be renamed Jackie Robinson Memorial Stadium (from Blues Field).

1974-1979:
After eight miserable years of playing sub par baseball and drawing small crowds at Oakland-Alameda Stadium, the Oaks owner Bob Short moved the team to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and renaming the club the Texas Rangers. The move left the National League with out two teams on the west coast, and caused some concern amongst the owners. The National League voted to expand for the 1976 season choosing Toronto and Seattle as the sites of their future clubs. Not to be left behind by the NL the American League also voted to expand but for the 1975 season, placing teams in San Diego and Denver.

The San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies (Denver) opened the 1975 season against the Los Angeles Angels and the Washington Senators (respectively) and were both placed in the AL West, with the Chicago White Sox moving to the AL East. The Padres finished in sixth with a slightly better record of 65-97 (the Rockies finished seventh with 63-99 record). The New York Yankees won their first AL pennant since 1972 and went on to defeat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.

The following year the Seattle Mariners (NL West) opened the season against the Texas Rangers in the Kingdome while the Toronto Blue Jays (NL East) became the first modern team not to play in the United States with a 3-1 loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Red Sox would dominate the American League winning 108 games, but almost fittingly in the year of America’s bicentennial season lost the World Series to Mike Schmidt and his Philadelphia Phillies.

For the next three years, the Phillies dominated Major League Baseball defeating the San Francisco Seals in 1977, the New York Yankees in 1978 and were humbled by the upstart Kansas City Royals in 1979 {to date the Royals only World Series title}.

1980-1985
The Phillies recovered from their World Series loss to clinch the NL East in late August, and easily manhandled the Milwaukee Brewers to win their fifth straight pennant; however the magic was lost after that. Against a tough San Francisco Seals team, the Philadelphia Phillies were defeated in six games for their second straight World Series loss.

In 1981, baseball players walked out on strike and forced a split season in which the winner of the first half of each division would win the winner of the second half. In the AL East the Detroit Tigers won the first half, and the New York Yankees won the second half, in the AL West the San Francisco Seals won the first half with the Kansas City Royals winning the second. In the NL East the Philadelphia Phillies won the first half of the season and the Baltimore Orioles won the second half, in the NL West the Los Angeles Stars won the first half and the Cincinnati Reds won the second half.

In the first round of play-offs the Phillies were defeated by the Baltimore Orioles, the Los Angeles Stars defeated the Cincinnati Reds. The New York Yankees defeated the Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Seals defeated the Kansas City Royals. The Los Angeles Stars would sweep the Orioles in three, while the Seals beat the Yankees in four to set up the first West Coast Series. Led by Mexican pitching phenomenon, Fernando Valenzuela, the Los Angeles Stars won their first ever World Series in six games.

Baseball recovered from the strike slowly with the New York Yankees beating the Los Angeles Stars in the 1982 World Series and the New York Giants beating the Minnesota Twins in the 1983 series. Following the 1983 World Series, Braves owner Ralph Wilson realized he could not afford both the Braves and the Bills, both teams were seriously lagging behind their competitors and were performing poorly in the field. Hoping to salvage at least one, Wilson sold the Braves to a group from Indianapolis; the Bills would remain behind in Buffalo. Now the Indianapolis Braves with new owners, a new city and a new team the Braves adopted a new look, placing the tomahawk back on their uniforms, the new uniform did little to change the only reason to watch the Braves is because of slugger Bob Horner. From 1960-1983 the Braves only had three winning season in Buffalo (1968, 1974, 1975).

A sold out crowd at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis watched as the Braves beat the hapless Chicago Cubs 5-0, First Baseman Bob Horner hit two homeruns, including a grand slam in the seventh to give the Braves their first victory of the season. Indianapolis would finish the year with a 84-78 record, good enough for fourth place. It would however be the Baltimore Orioles that would own the division and the league, and ultimately win the World Series sweeping the Kansas City Royals.

In 1985 the strike was now history; the Braves continued to show improvement going 87-75 for a third place finish, the Orioles would go to their second straight world series only to lose to the Detroit Tigers. Baseball was surviving, and with the exception of the Cleveland Indians most teams were drawing fairly well. Rumors persisted the Indians were looking to move to Miami, or MLB was planning on adding an expansion team, but so far baseball executives have been tight lipped about either scenario.

To be continued:
 
Alternate Baseball

This was pretty good. Other alternate histories to consider:

1. What if the Browns would have moved to LA in the early 40's?
2. What if the Padres would have moved to Washington D.C. in 1974. They nearly did.
3. What if the Cardinals moved to Houston in 52?
4. What if Babe Ruth's manager with the Sox in the mid-10's didn't resign to be with his wife who was having a baby? This guy could control Ruth, sort-of-like how Phil Jackson was with Dennis Rodman.
 
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