1969 Major League Baseball expansion
The 1969 Major League Baseball expansion resulted in the establishment of
As a result of expansion, the American and National Leagues reorganized. Each league was split into two divisions, forming the American League East, American League West, National League East, and National League West.[2]
Other candidate cities that were considered in 1967 included
American League
In 1960, the American League conducted a survey to determine potential expansion cities. The list included Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas–Fort Worth, Denver, Oakland, San Diego, Seattle, and Toronto.[8]
Kansas City Royals
Kansas City had been the home to the
In October 1967, with the team's lease at
Cronin conveyed the news to Kansas City mayor
On the floor of the United States Senate on October 19, Symington described Finley as "one of the most disreputable characters ever to enter the American sports scene" and said that "Oakland is the luckiest city since Hiroshima".[17]
Ewing Kauffman won rights to the franchise, and paid a $5.5 million expansion fee for the Royals, which played games at Municipal Stadium[2] until the end of the 1972 season, after which the team moved to Royals Stadium, now known as Kauffman Stadium.
Seattle Pilots
By the 1960s, with Seattle's population growing, the city became the largest to host a
The city made several attempts to lure a Major League Baseball team. In 1964, William R. Daley visited the city when searching for a new home for the Cleveland Indians. He was unimpressed with the stadium, citing it as the primary reason to terminate his quest to move his team.[16] Charlie Finley also found the stadium inadequate during a 1967 visit, and so rejected Seattle as a potential target for moving the Kansas City Athletics.[16]
Because of this, the city instead tried to lobby for an expansion franchise at the 1967 owners' meetings in Chicago.
In December 1967 at the Winter Meetings in Mexico City, the franchise was officially awarded to Pacific Northwest Sports, which received $5.5 million in funding from Daley, who thus had 47% ownership of the venture.[16] Other owners included Max and Dewey Soriano. The award was contingent on renovation of Sick's Stadium to increase its seating capacity from 11,000 to 30,000 by the start of the 1969 season.[16] The Sorianos persuaded notable athletes to advocate for the $40 million King County stadium bond issue, including baseball players Mickey Mantle, Carl Yastrzemski, and Joe DiMaggio, and football player Y. A. Tittle; the bond issue was approved by 62.3% of the electorate.[18][16]
National League
The National League had received applications for an expansion franchise from Buffalo, Dallas–Fort Worth, Milwaukee, Montreal, San Diego, and Toronto as well as an informal bid from Denver.[19]
Montreal Expos
Montreal had a long history of interest in baseball. The sport became increasingly popular in eastern North America in the 1850s and 1860s, and Montreal "became a special hotbed",
Minor league baseball became a presence in the city. In 1946, the
On 27 May 1968, the National League officially awarded a franchise to Montreal to commence play in the 1969 season.[27] National League president Warren Giles had encouraged the owners during the meeting, stating "If we're going to expand, let's really spread it out".[3] The Montreal Expos became the first franchise to be awarded to a city outside the United States. When the news reached the U.S. Congress, members collectively condemned the decision.[26]
Because of the slow pace of progress in meeting commitments, Jean-Louis Lévesque withdrew his financial support in the franchise on July 31, 1968. Snyder quickly found another investor, Charles Bronfman, and the team met the deadline of 15 August for the initial $1.1 million installment, before which Jarry Park was selected as the team's stadium for the short term.[26] Renovations to the park were made by adding uncovered bleacher seats along the right and left field lines, and an electronic scoreboard installed beyond right field.[28] The team had some issues committing to a new stadium, as required by the franchise award, and it was said that the team had agreed to build a dome at the Autostade and use it as their stadium if a new stadium was not built by 1970.[29] It had originally intended to lease the stadium and expand its seating capacity from 26,000 to 37,000,[29] but then chose Jarry Park instead.
The ownership group paid $12.5 million for the team.[30] John McHale was hired as the team's first president,[31] and Jim Fanning its first general manager.[26] Many names had been considered for the team, including Royals which had a strong association with the city, but the name had already been adopted by the new Kansas City franchise. After rejecting various options, including "Voyageurs" and "Nationals", the name Expos was chosen in honour of Expo 67[28] and because it was the same in both of the city's official languages.[26] McHale stated that the name would "help Montreal be identified properly as the city that gave the world Expo 67".[26]
The New York Daily mistakenly reported that Buffalo had been awarded a franchise instead of Montreal.[32]
San Diego Padres
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In 1967, C. Arnholt Smith, owner of the PCL San Diego Padres (PCL), won a bid for an expansion team in the National League for the 1969 season. On May 27, 1968, the National League officially awarded a franchise to San Diego to commence play in the 1969 season[27] for a fee of $12.5 million for the team.[30] After the 1968 PCL season, Smith surrendered the franchise, which moved to Eugene, Oregon, and transferred the Padre name to his new NL team, the San Diego Padres. Eddie Leishman was named general manager of the MLB Padres, with club president and minority investor Buzzie Bavasi, formerly GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers (having resigned to take the new role), playing a dominant role in its baseball operations as president of the team.[33]
Expansion draft
In order to stock the roster of each team, a draft was held in which each of the extant teams would make available to the expansion franchises some of the players on their major league and minor league rosters. Each expansion team selected 30 players in the draft, and each of the extant teams lost six players. The extant teams were allowed to protect 15 players in their organization from the draft.[34] After each player lost, another three players could be protected.[35][36] The extant teams were not informed of the draft selections of the expansion teams until the draft was complete.[36]
On October 14, 1968, the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres drafted players exclusively from National League teams. The draft was conducted from the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, in which four rooms were reserved: one for the Expos, one for the Padres, one for the remaining 10 teams, and one in which draft selections were made.[36] The Padres won a coin flip,[37] and so had the first selection, which they used to draft Ollie Brown from the San Francisco Giants.[38] Montreal's first selection was Pittsburgh Pirates utility player Manny Mota.[38] Selections were made by general manager Jim Fanning and manager Gene Mauch for Montreal, and general manager Buzzie Bavasi and manager Preston Gómez for San Diego.[34]
On 15 October, the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots drafted players exclusively from American League teams. The draft was conducted in Boston,[36][38] at the Sheraton Hotel.
Aftermath
Because Buffalo was not awarded an expansion franchise,
–The addition of four teams resulted in the reconfiguration of the leagues; each was split into an east and a west division.
Game scheduling issues had to be resolved;[3] league-wide, there would be 1,944 games compared to 1,620 for the 1968 Major League Baseball season.[1] The American League had considered decreasing the number of games played by each team to 152[18] or 156 from 162 that had been played each season since 1961, and the National League either 162 or 165 games,[41] but the leagues agreed to a 162-game schedule in a meeting on 10 July 1968.[40] Each team would play 18 games against every other team in their own division, and 12 games against each league opponent in the other division.[42] A best-of-five post-season playoff series between league division winners was also introduced.[1][40]
The Kansas City Royals have been the most successful of the four 1969 expansion teams. The franchise fielded competitive teams in the 1970s and 1980s and won the 1985 World Series. After a 29-year postseason drought, the Royals returned to postseason play in the 2014 season, before winning their second World Series title in 2015.
The San Diego Padres had nine consecutive losing seasons, and have since made the playoffs seven times. The Padres twice made the World Series in 1984 and 1998, but lost both appearances.
The Montreal Expos had good attendance for the 1969 season, and after having losing records for ten years, were competitive in the 1980s and early 1990s. Its 1994 season put it in first place before the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike prematurely ended the season. The team's fortunes declined thereafter, and the team moved to Washington, D.C. for the 2005 season, becoming the Washington Nationals. The franchise won its first playoff series in 1981 when the Expos defeated the Phillies in the NLDS, after a split-season. As the Nationals, the franchise won the NLDS in 2019, over the Los Angeles Dodgers. They went onto sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in their first ever NLCS, and defeat the Houston Astros (moved to the AL prior to the 2013 season) to win the franchise's first World Series title.
The Seattle Pilots fared worst of the four expansion franchises, playing only in the 1969 season. The team fared poorly on the field, and faced financial difficulties owing to no television coverage, a stadium with problems, and the highest ticket and concession prices in the league.[43] Owners of other American League teams wanted Soriano and Daley to sell the team to a Seattle owner who would improve the team and address issues at Sick's Stadium, particularly uncovered seats with bad views.[43] After several attempts to sell the team to a Seattle owner failed, on April 1, 1970, Judge Sidney Volinn declared the team officially bankrupt; it was sold to Bud Selig, who moved the team to Milwaukee and renamed it the Milwaukee Brewers.[44] Selig had negotiated a deal for the purchase with Soriano during Game 1 of the 1969 World Series.[44] As a result of the relocation, in 1970 the city of Seattle, King County, and the state of Washington sued the American League for breach of contract.[45] The $32.5 million lawsuit[46] was settled in 1976 when the American League offered the city a franchise in exchange for termination of the lawsuit.[45] This led to the establishment of the Seattle Mariners via the 1977 Major League Baseball expansion.
See also
- 1961 Major League Baseball expansion
- 1962 Major League Baseball expansion
- 1977 Major League Baseball expansion
- 1993 Major League Baseball expansion
- 1998 Major League Baseball expansion
Other Playoff Expansion Changes Format
- 1967 NHL expansion
- 1983-84 NBA season
- 1990 NFL season
- 2020 NFL season
Notes
- ^ a b c d Griffin 1969.
- ^ a b Jozsa 2006, p. 57.
- ^ a b c d e Ottawa Citizen 1968, p. 29.
- ^ Gadsden 1966.
- ^ The New York Times:Eckert clarifies stand on expansion.
- ^ Classen 1966.
- ^ Hodges 1968.
- ^ Sarasota Herald-Tribune 1960.
- ^ The Bonham Daily Favorite 1962.
- ^ Armour & Levitt 2004, p. 237.
- ^ The New York Times 1964.
- ^ Acocella.
- ^ a b c Armour & Levitt 2004, p. 246.
- ^ a b Peterson 2003, p. 260.
- ^ a b c d Peterson 2003, p. 261.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Schaefer 2000.
- ^ Armour & Levitt 2004, p. 233.
- ^ a b The Spokesman-Review 1967.
- ^ Spokane Daily Chronicle 1967.
- ^ Bjarkman 2005.
- ^ Bjarkman 2005, p. 73.
- ^ Povich 1997.
- ^ a b Bjarkman 2005, p. 76.
- ^ Pennington 2006.
- ^ Baseball Reference.
- ^ a b c d e f g Major League Baseball: History of the Expos.
- ^ a b c Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 2004.
- ^ a b Purdy 2010, p. 182.
- ^ a b Wolf 1968, p. Sports 17.
- ^ a b Jozsa 2006, p. 59.
- ^ Toronto Star 2008.
- ^ Byrnes 2012.
- ^ Sarasota Herald-Tribune 1968, p. 16.
- ^ a b St. Petersburg Times 1968.
- ^ Rathet 1968.
- ^ a b c d Blackman 1968.
- ^ The Spokesman-Review 1968.
- ^ a b c The Spartanburg Herald 1968.
- ^ a b Tri-City Herald: Expansion reaction mixed; some glad, some real mad 1968.
- ^ a b c d Wolf 1968, p. Sports 11.
- ^ a b c d Tri-City Herald: Two-division split gets AL approval 1968.
- ^ Lodi News-Sentinel 1968.
- ^ a b Hogan 2007, p. 128.
- ^ a b Stone 2006.
- ^ a b Cour 1999, p. C16.
- ^ Riess 2006, p. 802.
References
- Acocella, Nick. "Finley entertained and enraged". ESPN Classic. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- Armour, Mark L.; Levitt, Daniel R. (2004). Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way. Potomac Books. ISBN 9781574888058.
- Blackman, Ted (September 27, 1968). "Expos don't smoke, but wood will burn". Montreal Gazette.
- Bjarkman, Peter C. (2005). Diamonds Around The Globe: The Encyclopedia Of International Baseball. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313322686.
- Byrnes, Mark (July 10, 2012). "They Built It, But the MLB Never Came". The Atlantic Cities. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- Classen, Harold (August 20, 1966). "Baseball mapping expansion plans". The Tuscaloosa News. Associated Press.
- Cour, Jim (June 27, 1999). "Good riddance". Austin American-Statesman.
- Griffin, John G. (April 7, 1969). "Baseball '69: A year for facelifting". The Bryan Times. United Press International.
- Hodges, Jack (July 9, 1968). "Plaza: Split into three majors, geographically, for improved baseball". Evening Independent.
- Jozsa, Frank P. (2006). Big Sports, Big Business: A Century of League Expansions, Mergers, and Reorganizations. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0275991342.
- Pennington, Bill (July 27, 2006). "Breaking a Barrier 60 Years Before Robinson". The New York Times. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- Hogan, Kenneth (2007). The 1969 Seattle Pilots: Major League Baseball's One-Year Team. McFarland. ISBN 9780786427864.
- Peterson, John E. (2003). The Kansas City Athletics: A Baseball History, 1954–1967. McFarland. ISBN 9780786481439.
- Povich, Shirley (March 28, 1997). "The Ball Stayed White, but the Game Did Not". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- Purdy, Dennis (2010). Kiss 'Em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of Failed, Forgotten, and Departed Teams. Random House Digital. ISBN 9780345520470.
- Rathet, Mike (October 14, 1968). "Montreal, San Diego start draft today". Owosso Argus-Press. Associated Press.
- Riess, Steven A. (2006). Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Clubs. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313329915.
- Schaefer, Kurt (2000). "Play Ball!". Columbia Magazine. 14 (2). Washington State Historical Society. Archived from the original on April 22, 2008. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- Stone, Larry (July 9, 2006). "Endearing & enduring: The 1969 Seattle Pilots". The Seattle Times. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- Wolf, Bob (July 11, 1968). "Montreal in, we're dead in National". Milwaukee Journal.
- "Sam Bankhead". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- "Interest shown in franchise". The Bonham Daily Favorite. United Press International. September 19, 1962.
- "Key dates in Expos history". CBC Sports. 2004. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- "History of the Expos". Archived from the original on June 28, 2004. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- "Baseball expansion yet 10 years away". The Gadsden Times. Associated Press. May 22, 1966.
- "National League sets up divisional play for 1969". Lodi News-Sentinel. United Press International. July 11, 1968.
- "Finley Signs Contract to Transfer Athletics to Louisville". The New York Times. Frankfort, Kentucky. Associated Press. January 6, 1964. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- "Eckert clarifies stand on expansion". The New York Times. Associated Press. May 27, 1966.
- "Baseball back in Montreal". Ottawa Citizen. Associated Press. May 28, 1968.
- "Major League bosses busy in winter baseball work". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Associated Press. December 2, 1967.
- "John McHale, 86: Expos' first president". Toronto Star. January 17, 2008. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- "San Diego Chooses Ollie Brown First". The Spartanburg Herald. Associated Press. October 15, 1968.
- "Walter O'Malley is retiring". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Associated Press. December 6, 1968.
- "Boston move in 1953 key to expansion". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. United Press International. October 31, 1960.
- "Baseball enters era of internationalism with roster roulette". St. Petersburg Times. Associated Press. October 14, 1968.
- "Two-division split gets AL approval". Tri-City Herald. Associated Press. May 29, 1968.
- "Expansion reaction mixed; some glad, some real mad". Tri-City Herald. Associated Press. May 29, 1968.
- "Bucs' roster hit by draft". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. October 15, 1968.
- "Baseball expansion topic". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. November 26, 1967.
Further reading
- Dodd, Mike (April 7, 2011). "MLB expansion effects still felt 50 years later around the leagues". USA Today. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- Jozsa, Frank P. (2010). Major League Baseball Expansions and Relocations: A History, 1876–2008. McFarlan. ISBN 9780786457236.
- Leggett, William (April 14, 1969). "One Hundred And One". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
- Porter, David L.; Naiman, Joe (2002). The San Diego Padres Encyclopedia. Sports Publishing. ISBN 1582610584.
- Green, G. Michael; Launius, Roger D. (2010). Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780802778574.
- Yates, Brock (January 20, 1969). "Warts, Love And Dreams In Buffalo". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. Retrieved March 12, 2013.