Historical Minor Leagues

[Recte44]

I am working on a new historical project, and I'm wondering if anyone has a good outline of what the "minor leagues" looked like around 1919-1920.

[gohorns98]

Check out the database in my sig. for a close to complete minor league history.

[No Pepper]

Hey fellow Milwaukeean! I am also currently in the planning stages of a historical minor league universe for '07. I'm looking to cover leagues and teams that showed some stability during 1901-1960ish (good luck there).

Along with gohorns excellent database, I use this for the visual side of my brain.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by No Pepper

Hey fellow Milwaukeean! I am also currently in the planning stages of a historical minor league universe for '07. I'm looking to cover leagues and teams that showed some stability during 1901-1960ish (good luck there).

Along with gohorns excellent database, I use this for the visual side of my brain.

The combination of gohorns98's database and that site has been invaluable for me in creating leagues. gohorns98 did an excellent job of compiling all the team information for each year, and the McCann site shows team movement so you can track individual franchises as they change names and cities.

I'd like to make a database that combines the two, but it's a lot of work and I don't have that amount of time.

[No Pepper]

I'd be interested to learn what kind of leagues you've created, ctorg.

Currently, I am putting together somewhat of a dirty combined database. I am selecting minor leagues between 1901 and 1960 that lasted more than 10 to 20 years in a row, more or less, and that have some relevance to today's minors. Within those leagues, I've selected teams that also share the same stability within each decade or so, though not necessarily paying much attention yet to ML affiliations when that started in the '30s. Of course, logos and uniforms would follow

My purpose is to have something that is more or less historical but at the same time doesn't require many franchise shifts, league level changes, or affiliations that could bog down a quicker paced sim and that may be of general appeal.

The challenge now is if/how I can best mimic a reserve clause system (no free agency) yet still have finances and have ML teams pluck players from independent minor league teams either through "a draft" or by signing. I'd have to suspect the game is not capable of an exact replica but we probably could get something closer without having to micromanage.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by No Pepper

I'd be interested to learn what kind of leagues you've created, ctorg.

Currently, I am putting together somewhat of a dirty combined database. I am selecting minor leagues between 1901 and 1960 that lasted more than 10 to 20 years in a row, more or less, and that have some relevance to today's minors. Within those leagues, I've selected teams that also share the same stability within each decade or so, though not necessarily paying much attention yet to ML affiliations when that started in the '30s. Of course, logos and uniforms would follow

My purpose is to have something that is more or less historical but at the same time doesn't require many franchise shifts, league level changes, or affiliations that could bog down a quicker paced sim and that may be of general appeal.

The challenge now is if/how I can best mimic a reserve clause system (no free agency) yet still have finances and have ML teams pluck players from independent minor league teams either through "a draft" or by signing. I'd have to suspect the game is not capable of an exact replica but we probably could get something closer without having to micromanage.

The most challenging one was one I did for OOTP6. I used the International League and Pacific Coast League as the major leagues and recreated their team movement history. There is a lot of confusing movement in the minors. It was really tedious. Some teams switched cities in the middle of a year (I would just pick one and use that for the year), others would move for a year to one place, then on to another the next year. It was a lot to keep up with.

I remember the Jersey City Skeeters being a real pain in the neck. There were several teams with that name at various times, and I am usually insistent on using different abbreviations for different iterations of the same team, so I would have JCS, JC, JCY, JCT, and whatever else I could come up with.

[Tiger Fan]

No 1919 or 1920 but the complete Spalding Baseball Guides for 1917 and 1922 (along with a number of other years) can be found here:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/spalding...ibTitles1.html

It will include complete minor league standings and stats.


Also you can now search every issue of The Sporting News for free at
www.paperofrecord.com

You do need to log in and create an account but there is no cost. You are limited to viewing 100 pages a day though. Still it is amazing all the baseball history you can find there.

Finally this site has a complete list of minor leagues

http://www.geocities.com/big_bunko/total.htm

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Tiger Fan

Finally this site has a complete list of minor leagues

http://www.geocities.com/big_bunko/total.htm

One minor correction to the above:

It does not include the Arizona League or the Gulf Coast League. It also doesn't include the Dominican Summer League, Venezuelan Summer League, or the Mexican League, all of which are officially part of the minor league baseball structure (though the Mexican League has no affiliations with any major league clubs and operates more like an independent league).

However, aside from the above, the aforementioned web site is an excellent resource.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

the Mexican League has no affiliations with any major league clubs and operates more like an independent league

How did it ever come about that there is an independent minor league inside Minor League Baseball? I thought the baseball establishment was dead set against independent minor leagues.

[thbroman]

Gents, I posted a question in the main forum about how best to configure minor leagues to duplicate the structure of majors and minors in the 1940s and 1950s -- to the extent that the game allows, or course. I thought I would also post in this thread because it looks like the topic is close to what I want to know something about

What I would like to have is a fantasy world where I can run a team and locate talent approximately as was done by real teams before expansion began in the 1960s. For example, what potential exists for using a feeder team as a surrogate for signing players out of high school?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[GOMETS]

I have been looking this kind of info. Thanks.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

How did it ever come about that there is an independent minor league inside Minor League Baseball? I thought the baseball establishment was dead set against independent minor leagues.

I think I can answer that now, or at least, make a reasonable guess. The advantage for a league becoming a member of the National Assocation is that it protects the league's territories and rosters from other leagues. With the Mexican League inside Organized Baseball, it means it clubs' territories are safe from other O.B. leagues setting up teams there, and it means the rosters are safe from being raided by MLB.

Not that such raiding and territory invading is likely anymore, but certainly when the Mexican League first entered O.B. in 1955 it was more of a possibility (especially given that only nine years earlier it was the Mexican League raiding MLB for players).