In the Beginning...
19th Century
Major Leagues
(and ballparks)

Background

Contrary to popular myth, Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball one sunny day in Cooperstown, NY. The truth will be forever shrouded in the mists of time, but as far as we can tell, a children's game related to English Cricket, variously called "Rounders" or "Town Ball," evolved into something like what we know today during the 1840s and 1850s. By the time of the Civil War, it had become wildly popular nationwide. In 1869 the Cincinnati Reds established themselves the first professional baseball club in history, beating almost all the amateur teams who dared to take them on. Two years later, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was formed. It was merely a loose confederation with no governing authority, however, and its games were rife with drinking, gambling, cheating, and violence. Thus, the National Association is not deemed a "major league" by baseball historians, and this page does not include it.

The first true professional baseball organization was the National League, founded in 1876. It was later challenged by the American Association (1882-1891), the Union Association (1884), and the Players League (1890). The tables on this page show when each franchise was active, and which stadiums they played in. It does not include temporary stadiums, however. I have generally tried to depict the continuity of franchises by listing in the same row teams whose names changed, even though they remained in the same city. I have also indicated changes from one league to another by showing the letters "NL," "AA," and "PL" before and/or after the time periods when teams were active. There is much uncertainty about team identity in those early years, however, so this table should not be considered definitive.

In the early years, baseball "stadiums" were mostly just rudimentary wooden bleachers that often burned down. Lowry (1992) provides some information on seating capacity and field dimensions for those ancient ballparks, but in most cases historical records have long since vanished. Starting in the late 1880s, more or less permanent structures were built, and in some cases they were used by major league teams well into the 20th century. Robison Field (built in 1893) was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals until 1920, and the Baker Bowl (the first concrete and steel stadium, built in 1895) was the home of the Philadelphia Phillies until 1938. In the tables below, stadiums of special significance are shown in bold face, and rolling the mouse cursor over them -- and the ones in use at the end of the 19th Century -- will display certain key facts. Note that many of the stadiums names are appended with a Roman numeral to indicate a major renovation or expansion. Three of those stadiums -- Cleveland's League Park, New York's Polo Grounds, and St. Louis's Sportsman's Park -- were rebuilt early in the 20th Century and were used for several decades thereafter. See the Antique stadiums page.

National League

In a bold act that embodied both crusading reform and commercial self interest, William Hulbert and Albert Spalding (yes, that Spalding) founded the National League in 1876, the centennial year of the Republic's birth. During the first 15 years of its existence, there was a great deal of volatility in the League's composition. In only three years (1881, 1884, and 1889) did the same set of teams play as in the previous year. Toward the end of the very first season, two of the eight original teams, New York (actually Brooklyn) and Philadelphia, were expelled because they didn't feel like traveling west to play road games. The New York "Hartfords" replaced the "Mutuals" in 1877, but quickly vanished. For the next five years, there was no major league ball in the nation's two biggest cities. Between 1887 and 1892, the National League added eight franchises, six of which were from the American Association, which folded after 1891. For the rest of the Gay Nineties, there were twelve NL teams, but after the 1899 season, four of the "expansion" teams were eliminated (or "contracted"), and the National League returned to its original size of eight teams. It stayed that way until 1962.

American Association

Though derided as the "beer and whiskey league" by the National League bosses, the upstart American Association quickly reached an agreement with the National League to respect each other's player contracts, in particular the "reserve clause" provisions that bound players to the teams that first signed them. Disrupted by competition from two other upstart leagues (see below), the franchise composition of the American Association was even more turbulent than the National League. It finally crumbled and then collapsed after the 1891 season.

"One-Year Wonder" leagues

Both the Union Association and the Players League were founded largely as an attempt to defeat the exclusive rights to players enjoyed by National League and American Association franchises. Three of the franchises in the Union Association relocated to other cities during its only season (1884), and two did so twice. The Players League seems to have been inspired by utopian labor rights' philosophies that were prevalent in the late 19th Century, but this being America, it couldn't last.