Baseball What Ifs

Something I've been meaning to do, and Ed's thread about the Giants (boo, hiss) prompted me to finally get around to it.

Basically, a general what if thread for all sorts of baseball things. Preferably Major League Baseball, or equivalents in other countries.

The classic is what if the continental league was successful in its bid for Major League status? So, we'd have at least 3 different leagues. That'd be a pain in the rear for the post season, as well as the all star game.

Or, how about just different cities for teams? Which cities do you think could have had a team or should? My perennial vote is for Jacksonville, Florida. Vancouver, also, could get one. Perhaps the Blue Jays decide they're sick of being in the static AL east (1st and 2nd always being NYY and BOS) and move over to Vancouver to be in the more equitable AL west.
 
Something I've been meaning to do, and Ed's thread about the Giants (boo, hiss) prompted me to finally get around to it.

Basically, a general what if thread for all sorts of baseball things. Preferably Major League Baseball, or equivalents in other countries.

The classic is what if the continental league was successful in its bid for Major League status? So, we'd have at least 3 different leagues. That'd be a pain in the rear for the post season, as well as the all star game.

Or, how about just different cities for teams? Which cities do you think could have had a team or should? My perennial vote is for Jacksonville, Florida. Vancouver, also, could get one. Perhaps the Blue Jays decide they're sick of being in the static AL east (1st and 2nd always being NYY and BOS) and move over to Vancouver to be in the more equitable AL west.

Go back 45 years before the stillborn Continental League and you'll find the Federal League, which was a major thorn in baseball's side for a couple of seasons. Had a few things gone differently, including a lawsuit or two, and perhaps the Federal League teams would have survived--but would have been distributed between the American and National Leagues with some relocation and nicknames redone for 1916 and thereafter:

American League
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Brooklyn Aces (were FL Brooklyn TipTops)
Philadelphia Athletics
Washington Senators
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
St. Louis Browns
Milwaukee Brewers (were FL Chicago Whales)
Buffalo Bisons (were FL Buffalo Buffeds)
Toronto Mounties (were FL Newark {NJ} Peps)

National League
Boston Braves
New York Giants
Brooklyn Dodgers
Philadelphia Phillies
Baltimore Orioles (were FL Baltimore Terrapins)
Pittsburgh Pirates
Cincinnati Reds
Chicago Cubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Kansas City Cyclones (were FL Kansas City Packers)
Montreal Royals (were FL Pittsburgh Rebels)
Twin Cities Twins (were FL St. Louis Terriers)

Also: the St. Louis Browns proposed seriously moving to Los Angeles...for the 1942 season. Pearl Harbor occurred before the winter meetings in December 1941, at which time the proposal was voted down unanimously. But suppose the proposal had been made in late 1939 or 1940? Think of pre-war major league baseball in Los Angeles...
 

The Sandman

Banned
What if Havana had a team? Aside from the issues of Castro continuing his baseball career, what happens with that or any other major league team on Cuba in the event that the Communist revolution happens as per OTL?
 
What if baseball had taken off in a big way in the South, with maybe two or three early Major League sides (Memphis, New Orleans, Atlanta?) and a lot more smaller sides. Baseball effectively having the same popularity in the South that American football does OTL.
 

Xen

Banned
Has anybody heard of Baseball Mogul? I am working on a dynasty now which the Philadelphia Phillies moved to Baltimore following the 1948 season, I am considering posting the alternate world that comes from such an event here.
 
What if Dave Kingman...

had been purchased by The Boston Red Sox on February 28, 1975 from The San Francisco Giants for $160,000 instead of being purchased by the New York Mets from the San Francisco Giants for $150,000 ? Would Kingman have had a Hall of Fame career ? Statistics say: YES !!!
In THE REAL BASEBALL TIMELINE, in 76 Lifetime At-Bats at Fenway Park, Dave Kingman slugged an astounding 13 Home Runs. From 1975 until he retired after the 1986 season, Dave Kingman had 5435 At-Bats. Let's say that half of those had taken place at Fenway Park. That's 2718 At-Bats at Fenway Park from 1975 to 1986, mostly as a DH, but sometimes at first base, in a pinch at 3B, and maybe a few times as an outfielder if no other option was available. That projects to 465 Home Runs at Fenway Park ALONE from 1975 to 1986 as a Boston Red Sox. With the Giants from 1971-1974 he hit 77 Home Runs. That gives us a hypothetical total of 542 Career Home Runs before we even attempt to calculate his AWAY game Home Run production from 1975-1986 while playing with The Boston Red Sox in The American League. In REAL LIFE, Dave Kingman had a grand total of 106 HR in The American League, 6 in 1977, (ALL of them hit at the AWAY ballpark by the way in 18 games) and 100 HR for The Oakland A's from 1984-1986. 58 American League HR were at Away ballparks and 48 HR were at Home Ballparks. So what if Dave Kingman had 2717 At-Bats in the American League at AWAY PARKS (Parks other than Fenway Park) from 1975-1986 ? I project that Dave Kingman could possibly have hit 487 Home Runs on the road from 1975-1986, more likely about 365, at at a minimum, 240 Away Home Runs. That gives him a Career total of either 1029 HR, 907 HR, or at a minimum, 782 career HR, which is 20 more HR than Barry Bonds finished with. Let's go with the middle number and round it down 900 HR for Dave Kingman. It all boils down to this: If Dave Kingman had played for The Boston Red Sox from 1975-1986, he may have hit 823 HR in a Red Sox uniform ALONE, 465 at Home and 358 on the Road. His actual career HR total was 442.
In other words, he would have hit about twice that many if he had played with the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park from 1975-1986.
I'm of the opinion that this would have meant Red Sox World Series wins in 1975, 1977, 1978, and 1986 at the very least. Once Fisk came back from his injury in June 1975, and once Griffin went down with his injury in June 1975, the lineup vs. RHP would have been as follows:

Fred Lynn CF
Carlton Fisk C
Dave Kingman DH
Jim Rice LF
Carl Yastrzemski 1B
Dwight Evans RF
Rico Petrocelli 3B
Denny Doyle 2B
Rick Burleson SS

In 1975, once it became apparent that Petrocelli's knees were shot,
you could have played Kingman at 3B (he played 154 games at 3B in his career) and moved Bernie Carbo to DH vs RHP and Juan Beniquez at DH vs LHP with Yaz still at 1B. For 1976 and beyond, Kingman could have played 3B until Petrocelli's heir apparent (at that point, Butch Hobson or Ted Cox) proved himself. With a few butterflies, perhaps it is error prone slugger Butch Hobson who's included in the package of players that obtains Dennis Eckersley after the 1977 season, and Ted Cox lives up to his hype in Boston, but at 2B instead of at 3B. My point ?
Dave Kingman in Boston hitting in Fenway Park for the majority of his career is a Hall of Famer on the first ballot and leads the Red Sox to at least 5 World Series championships between 1975 and 1986.
 
Let me offer 4 POD:
#1. Negro League players aren't prohibited from Major League Baseball (OTL 1920?). I picture major black players raising the level of play & making the game more universal, as well as helping to combat Jim Crow laws. It also means a better probability of Cuban, Dominican, & Mexican players being accepted much more readily & much sooner than OTL.
#2. Competing leagues are absorbed into MBL, rather than simply destroyed. The number of possible cities with teams, based on population, is around 40, much higher than OTL MBL allows.
#3. One of the competing leagues is organized so owners share profits equally, making team resources more even (not like the Yankees:p), play more even & so better, & attracting more fans.
#4. Pro baseball begins much earlier. With the first game played in 1838 (Beachville, Ontario; believe it, or not:eek:;)), say the first pro team (still the Cincy Red Stockings) in 1845 (1869 OTL) & the first pro league in 1847 (1871 OTL; the National Association, IIRC).
 
Some Alternate teams for Florida in the ML could be :


Miami Mavericks
Jacksonville Jaguars
Hialeah Hellraiser's
Tallahasee T-Breds

Any of these plausible?
 
names based on historical precedence

Miami Mavericks...no, how about Miami Marlins a real OTL minor league team way before the the Florida Marlins...OR...Miami Sun Sox another
real and good OTL team

Hialeah Hellraisers...no, Hialeah is part of Greater Miami it was mainly farming and industrial areas up to the 1960s. Not enough population.

Jacksonville Jaguars...no, how about Jacksonville Tars, Suns or Red Caps.
The Red Caps were a Negro League team.

Tallahassee T-birds...Tally would have been to small too small to have much of a "Major League" team. A minor league team probably would have gone with something along the lines of Senators or Governors.

MLB might have been able to get established in Miami during the "Boom"
years of the 1920s. The city was growing exponentially and there were
lots of rich men who suffered from boosterism and probably could have been convinvced the a MLB team would cement Miami's big city image and
that would have been good for business!

However, if a MLB team catches on in the 1920s that might have lead to so other interesting things happening in baseball. The owners might decide that there was too large a gap between Washington (the southernmost ML city) and Miami. So...maybe you get another southern team becoming "Major" to fill in the gap. Richmond had a team once and the Southern Association Atlanta Crackers were very good. Any thoughts??:D
 
No need to get nasty. Baseball is the best thing to happen to the world along with atheism, roleplaying games, and beer.
 
Curt Flood loses his free agency suit and players remain loyal to their teams without demanding outrageous salaries.
 
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