San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego, California. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the National League West division. Founded in 1969, the Padres have won two NL pennants — in 1984 and 1998, losing in the World Series both years; as of 2018, they have had 14 winning seasons in franchise history. The Padres are one of two Major League Baseball teams in California to originate from that state; the Padres are the only major professional sports franchise to be located in San Diego, following the relocation of the Chargers to Los Angeles in 2017. The Padres are the only MLB team that does not share its city with another major league professional sports franchise; the Padres adopted their name from the Pacific Coast League team that arrived in San Diego in 1936. That minor league franchise won the PCL title in 1937, led by 18-year-old Ted Williams, the future Hall-of-Famer, a native of San Diego; the team's name, Spanish for "fathers", refers to the Spanish Franciscan friars who founded San Diego in 1769.
In 1969, the Padres joined the ranks of Major League Baseball as one of four new expansion teams, along with the Montreal Expos, the Kansas City Royals, the Seattle Pilots. Their original owner was C. Arnholt Smith, a prominent San Diego businessman and former owner of the PCL Padres whose interests included banking, tuna fishing, real estate and an airline. Despite initial excitement, the guidance of longtime baseball executives, Eddie Leishman and Buzzie Bavasi as well as a new playing field, the team struggled. One of the few bright spots on the team during the early years was first baseman and slugger Nate Colbert, an expansion draftee from the Houston Astros and still the Padres' career leader in home runs; the team's fortunes improved as they won five National League West titles and reached the World Series twice, in 1984 and in 1998, but lost both times. The Padres' main draw during the 1980s and 1990s was Tony Gwynn, who won eight league batting titles, they moved into their current stadium, Petco Park, in 2004.
As of 2019, the Padres are the only team in MLB yet to throw a no-hitter. The team has played its spring training games at the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Arizona since 1994, they share the stadium with the Seattle Mariners. From 1969 to 1993, the Padres held spring training in Arizona at Desert Sun Stadium. Due to the short driving distance and direct highway route, Yuma was popular with Padres fans, many fans would travel by car from San Diego for spring training games; the move from Yuma to Peoria was controversial, but was defended by the team as a reflection on the low quality of facilities in Yuma and the long travel necessary to play against other Arizona-based spring training teams. Throughout the team's history, the San Diego Padres have used multiple logos and color combinations. One of their first patches depicts a friar swinging a bat with Padres written at the top while standing in a sun-like figure with San Diego Padres on the exterior of it; the "Swinging Friar" has popped up on the uniform on and off since although the head of the friar has been tweaked from the original in recent years, it is the mascot of the team.
In 1985, the Padres switched to using a script-like logo. That would become a script logo for the Padres; the team's colors remained this way through the 1990 season. In 1989, the Padres took the scripted Padres logo, used from 1985 to 1988 and put it in a tan ring that read "San Diego Baseball Club" with a striped center. In 1991, the logo was changed to a silver ring with the Padres script changed from brown to blue; the logo only lasted one year, as the Padres changed their logo for the third time in three years, again by switching colors of the ring. The logo became a white ring with fewer stripes in the center and a darker blue Padres script with orange shadows. In 1991, the team's colors were changed, to a combination of orange and navy blue. For the 2001 season, the Padres removed the stripes off their jerseys and went with a white home jersey with the Padres name on the front in navy blue; the pinstripe jerseys were worn as alternate jerseys on certain occasions throughout the 2001 season.
The Padres kept this color scheme and design for three seasons until their 2004 season, in which they moved into their new ballpark. The logo was changed when the team changed stadiums between the 2003 and 2004 seasons, with the new logo looking similar to home plate with San Diego written in sand font at the top right corner and the Padres new script written across the center. Waves finished the bottom of the plate. Navy remained; the team's colors were changed, to navy blue and sand brown. For the next seven seasons the Padres were the only team in Major League Baseball that did not have a gray jersey, with the team playing in either blue or sand jerseys on the road and white or blue jerseys at home. In 2011, the San Diego was removed from the top right corner of the logo and the away uniform changed from
Darrell Rasner
Darrell Wayne Rasner, Jr. is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Rasner attended the University of Nevada, where he played college baseball for the Nevada Wolf Pack, he earned Freshman All-American honors in 2000, with a record of 14-2, 3.52 ERA in 18 appearances. When drafted, he held records for strikeouts by a Nevada pitcher, he was a health ecology major. Rasner was selected by the Montreal Expos with the 5th pick in the second round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft. Rasner has a cousin, Jacob Rasner, who played professional baseball. Jacob was drafted in the 2005 Major League Baseball Draft and played for the AA Chicago White Sox Farm club - Birmingham Barons. Rasner began his major league career with the Washington Nationals, pitching in a few games late in the 2005 season, he was claimed off waivers by the New York Yankees in the 2005 off-season. Rasner recorded his first major league win on September 3, 2006, in a game he started for the Yankees against the Minnesota Twins.
Rasner went 6 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 earned 2 strikeouts and no walks in a 10-1 victory. On May 19, 2007, in a start against the New York Mets, Rasner was struck on the right hand by a ball hit by Endy Chávez, a former teammate with the Nationals, he fractured his right index finger and did not pitch in the major leagues again that season, though he pitched at several levels of the minor leagues on rehab assignments. Rasner was not offered a new contract by the Yankees and became a free agent on December 12, 2007, but was re-signed a couple of days to a minor league deal. On May 4, 2008, Rasner was recalled by the Yankees, made his season debut against the Seattle Mariners. Rasner worked 6 innings, allowing only 2 runs and stayed in the Yankee rotation until September, when he was replaced by Alfredo Aceves. On November 15, 2008, the Yankees sold Rasner to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles for $1 million. Rasner signed a two-year deal with the Golden Eagles, he played with the Golden Eagles for the last three as a closer and setup man.
He won the Japanese series championship as a member of the Rakuten Golden Eagles with former Yankees Andruw Jones, Casey McGehee and future Yankee Masahiro Tanaka who would sign with the New York Yankees in the 2013 offseason. After finishing his playing career he would become an international scout for the Eagles. Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference Warning: Template:Baseballstats cube= parameter should be updated to a numeric value
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida; the Rays compete in Major League Baseball as a member of the American League East division. Since its inception, the team's home venue has been Tropicana Field. Following nearly three decades of unsuccessfully trying to gain an expansion franchise or enticing existing teams to relocate to the Tampa Bay Area, an ownership group led by Vince Naimoli was approved on March 9, 1995; the Tampa Bay Devil Rays began play in the 1998 Major League Baseball season. Their first decade of play, was marked by futility. Following the 2007 season, Stuart Sternberg, who had purchased controlling interest in the team from Vince Naimoli two years earlier, changed the team's name from "Devil Rays" to "Rays", now meant to refer to a burst of sunshine rather than a manta ray, though a manta ray logo remains on the uniform sleeves; the 2008 season saw the Tampa Bay Rays post their first winning season, their first AL East championship, their first pennant, though they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in that year's World Series.
Since the Rays have played in the postseason in 2010, 2011, 2013. The Tampa Bay Rays' chief rivals are the New York Yankees. Regarding the former, there have been several notable on-field incidents; the Rays have an intrastate interleague rivalry with the National League's Miami Marlins, whom they play in the Citrus Series. The name "Tampa Bay" is used to describe a geographic metropolitan area which encompasses the cities around the body of water known as Tampa Bay, including Tampa, St. Petersburg and Bradenton. Unlike in the case of Green Bay, there is no municipality known as "Tampa Bay"; the "Tampa Bay" in the names of local professional sports franchises denotes that they represent the entire region, not just Tampa or St. Petersburg. Former civic leader and St. Petersburg Times publisher, Jack Lake, first suggested St. Petersburg pursue a Major League baseball team in the 1960s; the notable influences Lake held in the sport are what led to the serious discussions that changed St. Petersburg from a spring training location to a major league city.
He spoke to anyone who would listen about his desire to see the city of St. Petersburg have a Major league baseball team, his colorful direction dominated the mindset in both sports and business circles dating back to 1966. He was said to have the prominence to make it happen. Local leaders made many unsuccessful attempts to acquire a major league baseball team in the 1980s and 1990s; the Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners all considered moving to either Tampa or St. Petersburg before deciding to remain in their current locations; the Florida Suncoast Dome was built in St. Petersburg in 1990 with the purpose of luring a major league team; that same year two separate groups, one in Tampa and another in Sarasota, were seeking to get an expansion team. The Tampa one registered the name "Florida Panthers", after a local feline - a trademark which ended up being purchased by entrepreneur Wayne Huizenga one year and used by him to name an NHL ice hockey team.
When Major League Baseball announced that it would add two expansion teams for the 1993 season, it was assumed that one of the teams would be placed in the Dome. However, in addition to the application from St. Petersburg, a competing group applied to field a team in Tampa, prompting much conflict over the bid; the two National League teams were awarded to Miami instead. In 1992, San Francisco Giants owner Bob Lurie agreed in principle to sell his team to a Tampa Bay-based group of investors led by Vince Naimoli, who would move the team to St. Petersburg. However, at the 11th hour, MLB owners nixed the move under pressure from San Francisco officials and the Giants were sold to a group that kept them in San Francisco. On March 9, 1995, new expansion franchises were awarded to Naimoli's Tampa Bay group and a group from Phoenix; the new franchises were scheduled to begin play in 1998. The Tampa Bay area had a team, but the stadium in St. Petersburg was in need of an upgrade. In 1993, the stadium was renamed the Thunderdome and became the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team and the Tampa Bay Storm Arena Football League team.
After the birth of the Rays, the naming rights were sold to Tropicana Products and $70 million was spent on renovations. The records of the Rays' last five seasons in Major League Baseball; these statistics are current through the 2018 Major League Baseball season. Tampa Bay's primary rivals are the New York Yankees; the Red Sox/Rays rivalry dates back to the 2000 season, when Devil Ray Gerald Williams took exception to being hit by a pitch thrown by Boston pitcher Pedro Martínez and charged the mound, resulting in a game full of retaliations and ejections on both sides. There have been several other incidents between the teams during the ensuing years, including one in 2005 which resulted in two bench-clearing fights during the game and a war of words between then-Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella and then-Boston pitcher Curt Schilling through the media in the following days; the rivalry reached its highest level to date during the 2008 season, which included a brawl during a June meeting in Fenway Park and a 7-game American League Championship Series between the teams t
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the American League East division, they are one of two major league clubs based in New York City, the other being the New York Mets of the National League. In the 1901 season, the club began play in the AL as the Baltimore Orioles. Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise and moved it to New York City, renaming the club the New York Highlanders; the Highlanders were renamed the Yankees in 1913. The team is owned by Yankee Global Enterprises, an LLC controlled by the family of the late George Steinbrenner, who purchased the team in 1973. Brian Cashman is the team's general manager, Aaron Boone is the team's field manager; the team's home games were played at the original Yankee Stadium from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. In 1974 and 1975, the Yankees shared Shea Stadium with the Mets, in addition to the New York Jets, New York Giants.
In 2009, they moved into a new ballpark of the same name after the previous facility was closed and demolished. The team is perennially among the leaders in MLB attendance; as arguably the most successful sports club in the United States, the Yankees have won 40 AL pennants, 27 World Series championships, all of which are MLB records. The Yankees have won more titles than any other franchise in the four major North American sports leagues. Forty-four Yankees players and eleven Yankees managers have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford. In pursuit of winning championships, the franchise has used a large payroll to attract talent during the Steinbrenner era. According to Forbes, the Yankees are the second highest valued sports franchise in the United States and the fifth in the world, with an estimated value of $4 billion; the Yankees have garnered enormous popularity and a dedicated fanbase, as well as widespread enmity from fans of other MLB teams.
The team's rivalry with the Boston Red Sox is one of the most well-known rivalries in U. S. sports. From 1903-2018, the Yankees overall win-loss record is 10275-7781. In 1900, Ban Johnson, the president of a minor league known as the Western League, changed the Western League name to the American League and asked the National League to classify it as a major league. Johnson held that his league would operate in friendly terms with the National league, but the National league ridiculed the plan. Johnson declared official major league status for his league in 1901. Plans to add a team in New York City were blocked by the NL's New York Giants. A team was instead placed in Baltimore, Maryland in 1901. Between 1901 and 1903, many players and coaches on the Orioles roster jumped to the Giants. In January 1903, a "peace conference" was held between the two leagues to settle disputes and try to coexist. At the conference, Johnson requested that an AL team be put in New York, to play alongside the NL's Giants.
It was put to a vote, 15 of the 16 major league owners agreed on it. The Orioles' new owners, Frank J. Farrell and William S. Devery moved the team to New York in 1903; the team's new ballpark, Hilltop Park, was constructed in one of Upper Manhattan's highest points—between 165th and 168th Streets. The team was named the New York Highlanders. Fans believed the name was chosen because of the team's elevated location in Upper Manhattan, or as a nod to team president Joseph Gordon's Scottish-Irish heritage; the team was referred to as the New York Americans. The team was referred to as the "Invaders" in the Evening Journal. New York Press Sports Editor Jim Price coined the unofficial nickname Yankees for the club as early as 1904, because it was easier to fit in headlines; the Highlanders finished second in the AL in 1904, 1906, 1910. In 1904, they lost the deciding game to the Boston Americans, who became the Boston Red Sox; that year, Highlander pitcher Jack Chesbro set the single-season wins record at 41.
At this time there was no formal World Series agreement wherein the AL and NL winners would play each other. The original Polo Grounds burned down in 1911 and the Highlanders shared Hilltop Park with the Giants during a two-month renovation period. From 1913 to 1922, the Highlanders shared the Polo Grounds with the Giants. While playing at the Polo Grounds, the name "Highlanders" fell into disuse among the press. In 1913 the team became known as the New York Yankees. By the middle of the decade, Yankees owners Farrell and Devery had become estranged and in need of money. At the start of 1915, they sold the team to Colonel Jacob Ruppert, a brewer, Captain Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston, a contractor-engineer. All the games of the 1921 and 1922 World Series were played in the Polo Grounds, when the Yankees squared off against their intracity rivals, the Giants. In the years around 1920, the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox had a détente; the trades between the three ballclubs antagonized Ban Johnson and garnered the teams the nickname "The Insurrectos".
This détente paid off well for the Yankees. Most new players who contributed to the team's success came from the Red Sox, whose owner, Harry Frazee, was trading them for large sums of money to finance his theatrical productions. Pitcher-turned-outfielder Babe Ruth was the most talented of all the acquisition
Round Rock Express
The Round Rock Express are a Minor League Baseball team of Pacific Coast League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros major league club. They are located in Round Rock and play their home games at the Dell Diamond; the team is named for Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, nicknamed "The Ryan Express." Ryan, along with son Reid Ryan and Don Sanders make up the team's ownership group, Ryan Sanders Baseball. The Express was established as a Double-A team of the Texas League in 2000, the team was replaced by a Triple-A PCL team in 2005; the Triple-A Express carried on the history of the Double-A team. The team won the Texas League championship in 2000; the ownership group led by Nolan Ryan and Don Sanders began its operations in Round Rock in 2000 as the Dell Diamond opened, moving the Double-A Texas League's Jackson Generals to the new park, affiliating with the Houston Astros and setting attendance records for the Double-A level. By 2003, Corpus Christi had offered the Ryan-Sanders group $20 million to build a stadium and move a professional franchise there, the ownership group was convinced Round Rock could support Triple-A baseball.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Coast League's Edmonton Trappers franchise, left isolated by the departure of the Calgary Cannons after the 2002 season for Albuquerque, was under pressure from the rest of the league to relocate to the United States. After the 2003 season, the Ryan group purchased the Trappers franchise with plans to relocate that franchise to Round Rock for 2005, once the Corpus Christi stadium would be ready for the Double-A franchise; the Triple-A club would carry on the Round Rock Express identity. In 2006, the Round Rock Express clinched the Southern Division of the league's American Conference with a win–loss record of 85–59. After defeating the Nashville Sounds in five games to take the American Conference championship, they advanced to the PCL championship series, but lost to the Tucson Sidewinders in three straight games. In 2011, after 6 seasons of serving as the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros, 11 seasons of being affiliated with the Astros overall, the Express became the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.
Through the end of the 2018 season, attendance figures have dropped 8% since changing affiliations from Houston to Texas. Each of the top 9 season attendances all occurred in the 11 seasons the team was affiliated with Houston. In 2016, Forbes listed the Express as the sixth-most valuable Minor League Baseball team with a value of $40 million. On September 20, 2018, the Express announced a 4-year Player Development Contract with the Houston Astros. Season average attendanceAttendance ranking by affiliation Josh Banks, MLB pitcher Jason Hirsh, MLB pitcher Roy Oswalt, MLB pitcher John Buck, MLB catcher Humberto Quintero, MLB catcher Taylor Teagarden, MLB catcher Hunter Pence, MLB outfielder Craig Gentry, MLB outfielder Willy Taveras, MLB outfielder Chris Davis, MLB first baseman Morgan Ensberg, MLB third baseman Roger Clemens, MLB pitcher The "Play Ball" episode of The Simple Life, a reality television series starring young wealthy socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, took place during an Express game.
The show aired on July 2004, as the fifteenth episode of the show's second season. The team made headlines in 2010 when it "signed" Billy Ray "Rojo" Johnson, described in a press release as an East Texan who grew up in Venezuela and had run-ins with the law. In reality, Johnson was actor Will Ferrell, who took the mound at Dell Diamond to promote his nearby charity golf tournament. Official website
University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno is a public research university located in Reno, Nevada. Founded October 12, 1874, Nevada is the sole land grant institution for the state of Nevada. According to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the University of Nevada is a research university with high research activity as of December 2018; the campus is home to the large-scale structures laboratory in the College of Engineering, which has put Nevada researchers at the forefront nationally in a wide range of civil engineering and large-scale structures testing and modeling. The Nevada Terawatt Facility, located on a satellite campus of the university, includes a terawatt-level Z-pinch machine and terawatt-class high-intensity laser system – one of the most powerful such lasers on any college campus in the country, it is home to the School of Medicine, with campuses in both of Nevada's major urban centers, Las Vegas and Reno, a health network that extends to much of rural Nevada.
The faculty are considered worldwide and national leaders in diverse areas such as environmental literature, Basque studies, social sciences such as psychology. The school includes 16 clinical departments and five nationally recognized basic science departments, it is home to the School of Journalism, which has produced six Pulitzer Prize winners. The Nevada State Constitution established the State University of Nevada in Elko, Nevada, on October 12, 1874. In 1881, it became Nevada State University. In 1885, the Nevada State University moved from Elko to Reno. In 1906, it was renamed the University of Nevada and University of Nevada, Reno in 1969 soon after University of Nevada, Las Vegas was granted full autonomy; the University of Nevada remained the only four-year academic institution in the state of Nevada until 1965, when the Nevada Southern campus separated into its own university. Bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs are offered through: Nevada sponsors a center dedicated to Basque studies due to the large Basque population in Northern Nevada.
In addition, the university sponsors many centers, institutes & facilities. The university and surrounding community is served by several campus libraries; the libraries are: Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center. Opened on August 11, 2008 it was a $75.3 million project which began in September 2005. It replaced the Getchell library. Basque Library Special Collections and University Archives DeLaMare Library Mary B. Ansari Map Library Savitt Medical Library Nell J. Redfield Learning and Resource Center The university was ranked tied for 197th among national universities by U. S. News & World Report in 2017, 445th by Forbes out of the 660 best private and public colleges and universities in the U. S. Within the College of Business at the University of Nevada, the part-time MBA program was ranked 24th in the United States in 2014 by Bloomberg Businessweek; the University of Nevada, Reno is the flagship institution of Nevada. The campus is located just north of downtown Reno overlooking Truckee Meadows and the downtown casinos.
The university's first building, Morrill Hall, was completed in 1887 and still stands on the historic quad at the campus' southern end. The hall is named after U. S. Senator Justin Morrill, author of the 1862 Land-Grant College Act. Lincoln Hall and Manzanita Hall were both opened in 1896. While Lincoln was under construction, boys were housed in the building which had held the now-defunct Bishop Whitaker's School for Girls, which had shuttered in 1894; the Quad is located in the southern part of the campus, surrounded by Morrill Hall and the Mackay School of Mines. This quadrangle is modeled after Thomas Jefferson's at the University of Virginia; the northern end of the Quad contains a statue of John William Mackay, created by Mount Rushmore designer Gutzon Borglum. The Quad and the original campus buildings surrounding it have a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Across the campus of the university exists the University of Nevada, Reno Arboretum, established in 1985, contains a collection of trees, flowers and native flora, including over 60 genera and about 200 species of trees, many with several cultivars present.
Thirty-six mature elm trees line the Quad. The football team plays at Mackay Stadium, The modern Mackay Stadium was completed in 1966 with a seating capacity of 7,500; the facility has been expanded several times in the last 15 years and now seats 30,000. The University of Nevada began construction of a new 108,000 square foot fitness center in June 2015. Named the E. L. Wiegand Fitness Center, it opened in February 2017. Students' use of the fitness center is included in annual tuition and fees; the fitness center has four floors and includes a gym with three basketball courts, areas for weightlifting, cardio training, fitness classes, stadium stairs and an indoor running track. The project had a $46 million cost; the University of Nevada offers a variety of options to students. There are eight different residence halls, seven of which house freshman students. Options include an all upper-class residence hall, a living learning community building in which freshman students of similar academic interests are housed
Minor League Baseball
Minor League Baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development and a way to prepare for the major leagues. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses. Most are members of the umbrella organization known as Minor League Baseball, which operates under the Commissioner of Baseball within the scope of organized baseball. Several leagues, known as independent baseball leagues, do not have any official links to Major League Baseball. Except for the Mexican League, teams in the organized minor leagues are independently owned and operated but are directly affiliated with one major league team through a standardized Player Development Contract; these leagues go by the nicknames the "farm system", "farm club", or "farm team" because of a joke passed around by major league players in the 1930s when St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey formalized the system, teams in small towns were "growing players down on the farm like corn".
Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball teams may enter into a PDC for a two- or four-year term. At the expiration of a PDC term, teams may renew their affiliation, or sign new PDCs with different clubs, though many relationships are renewed and endure for extended time periods. For example, the Omaha Storm Chasers have been the Triple-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals since the Royals joined the American League in 1969, but the Columbus Clippers changed affiliations, after being associated with the New York Yankees from 1979, to the Washington Nationals in 2007, have been affiliated with the Cleveland Indians since 2009. A few minor league teams are directly owned by their major league parent club, such as the Springfield Cardinals, owned by the St. Louis Cardinals, all of the Atlanta Braves' affiliates except the Florida Fire Frogs. Minor League teams that are owned directly by the major league club do not have PDCs with the parent club and are not part of the reaffiliation shuffles that occur each year.
Today, there are 14 MLB-affiliated minor leagues with a total of 160 revenue-generating teams, located in large and small cities and suburbs across the United States and Canada, there are three MLB-affiliated rookie leagues with a total of 80 teams, located in Arizona and the Dominican Republic, though these teams do not generate revenue. The Mexican League, with 16 teams, is independent but tied with MLB. Several more independent leagues operate in the United States and Canada; the earliest professional baseball league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players of 1871 to 1875, comprised all professional teams. This system proved unworkable, however, as there was no way to ensure competitive balance, financially unsound clubs failed in midseason; this problem was solved in 1876 with the formation of the National League, with a limited membership which excluded less competitive and financially weaker teams. Professional clubs outside the NL responded by forming regional associations of their own.
There was a series of ad hoc groupings, such as the New England Association of 1877 and the Eastern Championship Association of 1881. These were loose groups of independent clubs which agreed to play a series of games over the course of one season for a championship pennant; the first true minor league is traditionally considered to be the Northwestern League of 1883 to 1884. Unlike the earlier minor associations, it was conceived as a permanent organization, it along with the NL and the American Association, was a party to the National Agreement of 1883. Included in this was the agreement to respect the reserve lists of clubs in each league. Teams in the NL and the AA could only reserve players, paid at least $1000. Northwest League teams could reserve players paid $750, implicitly establishing the division into major and minor leagues. Over the next two decades, more minor leagues signed various versions of the National Agreement; the minor leagues joined together to negotiate jointly. In the late 1890s, the Western League run by Ban Johnson decided to challenge the NL's position.
In 1900, he changed the name of the league to the American League and vowed to make deals to sign contracts with players who were dissatisfied with the pay and terms of their deals with the NL. This led to a nasty turf war that heated up in 1901 enough to concern Patrick T. Powers, president of the Eastern League, many other minor league owners about the conflict affecting their organizations. Representatives of the different minor leagues met at the Leland Hotel in Chicago on September 5, 1901. In response to the NL–AL battle, they agreed to form the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, called the NAPBL, or NA for short; the purpose of the NAPBL at the time was to maintain the independence of the leagues involved. Several continued to work independently. Powers was made the first president of the NAPBL, whose offices were established in Auburn, New York. In 1903, the conflict between the AL and NL ended in the National Agreement of 1903; the NAPBL became involved in the stages of the negotiations to develop rules for the acquisition of players from their leagues by the NL and the AL.
The 1903 agreement ensured that teams would be compensated for the players that they had taken the time and effort to scout and develop, no NA team was required to sell their players, although most did because the cash was an important source of revenue for most teams. The NA leagues were still fiercely
