Go West, Major League Baseball
An IBWAA co-director marks the anniversary of the first Milwaukee Braves game and the change it brought to the league.
Pregame Pepper
. . . Two contemporary All-Star outfielders were born on this day. Hunter Pence was a self-admitted gangly ballplayer still growing into his body, which led to no major colleges or MLB teams having interest after high school. After a strong showing in junior college, Pence transferred to the University of Texas, and the Houston Astros selected him in the second round in 2004. Pence was a big power hitter in the minor leagues, but he never eclipsed 30 home runs in a 14-year MLB career where he hit 244 home runs as a consistent middle-order hitter, earning four All-Star game selections and winning two World Series rings. He is 43 today.
. . . Turning 40 today is former Royals and Brewers outfielder Lorenzo Cain. Cain attended junior college and was drafted by Milwaukee in the 17th round in 2004. He was a consistent player, but Cain took a slow path up the minor leagues, playing well but not making the majors until his sixth year in the Brewers’ system. He would go on to be one of the best outfield gloves in the game over a 13-year career. He earned All-Star nods in both leagues and finished in the top ten in MVP voting twice. He also won a World Series ring in 2015 with Kansas City.
Leading Off
Go West, Major League Baseball
By Benjamin Chase
In the 1850s, the phrase, “Go west, young man…” was attributed to multiple people, but regardless of the source, the phrase took hold as inspiration for the westward expansion of the United States across the center of the country.
The phrase ingrained its way into American culture, eventually becoming the title of award-winning movies and music albums. However, Major League Baseball did not heed that advice until a franchise move that began play on this day in 1953 seemingly opened the floodgates.
Previous “West” Franchises
It was not that professional baseball had not attempted to play west of the Appalachian Mountains before, with the Milwaukee Brewers part of the original American League, but lasting just one season before moving to St. Louis and being renamed the Browns after just one season.
The Federal League had teams in Indianapolis and Kansas City, but the league folded in 1915.
Of course, there were also established franchises in Chicago and St. Louis. The White Sox and Cubs had been in the Windy City for more than 50 years, and the Cardinals were established in St. Louis for more than 70 years.
Beyond that, though, 10 cities were the home of Major League Baseball for roughly 50 years without any change.
The Big Move
Throughout the 1952-1953 offseason, rumors persisted that Braves owner Lou Perini was going to leave Boston. The team had fallen behind the Red Sox in coverage, in large part because of generational talent Ted Williams’ presence on the Red Sox. Interestingly, the Braves had much more success than their city counterparts at the time, with the Red Sox making one World Series between 1918 and 1967, in 1946.
The Braves had appeared in the World Series in 1948, but attendance that season was nearly 1.5 million, and by the 1952 season, fewer than 300,000 fans watched the team.
The combination of poor attendance and second-fiddle status led to the announcement on March 18, 1953, that the Braves would move, effective that season, to Milwaukee.
The Braves had future Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews coming off his rookie season and Warren Spahn leading the rotation, so when the team won 92 games in 1953, no one was surprised. The Braves opened their 1953 season with a victory over Cincinnati on the road on Monday, April 13. One year later, on April 13, Henry “Hank” Aaron made his debut for the team, and history followed the club for the next decade-plus.
Copycats?
The success the Braves had on the field and in attendance (the team would eclipse two million fans in attendance for the first time in franchise history in 1954), would inspire multiple teams to begin moving. Over the next decade, the St. Louis Browns left for Baltimore in 1954, but the rest of the moves were heading west.
The Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City for the 1955 season, then the big blows came as the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, in 1958, opening up the California market. Finally, the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins for the 1961 season.
Major League Baseball expansion in the 1960s and 1970s added teams in the West and in Canada. Even today, St. Louis, on the 90th longitude line, is a western mark of the league, with 18 of the league’s 30 teams existing on or east of that mark, even though only 30% of the country’s land mass is east of the 90th longitude.
Benjamin Chase is one of the co-directors of the IBWAA. He works as the managing editor at a newspaper in rural South Dakota as his day job while also writing for his Medium site, Chasing Baseball Greatness, and podcasting with the Pallazzo Podcast team as the host of the weekly prospect show. He can be found on most social media networks under the handle biggentleben.
Extra Innings
After the movement of teams west, today also marks the anniversary of the return of National League baseball to New York. On April 13, 1962, a meager crowd of fewer than 12,500 attended the Opening Day festivities at the Polo Grounds for the New York Mets, who would lose 4-3. It was the beginning of a rough return to the city for the Mets, losing 120 games.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [biggentleben@hotmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.