Rival Leagues Part 2 – The Continental League

The Continental League 

This was the last true attempt to establish a third major league.  The cities and some of the owners involved were incorporated into the Major League fold quickly. 

The hunger for big time baseball was rampant in post-war America.  The Negro Leagues had collapsed and the calibre of baseball amongst the 16 team major leagues was probably the best ever.  With the influx of talent, the advant of continental air travel and the growth of western population centres and much more disposable income baseball was in a state of change. 

For 50 years there had been no change in the NL or AL.  Between 1954 and 1961 teams relocated to Baltimore, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Kansas City, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  This was merely a diffusion of teams, New York City had gone from 3 teams in 1957 to 1 in 1958.

In the summer of 1959 owners representing five major cities formed the Continental League of Baseball Clubs.  The leader of the group was William Shea, he hired Branch Rickey to be the first president of the league.  Mr. Shea would head the flagship franchise out of New York.  The other governors of significance were Wheelock Whitney, a Minnesota politican who represented the Twin Cities.  Bob Howsam, son of a prominent Colorado politican and part owner and founder of the Denver Broncos and the AFL represented the Denver franchise.  Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs IL club and future owner of the Los Angeles Kings and Washington Redskins was the representitve of the Toronto franchise.  Another original franchise was set for Houston.

The league coffers were much richer than Minor League teams would have been and the ballparks had to be of Major League standard and seat at least 35,000.

The CL was supposed to open for April 1961 with 8 teams, Buffalo, Atlanta and Dallas were added to the original five.   The large, growing cities that the CL had identified were often under consideration for relocated Major League teams.  When no teams seemed to want to relocate to New York and Houston immediately, the National League announced, in 1960,  that they would expand into those markets for the 1962 season.  The AL also was set to expand for the 1961 season and the Washington Senators announced they would move to Minnesota and with that the CL was doomed. 

The five remaining franchises would not be able to support each other without the large markets in New York and Houston.  The Continental League folded in the summer of 1960.  There was never a player on a roster, no team announced a nickname let alone see a pitch. 

At the threat of seeing another Major League in the early 1960’s the ML’s expanded from 16 to 24 teams between 1961 and 1969.  Exactly the number of teams the CL intended to add.  By 1993 all of the cities that sought major league teams in th CL had established teams except Buffalo.   

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