Classic 16
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The "Classic 16" are the 16 teams that made up major league baseball before the expansion era starting in 1961. Baseball would be played by the same sixteen teams in the same sixteen cities from 1903 (the year the first World Series was played) until 1953.
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[edit] National League
The National League had started play in 1876 with eight franchises. The size of the league would vary between six and twelve teams, with teams folding and relocating and new teams being added, before settling at eight in 1900. (Of the eight charter members in 1876, only two, the Chicago and Boston franchises, survived). The eight teams in the National League in 1900:
- Boston Beaneaters, later the Braves
- Brooklyn Superbas, later the Dodgers
- Chicago Cubs
- Cincinnati Reds
- St. Louis Cardinals
- New York Giants
- Philadelphia Phillies
- Pittsburgh Pirates
[edit] American League
The National League would face challenges from the American Association, Union Association and Players League, but by 1892 had a monopoly as the only major league. The National League had contracted from twelve to eight teams for the 1900 season, eliminating the members in Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville, and Washington. Ban Johnson, president of the then minor-level American League, sensed an opportunity to fill some of the abandoned markets and challenge the NL's monopoly. In 1901 he proclaimed the AL to be a major league in competition with the NL. The eight charter members of the American League in 1901:
- Baltimore Orioles
- Boston Americans, later the Red Sox
- Chicago White Stockings, later the White Sox
- Cleveland Blues, later the Indians
- Detroit Tigers
- Milwaukee Brewers
- Philadelphia Athletics
- Washington Senators
[edit] The classic 16
The National League's lineup would remain unchanged from 1900 to 1953. The American League would have some realignment after playing its first season: the Milwaukee Brewers would move to St. Louis in 1902 and become the St. Louis Browns, while the Baltimore Orioles would move to New York in 1903 and become the New York Highlanders, later the New York Yankees. By 1903, however, the eight-team lineup of the AL was set as well. For fifty consecutive seasons, 1903-1952, the "Classic 16" alignment of major league baseball would remain unchanged, with each team staying in the same city and no teams being added or subtracted.
[edit] Realignment and expansion in the 1950s and 1960s
A half-century of equilibrium was broken in 1953 when the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee. It was the first in a flurry of relocations: the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 and became the modern-day Baltimore Orioles, the Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955, the Dodgers and Giants both relocated in 1958 (to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively), and the Senators moved to Minneapolis and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. New franchises would be added to the AL in 1961 and the NL in 1962, and the Classic 16 alignment was gone for good.
[edit] Today
Baseball now has thirty franchises: the sixteen franchises that date back to 1901, all of which remain in existence, plus fourteen more added in bouts of expansion between 1961 and 1998. Ten of the Classic 16--the Cubs, Reds, Cardinals, Phillies, Pirates, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Indians, and Tigers--remain in the same cities they were in when the Classic 16 lineup came into being in 1903.
[edit] World Series matchups
The solidifying of the Classic 16 alignment in 1903 coincided with the first World Series. During the fifty years the alignment remained unchanged, all sixteen would appear in the Series at least once, and fourteen would win championships. The St. Louis Browns never won a World Series and only made the Series once, losing the 1944 World Series to their crosstown rival Cardinals. Their first championship would have to wait until 1966, twelve years after the move to Baltimore. The Phillies would lose the Series in 1915 and 1950 before becoming the last of the Classic 16 franchises to win a championship in 1980.
The first of the Classic 16 teams to appear in a World Series after moving was the Braves, who won the 1957 World Series in their fifth season in Milwaukee. The first franchise outside the Classic 16 to appear in the World Series was the New York Mets, who won the 1969 World Series in their eighth year of existence.
