Frank Lane was never known to be bashful.
In 1950 he was the general manager of the Chicago White Sox when he decided to present a geography lesson to the eight men who owned teams in the American League.
He pointed that, according to the United States census, Los Angeles had become the fourth-largest city in America and San Francisco was 11th. There were commercial airlines capable of flying passengers to those cities from anywhere in the United States, and they could do it in a single day.
Accordingly, Lane advocated that the AL become a 10-team league by placing two new teams in California. He might as well have suggested one new team be placed on Jupiter and another on Pluto.
Let’s just say the idea was not well received.
In 1950 Major League Baseball was probably the most calcified institution in the world. There were 16 franchises — the same 16 that had existed since 1901. They were all in the same locations they had occupied since 1903. All played in stadiums that were at least 20 years old and most — 14 to be exact — played in stadiums that had opened before 1920.
Nothing had changed for years, and nobody thought there was reason to change anything now. After all, America was riding the crest of the post-World War II economic boom, and baseball was reaping the benefits. Attendance records were being set in both leagues.
This was the world that ultimately spawned the Continental League.
If you never heard of the Continental League, you’re excused. There was never a Continental League season or even a Continental League game. Nevertheless, the Continental League had a profound impact on the history of baseball and went a long way towards shaping the game as we find it today. In fact, two of today’s franchises can trace their roots to the Continental League.
The Continental League wasn’t founded until 1959, but the events that led to its creation and, ultimately, to its demise, began more than a decade earlier when the post-war boom began. Baseball was very successful in those years, but the success came at a cost.
The 16 major league franchises represented only 10 cities, and now there were others that wanted to join the club. All of those cities had representatives in Congress, and Major League Baseball had good reasons to fear Congress.
MLB was probably a monopoly, although it could not legally be defined as such because of a 1920 Supreme Court ruling that exempted it from the anti-trust laws. Congress had the power to enact laws that would over-ride that ruling, and many Congressmen seemed to think that would be a good idea. The ones representing cities without franchises seemed to be especially vocal.
It appeared that something had to give, and in 1953 something did. The National League agreed to allow the Boston Braves to shift to Milwaukee and baseball’s map changed for the first time in half a century. Guess what? The sun still rose the next morning. The Braves drew more than 1.8 million fans in 1953 — roughly seven times the number that had seen them play the previous season.
The American League quickly jumped on the bandwagon. Over the next two years the St. Louis Browns were allowed to move to Baltimore and the Philadelphia Athletics shifted to Kansas City. But the American League also said no to two other requests.
The league said no to the Washington Senators, who asked permission to move to Minneapolis. That would have left the nation’s capital without a franchise and likely would have triggered even more enmity from Congress.
They also said no to the Browns’ first proposal — that they move to Los Angeles. The owners said the travel costs would be too high and turned down that request.
Thus, California was still open territory when, three years later, the Brooklyn Dodgers announced their intention to become the Los Angeles Dodgers. Simultaneously, the New York Giants said they would shift to San Francisco.
That was baseball’s version of an earthquake. Very soon no one seemed satisfied with the status quo.
The invasion of California turned out to be a financial bonanza for the entire National League. American League owners bitterly watched, knowing they could have gotten there first.
On the other hand, the American League now had New York all to itself. That didn’t please a lot of influential people, including Mayor Robert Wagner. The mayor tapped a prominent attorney named William Shea to head a committee to bring National League baseball back to the Big Apple.
Initially, Shea thought the job would be easy. He believed any owner would prefer New York to whatever his current location happened to be, but he soon discovered that all the existing teams preferred to stay put.
Next, he advocated National League, only to be told there was no enthusiasm for that either.
That’s what caused him to think about a new league. He did more than think. He secured ownership commitments from people in Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Minneapolis, Toronto and — of course — New York. He named the new circuit the Continental League and, in a major coup, secured none other than Branch Rickey to be the league president.
Rickey’s first act was to petition Commissioner Ford Frick to accept the Continental League as a third circuit under his jurisdiction. But, he warned, if Frick refused, the Continental League would proceed as an “outlaw” league and raid the existing leagues for talent.
Most of the existing owners treated the interlopers with disdain. The press was even more negative. One guy said it ought to merely be called “The Con.” Another said the league ought to allow each batter five strikes because the league was beginning with two strikes against it. One fellow said the Continental League “wasn’t worth a Continental.”
Frick, a former sportswriter himself, didn’t find any of that funny. He realized that the Continental League proposed to locate major league franchises in five states. If baseball chose to disrespect the proposal, it would likely incur the wrath of 10 United States senators. That had to be avoided.
Frick organized a meeting among Rickey, AL president Joe Cronin and NL president Warren Giles. Each of the three league presidents was encouraged to bring two or three of his owners to the meeting.
At that meeting the American and National Leagues committed to adding two new teams each by 1962 and two more teams later on, but only on the condition that the Continental League disband.
Rickey urged his members to reject the deal, pointing out that there was no commitment to take Continental League franchises as expansion teams and no clear timetable for the second round of expansion. His owners, however, rejected that advice and accepted the bargain.
Soon thereafter the National League conducted an orderly meeting and accepted the Continental League’s New York and Houston franchises as National League teams in 1962.
The American League followed with a meeting that was anything but orderly. Most of the AL owners were smarting over the fact that the NL had beaten them to California. They decided one of their new teams had to be in Los Angeles.
The other?
Well, the Senators still wanted to move to Minneapolis. They reasoned that could be done if an expansion team were placed in Washington. By the time their meeting was over the Senators had become the Minnesota Twins and the American League had created new franchises in Los Angeles and Washington to begin play in 1961. Continental League owners did not get either of those franchises.
By the time the leagues expanded again — 1969 — Branch Rickey had gone on to The Great Ballpark in the Sky and apparently taken the Continental League with him. The circuit that had caused so much commotion 10 years earlier was all but forgotten. It was now true that the Continental League was not worth a Continental.
But its imprint on the game will remain forever.
A FEW STATISTICS (Wednesday’s games not included): The Phillies have a 14-2 record against last-place teams. They’re 14-15 against teams with winning records … Aaron Judge of the Yankees has come to bat six times with runners at second and third. He’s been walked on five of those occasions … Cal Raleigh of the Mariners has 56 hits, of which 23 are home runs … The Tigers have the fewest steals in the majors with 21. They also have the fewest times caught stealing — 6 … Jhoan Duran of the Brewers has allowed only one earned run in his last 17 outings. Every one of those outings has consisted of exactly one inning … The Rangers have yet to play an extra-inning game … Nick Pivetta of the Padres has a 5-0 record with a 1.69 ERA in home games. On the road he is 1-2 with a 4.32 ERA … Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers hit 15 home runs in May … The Rockies won games on Monday and Tuesday of this week. That was only the second time they won two in a row … Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs leads the NL in RBI with 53. He has never driven in more than 74 in a full season …The Red Sox are 6-17 in one-run games … The Nationals released Jorge Lopez on Monday even though he has a 6-0 record. Perhaps his 6.47 ERA influenced the decision … Pete Crow-Armstrong leads the NL in stolen bases with 21. Luis Robert paces the AL, also with 21. Each of them plays center field for a team in Chicago.
Former Hall of Fame voter Jay Dunn has written baseball for The Trentonian for 57 years. Contact him at jaydunn8@aol.com
