There’s talk nowadays about possibly moving one of the finanacially struggling Major League Baseball teams to Portland, OR, as Portland is currently one of the biggest metro areas that has no major league baseball; rather, they currently have a AAA team (I forget which).
Have the other expansion cities had minor league teams before they were awarded a major league team, and if so, what were they called? (Anaheim, Seattle, Houston, Montreal, San Diego, Toronto, Miami, Denver, Phoenix, Tampa)
Thanks.
Just about all of them had minor league teams and for extensive periods of time.
Montreal was a Dodgers farm team for a long time. That was where Jackie Robinson made his Organized Baseball debut.
Seattle and SD were long-time franchises on the PCL.
Denver was a AAA town right up until 1995.
Toronto was, IIRC, a Yankee farm team at one time.
Pheonix was where Dave Kingman finished his professional career in '87 (or was it '88?)
Tampa had a class A team for the Yankees up until the mid '90s.
I don’t know the history of Houston as a minor league town, but I’m positive that a city of that size was probably at one time in the IL or the AA.
I could look it up further when I get home.
Zev Steinhardt
The old American Association consisted of Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Toledo, Louisville, and Columbus. Of those cities, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Kansas City have or had major league teams.
Houston did have a minor-league team in the 40’s and 50’s called the Houston Buffalos. Their stadium is now the location of the Fingers Furniture warehouse, just off I-45S. If you visit the store, go to their snack bar area and you’ll see the tiny Houston Sports Museum, built on the location of Buffalo Stadium’s home plate.
The Houston Colt-45’s (now the Astros) became an MLB team in 1962. They replaced the Buffs, however; they were not an extension of the Buffs.
http://www.mlb.com is really useless in providing this kind of info. http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com is bit more useful. These teams used to be minor league teams:
Baltimore Orioles
Anaheim (formerly Los Angeles) Angels
Montreal had the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn’s old AAA team.
Denver had the Denver Bears, who in the 80’s were one of the greatest minor league teams ever assembled.
Phoenix used to be the AAA affiliate for the San Francisco Giants.
Actually, the only city there that didn’t have a high level minor league team was Toronto.
On the contrary. Toronto was in the International League, a AAA league, for a looooong time.
Zev Steinhardt
Yes. Here’s a complete run-down, in order of major leagues moving in (except where indicated, these were all high-level minor leagues):
Milwaukee Braves (1953) - Displaced the American Association’s Milwaukee Brewers
Baltimore Orioles (1954) - Displaced International League team of same name
Kansas City Athletics (1955) - Displaced the American Association’s Kansas City Blues
Loas Angeles Dodgers (1958) - Displaced Pacific Coast League’s Los Angeles Angels and Hollywood Stars
San Francisco Giants (1958) - Displaced Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals
Minnesota Twins (1961) - Displaced the Minneapolis Millers and Saint Paul Saints, both of the American Association
Los Angeles Angels (1961) - Dodgers had already displaced local minor league teams. The Angels did not displace anyone in making the move to Anaheim and becoming the California and, more recently, the Anaheim Angels.
Houston Colt 45’s (1962) - I think that the Buffalos were Houston’s (class AA) Texas League team. I think that the Houston territory was taken by the American Association (to replace Minneapolis or St. Paul) before 1962, and I think that team might have been named the Colt 45’s before the major league team came into existence.
Atlanta Braves (1966) - Displaced the Atlanta Crackers of the (class AA) Southern League
Oakland Athletics (1968) - Displaced the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League.
Montreal Expos (1969) - Displaced the International League’s Montreal Royals
San Diego Padres (1969) - Displaced the Pacific Coast League team of the same name
Seattle Pilots (1969) - Displaced the Pacific Coast League’s Seattle Rainiers. The Rainiers moved back in when the Pilots moved to Milwaukee.
Texas Rangers (1972) - Displaced the (class AA) Texas League’s Dallas team, though I don’t recall the name…Oilers, perhaps? (actually, the Texas League and Southern League were combined as the “Dixie Association” during 1971, but that only lasted for that one year)
Seattle Mariners (1977) - Once again displaced the Pacific Coast League’s Seattle Rainiers.
Toronto Blue Jays (1977) - Displaced the International League’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
Colorado Rockies (1993) - Displaced the American Association’s Denver Zephyrs.
Florida Marlins (1993) - Displaced the (class A) Florida State League’s Miami Miracle
Arizona Diamondbacks (1998) - Displaced the Pacific Coast League’s Phoenix Firebirds
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998) - Displaced no one; the class-A Florida State League team in Tampa is still there alongside the Devil Rays.
Washington, D.C., which is being bandied about for a team in the next couple seasons, doesn’t have any basebal in the District, but there are three or four minor league parks in the greater metro area.
–Cliffy
Tampa - For a long, long time, the Tampa Tarpons were the Cincinnati Reds’ Florida State League team and Tampa was Cincinnati’s spring training home. In the early 1990s or so, the Tampa people, hoping for a major league team, kicked the Reds out. The Reds moved their Florida operation to Plant City.
The Pacific Coast League, which I followed as a kid, used to have the following teams:
San Francisco Seals
Oakland Oaks
Los Angeles Angels
Hollywood Stars
Portland Beavers
Seattle Raineers
San Diego Padres
Sacramento Solons
**
**
[ul]Somewhere I’ve got a program signed by all the Crackers, when I was a kid and a fan.[/ul]
Anaheim has been the home to minor league baseball.
There was an Anaheim team in the California League in 1941 and an Anaheim team in the Sunset League in 1947 and part of 1948. The team moved to San Bernardino in the middle of the year.
There was also an “Orange County” team in the 1929 California State League and represented Santa Ana and Anaheim, but that team quickly moved to Pomona.
The Crackers were AAA when they disbanded. Heres a site you may find interesting -
http://www.atlantacracker.com/