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Stumbling around the Bases: The American League’s Mismanagement in the Expansion Eras
From the late 1950s to the 1980s, baseball’s American League mismanaged integration and expansion, allowing the National League to forge ahead in attendance and prestige. While both leagues had executive structures that presented few barriers to individual team owners acting purely in their own interests, it was the American League that succumbed to infighting—which ultimately led to its disappearance into what we now call Major League Baseball. Stumbling around the Bases is the story of how the American League fell into such a disastrous state, struggling for decades to escape its nadir and, when it finally righted itself, losing its independence.
The American League’s trip to the bottom involved bad decisions by both individual teams and their owners. The key elements were a glacial approach to integration, the choice of underfinanced or disruptive new owners, and a consistent inability to choose the better markets among cities that were available for expansion. The American League wound up with less-attractive teams in the smaller markets compared to the National League—and thus fewer consumers of tickets, parking, beer, hot dogs, scorecards, and replica jerseys.
The errors of the American League owners were rooted in missed cultural and demographic shifts and exacerbated by reactive decisions that hurt as much as helped their interests. Though the owners were men who were notably successful in their non-baseball business ventures, success in insurance, pizza, food processing, and real estate development, didn’t necessarily translate into running a flourishing baseball league. In the end the National League was simply better at recognizing its collective interests, screening its owners, and recognizing the markets that had long-term potential.
The American League’s trip to the bottom involved bad decisions by both individual teams and their owners. The key elements were a glacial approach to integration, the choice of underfinanced or disruptive new owners, and a consistent inability to choose the better markets among cities that were available for expansion. The American League wound up with less-attractive teams in the smaller markets compared to the National League—and thus fewer consumers of tickets, parking, beer, hot dogs, scorecards, and replica jerseys.
The errors of the American League owners were rooted in missed cultural and demographic shifts and exacerbated by reactive decisions that hurt as much as helped their interests. Though the owners were men who were notably successful in their non-baseball business ventures, success in insurance, pizza, food processing, and real estate development, didn’t necessarily translate into running a flourishing baseball league. In the end the National League was simply better at recognizing its collective interests, screening its owners, and recognizing the markets that had long-term potential.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published April 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 15, 2022
For a significant portion of the latter half of the 20th Century, the National League was considered the superior of the two leagues in Major League Baseball. This was due not only because of the play on the field or the faster pace of racial integration in that league, but also because of its actions taken when its franchises would relocate or be added. This book by Andy McCue concentrates mainly on the American League on that latter topic and explains why, due to its own missteps, why it was considered to be league that reacts instead of leads.
When the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants relocated to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively in 1958, the National League realized the market for baseball on the West Coast was untapped and wanted to take advantage of this. Seeing how attendance was boosted significantly for the two franchises, the American League also wanted in on West Coast business. However, as McCue expertly describes, the owners couldn’t agree on a well-researched and reviewed plan and instead hurriedly decided to expand in 1961 to Los Angeles (where their team, the Angels, had to agree to conditions set by the Dodgers) and in Washington, D.C.
The latter site was chosen only because the American League feared that Congress would take away from baseball the exemption for anti-trust laws after owner Calvin Griffith moved the Washington Senators to Minnesota to start the 1961 season. This expansion plan, panned by many observers, only set the stage for even more blunders by American League ownership and McCue doesn’t leave many individuals unscathed in his account of these transactions.
Among those who McCue profile to show how the American League executives were not exactly experts at vetting who would become owners are two men who became enemies of the fraternity. One was Charles O. Finley who purchased the Kansas City Athletics and moved them to Oakland (again, going to a West Coast territory already with a National League). The second was Bob Short, who during the 1960’s purchased the expansion Washington Senators team and ended up moving them to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, becoming the Texas Rangers. Finley and Short, as well as the sale of the New York Yankees to CBS, are all cited as examples of American League ineptitude as well as the tale of Seattle.
Seattle’s part of American League mishandling of expansion and markets is a very interesting story. The Seattle Pilots were one of two expansion teams in 1969 along with the Kansas City Royals (another team that was provided to a market because of fear of retaliation after the city lost the Athletics) but it was clear that the ownership group did not have the funds and backing necessary to run a major league team, nor was there a stadium up to major league standards. A well-known story but one that is worth mentioning was that fans who had tickets in the left field bleachers had to wait for the paint to dry on the benches in their seating location. The Pilots ended up in Milwaukee just days before the 1970 season opened and Seattle got its replacement team (see a pattern here?) in 1977 when the Mariners began play in the new Kingdome.
There is a lot of information told in this compact book of approximately 200 pages and that includes the footnotes and references. This shows the crisp writing and excellent research into these issues that McCue has done. Readers who enjoy books on the business side of the game and its politics will enjoy this one immensely. Some of the information may be known from other larger sources, but it will be hard to find another book that tells of the infamy of the American League brass in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
When the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants relocated to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively in 1958, the National League realized the market for baseball on the West Coast was untapped and wanted to take advantage of this. Seeing how attendance was boosted significantly for the two franchises, the American League also wanted in on West Coast business. However, as McCue expertly describes, the owners couldn’t agree on a well-researched and reviewed plan and instead hurriedly decided to expand in 1961 to Los Angeles (where their team, the Angels, had to agree to conditions set by the Dodgers) and in Washington, D.C.
The latter site was chosen only because the American League feared that Congress would take away from baseball the exemption for anti-trust laws after owner Calvin Griffith moved the Washington Senators to Minnesota to start the 1961 season. This expansion plan, panned by many observers, only set the stage for even more blunders by American League ownership and McCue doesn’t leave many individuals unscathed in his account of these transactions.
Among those who McCue profile to show how the American League executives were not exactly experts at vetting who would become owners are two men who became enemies of the fraternity. One was Charles O. Finley who purchased the Kansas City Athletics and moved them to Oakland (again, going to a West Coast territory already with a National League). The second was Bob Short, who during the 1960’s purchased the expansion Washington Senators team and ended up moving them to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, becoming the Texas Rangers. Finley and Short, as well as the sale of the New York Yankees to CBS, are all cited as examples of American League ineptitude as well as the tale of Seattle.
Seattle’s part of American League mishandling of expansion and markets is a very interesting story. The Seattle Pilots were one of two expansion teams in 1969 along with the Kansas City Royals (another team that was provided to a market because of fear of retaliation after the city lost the Athletics) but it was clear that the ownership group did not have the funds and backing necessary to run a major league team, nor was there a stadium up to major league standards. A well-known story but one that is worth mentioning was that fans who had tickets in the left field bleachers had to wait for the paint to dry on the benches in their seating location. The Pilots ended up in Milwaukee just days before the 1970 season opened and Seattle got its replacement team (see a pattern here?) in 1977 when the Mariners began play in the new Kingdome.
There is a lot of information told in this compact book of approximately 200 pages and that includes the footnotes and references. This shows the crisp writing and excellent research into these issues that McCue has done. Readers who enjoy books on the business side of the game and its politics will enjoy this one immensely. Some of the information may be known from other larger sources, but it will be hard to find another book that tells of the infamy of the American League brass in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
July 22, 2024
Great history piece for baseball history lovers!
October 9, 2025
One would have to have a genuine interest in the backroom dealings of the American league from the 50's to 2000 to enjoy this book. It is well researched and documented but has almost nothing to do with the game on the field. It is about the owners, their backgrounds and foibles, blind spots, and obsessions. It's about expansion, revenue, rivalry with the National League, and disasters such as the Seattle Pilots imbroglio. Exciting it is not. Informative it is.
May 10, 2022
Really good history of MLB relocation and expansion from the 50s through the 70s.
February 3, 2023
This book tells the story of the American League and its repeated struggles to deal with expansion. Featuring great stories about the owners and prospective owners, this thin volume was educational, entertaining, and a quick read. Highly recommend this to fans of baseball history.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews