Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the American League East division; the Red Sox have won nine World Series championships, tied for the third-most of any MLB team, they have played in 13. Their most recent appearance and win was in 2018. In addition, they won the 1904 American League pennant, but were not able to defend their 1903 World Series championship when the New York Giants refused to participate in the 1904 World Series. Founded in 1901 as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox' home ballpark has been Fenway Park since 1912; the "Red Sox" name was chosen by the team owner, John I. Taylor, circa 1908, following the lead of previous teams, known as the "Boston Red Stockings", including the forerunner of the Atlanta Braves. Boston was a dominant team in the new league, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series in 1903 and winning four more championships by 1918.
However, they went into one of the longest championship droughts in baseball history, dubbed the "Curse of the Bambino" after its alleged inception due to the Red Sox' sale of Babe Ruth to the rival New York Yankees two years after their world championship in 1918, an 86-year wait before the team's sixth World Championship in 2004. The team's history during that period was punctuated with some of the most memorable moments in World Series history, including Enos Slaughter's "mad dash" in 1946, the "Impossible Dream" of 1967, Carlton Fisk's home run in 1975, Bill Buckner's error in 1986. Following their victory in the 2018 World Series, they became the first team to win four World Series trophies in the 21st century, including championships in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018. Red Sox history has been marked by the team's intense rivalry with the Yankees, arguably the fiercest and most historic in North American professional sports; the Boston Red Sox are owned by Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool F.
C. of the Premier League in England. The Red Sox are one of the top MLB teams in average road attendance, while the small capacity of Fenway Park prevents them from leading in overall attendance. From May 15, 2003 to April 10, 2013, the Red Sox sold out every home game—a total of 820 games for a major professional sports record. Both Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", The Standells's "Dirty Water" have become anthems for the Red Sox; the name Red Sox, chosen by owner John I. Taylor after the 1907 season, refers to the red hose in the team uniform beginning in 1908. Sox had been adopted for the Chicago White Sox by newspapers needing a headline-friendly form of Stockings, as "Stockings Win!" in large type did not fit in a column. The team name "Red Sox" had been used as early as 1888 by a'colored' team from Norfolk, Virginia; the Spanish language media sometimes refers to the team as Medias Rojas, a translation of "red socks". The official Spanish site uses the variant "Los Red Sox"; the Red Stockings nickname was first used by a baseball team by the Cincinnati Red Stockings, who were members of the pioneering National Association of Base Ball Players.
Managed by Harry Wright, Cincinnati adopted a uniform with white knickers and red stockings and earned the famous nickname, a year or two before hiring the first professional team in 1869. When the club folded after the 1870 season, Wright was hired by Boston businessman Ivers Whitney Adams to organize a new team in Boston, he did, bringing three teammates and the "Red Stockings" nickname along; the Boston Red Stockings won four championships in the five seasons of the new National Association, the first professional league. When a new Cincinnati club was formed as a charter member of the National League in 1876, the "Red Stockings" nickname was reserved for them once again, the Boston team was referred to as the "Red Caps". Other names were sometimes used before Boston adopted the nickname "Braves" in 1912. In 1901, the upstart American League established a competing club in Boston. For seven seasons, the AL team had no official nickname, they were "Boston", "Bostonians" or "the Bostons". Their 1901–1907 jerseys, both home, road, just read "Boston", except for 1902 when they sported large letters "B" and "A" denoting "Boston" and "American."
Newspaper writers of the time used other nicknames for the club, including "Somersets", "Plymouth Rocks", "Beaneaters", the "Collinsites"", "Pilgrims." For years many sources have listed "Pilgrims" as the early Boston AL team's official nickname, but researcher Bill Nowlin has demonstrated that the name was used, if at all, during the team's early years. The origin of the nickname appears to be a poem entitled "The Pilgrims At Home" written by Edwin Fitzwilliam, sung at the 1907 home opener; this nickname was used during that season because the team had a new manager and several rookie players. John I. Taylor had said in December 1907 that the Pilgrims "sounded too much like homeless wanderers." The National League club in Boston, though called the "Red Stockings" anymore, still wore red trim. In 1907, the Nat
Minneapolis
Minneapolis is the county seat of Hennepin County and the larger of the Twin Cities, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. As of 2017, Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota and 45th-largest in the United States, with an estimated population of 422,331; the Twin Cities metropolitan area consists of Minneapolis, its neighbor Saint Paul, suburbs which altogether contain about 3.6 million people, is the third-largest economic center in the Midwest. Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital; the city is abundantly rich in water, with 13 lakes, the Mississippi River and waterfalls. It was once a hub for timber; the city and surrounding region is the primary business center between Seattle. In 2011, Minneapolis proper was home to the fifth-highest number of Fortune 500 headquarters in the United States; as an integral link to the global economy, Minneapolis is categorized as a global city.
Minneapolis has one of the largest LGBT populations in the U. S. proportional to its overall population. Noted for its strong music and performing arts scenes, Minneapolis is home to both the award-winning Guthrie Theater and the historic First Avenue nightclub. Reflecting the region's status as an epicenter of folk and alternative rock music, the city served as the launching pad for several of the 20th century's most influential musicians, including Bob Dylan and Prince. Minneapolis has become noted for its underground and independent hip-hop and rap scenes, producing artists such as Brother Ali and Dessa; the name Minneapolis is attributed to Charles Hoag, the city's first schoolmaster, who combined mni, a Dakota Sioux word for water, polis, the Greek word for city. Descendants of first peoples, Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents when French explorers arrived in 1680. For a time, amicable relations were based on fur trading. More European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Native Americans.
After the Revolutionary War, Great Britain granted the land east of the Mississippi to the United States. In the early 19th century, the United States acquired land to the west from France in the Louisiana Purchase. Fort Snelling, just south of present-day Minneapolis, was built in 1819 by the United States Army, it attracted traders and merchants, spurring growth in the area. The United States government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, allowing people arriving from the East to settle there. Preoccupied with the Civil War, the United States government reneged on its promises of cash payments to the Dakota, resulting in hunger, the Dakota War of 1862, internment and hardship; the Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized Minneapolis as a town in 1856, on the Mississippi's west bank. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago, it joined with the east-bank city of St. Anthony in 1872. Minneapolis developed around Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River and a source of power for its early industry.
Forests in northern Minnesota were a valuable resource for the lumber industry, which operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses, including flour mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, mills for cotton, paper and planing wood. Due to the occupational hazards of milling, six local sources of artificial limbs were competing in the prosthetics business by the 1890s; the farmers of the Great Plains grew grain, shipped by rail to the city's 34 flour mills. Millers have used hydropower elsewhere since the 1st century B. C. but the results in Minneapolis between 1880 and 1930 were so remarkable the city has been described as "the greatest direct-drive waterpower center the world has seen." A father of modern milling in America and founder of what became General Mills, Cadwallader C. Washburn converted his business from gristmills to revolutionary technology, including "gradual reduction" processing by steel and porcelain roller mills capable of producing premium-quality pure white flour quickly.
Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Gray and some acquired through industrial espionage from Hungary by William de la Barre. Charles A. Pillsbury and the C. A. Pillsbury Company across the river were a step behind, hiring Washburn employees to use the new methods; the hard red spring wheat that grows in Minnesota became valuable, Minnesota "patent" flour was recognized at the time as the best in the world. Not until did consumers discover the value in the bran that "... Minneapolis flour millers dumped" into the Mississippi. After 1883, a Minneapolis miller started a new industry when he began to sell bran byproduct as animal feed. Millers cultivated relationships with academic scientists at the University of Minnesota; those scientists backed them politically on many issues, such as in the early 20th century when health advocates in the nascent field of nutrition criticized the flour "bleaching" process. At peak production, a single mill at Washburn-Crosby made enough flour for 12 million loaves of bread each day.
Further, by 1895, through the efforts of silent partner William Hood Dunwoody, Washburn-Crosby exported four
Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington is the fifth largest city, as of 2016 estimates, in the U. S. state of Minnesota. It is located in Hennepin County on the north bank of the Minnesota River, above its confluence with the Mississippi River. Bloomington lies 10 miles south of downtown Minneapolis; as of the 2010 census the city's population was 82,893, in 2016 the estimated population was 85,319. Established as a post–World War II housing boom suburb connected to the urban street grid of Minneapolis and serviced by two major freeways, Interstate 35W and Interstate 494, Bloomington's residential areas include upper-tier households in the western Bush Lake area and traditional middle-class families in its rows of single-family homes in the central to eastern portions. Large-scale commercial development is concentrated along the Interstate 494 corridor. Besides an extensive city park system, with over 1,000 square feet of parkland per capita, Bloomington is home to Hyland Lake Park Reserve in the west and Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in the southeast.
Bloomington has more jobs per capita than either Minneapolis or Saint Paul, due to the United States' largest enclosed shopping center, the Mall of America, the only IKEA in Minnesota. The headquarters of Ceridian, Donaldson Company, HealthPartners and Toro, major operations of Express Scripts, Seagate Technologies and Wells Fargo Bank are based in the city; the city was named after Illinois. In 1839, with renewed conflict with the Ojibwa nation, Chief Cloud Man relocated his band of the Mdewakanton Sioux from Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis to an area named Oak Grove in southern Bloomington, close to present-day Portland Avenue. In 1843, Peter and Louisa Quinn, the first European settlers to live in Bloomington, built a cabin along the Minnesota River in this area; the government had sent them to teach farming methods to the Native Americans. Gideon Hollister Pond, a missionary, following and recording the Dakota language from Cloud Man's band, relocated that year, establishing Oak Grove Mission, his log cabin.
Pond and his family taught the local Dakota school subjects and farming. Passage across the Minnesota River in Bloomington came in 1849 when William Chambers and Joseph Dean opened the Bloomington Ferry; the ferry remained operational until 1889. Following the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, the territory west of the Mississippi River, including Bloomington, was opened to settlers. A group of pioneers settled Bloomington, including the Goodrich and Ames families, they named the area Bloomington after the city they were from, Illinois, which means "flowering field." Most early jobs were in farming and flour milling. The Oxborough family, who came from Canada, built a trading center on Lyndale Avenue and named it Oxboro Heath. Today, the Clover Shopping Center rests near the old trading center site and the nearby Oxboro Clinic is named after them; the Baliff family opened a grocery and general store at what is today Penn Avenue and Old Shakopee Road, Hector Chadwick, after moving to the settlement, opened a blacksmith shop near the Bloomington Ferry.
In 1855, the first public school for all children was opened in Miss Harrison's house with the first school, Gibson House, built in 1859. On May 11, 1858, the day the state of Minnesota was admitted into the union and became a state, 25 residents incorporated the Town of Bloomington. By 1880, the population had grown to 820. In 1892 the first town hall was built at Old Shakopee Road. By the closest Dakota to Minneapolis lived at the residence of Gideon Pond. After 1900, the population surpassed a Bloomington began to transform into a city. With rising population came conflict among citizens over social issues. Among the major issues during this period were parents' unwillingness to dissolve the individual schools for a larger, consolidated school, the fear of mounting taxes. By 1900, there were six rural schools spread throughout the territory with over 200 students enrolled in grades first through eighth. By 1917, the school consolidation issue had been settled; that year voters approved the consolidation of the schools and a year secondary education and school bus transportation began throughout the city.
Telephone service and automobiles appeared. From 1940 to 1960, the city's population increased to nine times that of the population at the turn of the century. During the 1940s the city's development vision was low-cost, low-density housing, each with its own well and septic system; the rapid growth in population was in part due to the post-World War II boom and subsequent birth of the baby boomer generation. In 1947, the first fire station was constructed and equipped at a cost of $24,000 and the Bloomington Volunteer Fire Department was established with 25 members; the 1950s saw a considerable expansion of the city and its infrastructure, with the city shifting away from its small-town atmosphere and feel. In 1950, because of the increasing population, the first elementary school, was built, it was evident that one consolidated school could no longer serve the growing population, ten new schools would be built in this decade as the school system expanded to meet the needs of the citizens. In 1952, the first large business Toro Manufacturing Company, moved to Bloomington.
The significance of this can be seen in Bloomington today, home to hundreds of businesses of all types. In 1953, Bloomington changed from a township to a village form of government; this more professional approach to government was accompanied by open council meetings, land use plans, published budgets. The effects of this new form of government began immed
Ban Johnson
Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League. Johnson developed the AL—a descendant of the minor league Western League—into a "clean" alternative to the National League, which had become notorious for its rough-and-tumble atmosphere. To encourage a more orderly environment, Johnson supported the new league's umpires, which included Hall of Famer Billy Evans. With the help of league owners and managers such as Charles Comiskey, Charles Somers and Jimmy McAleer, Johnson lured top talent to the AL, which soon rivaled the more established National League. Johnson dominated the AL until the mid-1920s, when a public dispute with Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis culminated in his forced resignation as league president. Born in Norwalk, Johnson went on to study law at Marietta College, although he did not take his degree, he subsequently became the sports editor of a newspaper in Cincinnati.
During this time, Johnson befriended Charles Comiskey, manager of the Cincinnati Reds. At the urging of Comiskey and Reds owner John T. Brush, Johnson was elected as president of the Western League, a faltering minor league, at a reorganization meeting held in 1893. Johnson had criticized the National League for its rowdy atmosphere, driving away families and women, he set about making baseball more friendly to both. Contrary to the practice of the time, Johnson gave his umpires unqualified support and had little tolerance for players or managers who failed to show them due respect. Johnson fined and suspended players who used foul language on the field. Soon, the Western League was recognized as not only the strongest minor league, but as the most managed league in all of baseball. Johnson, had a bigger plan—another major league. With the help of Comiskey, who had purchased the Sioux City franchise and moved it to St. Paul in 1894 after leaving the Reds, Johnson initiated an ambitious plan of expansion.
He got his chance after the 1899 season, when the National League dropped teams in Baltimore, Cleveland and Washington, D. C. Johnson moved the Grand Rapids franchise to Cleveland, where they would become the Indians, he had Comiskey move his Saint Paul team to Chicago, where they became the White Sox. The latter move was made with the blessing of the NL, which saw Comiskey's team as a way to head off any attempt to revive the American Association. For the 1900 season, the Western League was renamed as the American League, although it remained a minor league; the 1900 season was an unqualified success, Johnson received a 10-year contract extension. In October, he withdrew the AL from the National Agreement; the final step came on January 1901, when he declared the AL would operate as a major league. He placed teams in Baltimore, Boston and Washington; the Buffalo Bisons were to be a member of the new American League and their manager Franklin was told right up to Jan. 29, 1901, that "Buffalo was in the league and not to worry", Ban Johnson unceremoniously dumped Buffalo and placed the franchise in Boston.
It was revealed that he not only had been negotiating surreptitiously with Boston people for several months, but that he had money invested in the Boston franchise. Johnson had a large stake in the Washington franchise, which he kept until 1903; the NL made a critical blunder by limiting salaries to $2,400–a low sum by 1901 standards. Johnson and the other AL owners responded by raiding NL rosters, promising disgruntled players much higher salaries. Over 100 players "jumped" to the new league. After a two-year war in which the AL trounced the NL in attendance both seasons, the NL sued for peace. Under a new National Agreement, the AL was formally recognized as the second major league. A three-man National Commission was set up, composed of both league presidents and Reds owner Garry Herrmann. Although Herrmann was nominal president of the commission, Johnson soon dominated the body. Johnson brooked no criticism, made it difficult for men he didn't like to buy into the league. For instance, when Harry Frazee bought the Boston Red Sox in 1917, Johnson tried from the start to drive him out because Frazee had not been hand-picked by Johnson.
At one point, Johnson had ownership interests in the Cleveland and Washington teams. The Frazee dispute planted the seed for Johnson's downfall; the league divided into two factions, with the Red Sox, White Sox and New York Yankees on one side and the other five clubs on the other. By this time, Comiskey had become a bitter enemy of Johnson. Johnson's authority eroded further that year when the Red Sox traded Carl Mays to the Yankees in defiance of a Johnson order to suspend him after Mays had jumped the club; the Yankees went to court and received an injunction to allow Mays to play, as Johnson had demonstrated throughout the proceedings that his investment in the Cleveland Indians hindered his ability to be impartial. The final nail in Johnson's coffin proved to be the Black Sox Scandal. Johnson paid no attention to Comiskey's claims that his White Sox may have been on the take from gamblers. However, when the scandal broke after the 1920 season, the White Sox, Red Sox and Yankees threatened to pull out of the AL and join a new 12-team National League.
The enlarged league would include a new team in Detroit unrelated to the Tigers
Newark Bears
The Newark Bears were an American professional baseball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They were a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball; the Bears played their home games at Eagles Riverfront Stadium. The team folded after the 2013 season. Newark was the home of several former minor league baseball teams, from the formation of the Newark Indians in 1902, the addition of the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League in 1936. A Federal League team, the Newark Peppers played in 1915; the original Newark Bears were a team in the International League from 1926 to 1949. They played their home games at the former Ruppert Stadium in what is now known as the Ironbound section of Newark; the Newark Bears are named for the former Newark Bears team of the International League. The new team was formed in 1998 by a Newark native. However, the Bears played their "home" schedule at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Connecticut that season while awaiting the completion of their new home field.
In addition, the Bears played several home games during the first half of the 1999 season at Skylands Park in Augusta. The Bears inaugurated their new park, Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, in Newark on July 16, 1999. Over the years, the Bears attracted star talent to their club. Ozzie Canseco played for the Bears in 2000 and 2001, his brother José Canseco was with the team for part of 2001 as well. Rickey Henderson played the first half of the 2003 season with the Bears and was named Most Valuable Player in the Atlantic League All-Star Game, he was subsequently signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but was released at season's end, he returned to the Bears for 2004. In 2003, José Lima pitched for the Bears at the beginning of the season. Other notable alumni include Scott Spiezio, Edgardo Alfonzo, Armando Benítez, Carl Everett, Ramiro Mendoza, Scott Williamson, Keith Foulke, Jay Gibbons, Jim Leyritz, Daryle Ward and Lance Johnson; the Newark Bears, under former owner Marc Berson, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 24, 2008.
The team's existence was compromised until the Bases Loaded Group, LLC purchased the team, guaranteeing a $1 million line of credit to the Atlantic League. The Bases Loaded Group consisted of executives from Philadelphia and New Jersey, some hailing from Newark; the primary leader of the group was Tom Cetnar, former General Manager of the Bears in 2001. He was a member of the ownership group; the Newark Bears joined the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball on October 6, 2010. The Bears were one of three teams to join the league for the 2011 season, with the traveling New York Federals and the expansion Rockland Boulders. Newark was to be one of three cities to represent New Jersey in the Can-Am League along with Little Falls, home of the New Jersey Jackals, Augusta, home of the Sussex Skyhawks; the Skyhawks, elected to stop operating after the 2010 season. In 2012, the Newark Bears were purchased by New Jersey radiologist Dr. Douglas Spiel and his partner, Danielle Dronet; the Can-Am League announced on November 28, 2013, that the Newark Bears would not operate in 2014, with the remaining four teams now a division in the American Association.
An auction for the team's assets was held on April 26, 2014. The Newark Bears went through three phases of logos and uniform colors; when the franchise began, it had a purple and white color scheme. In the mid-2000s, the team went to red and white; when the club ceased operations, its colors were navy white. The primary logo consisted of a stylized bear holding a baseball bat superimposed over a depiction of the Newark skyline over a baseball diamond; the "Newark Bears" wordmark was centered at the base of the logo, included white accents and black outline. The Bears' uniforms were traditional in design; the home cap was navy blue throughout with a white block "N" centered on the front. The home jerseys were white with traditional navy blue pinstripes. A navy blue, block "N" was prominently displayed on the left breast; the road jersey was gray with the cursive "Newark" wordmark in navy blue, centered diagonally across the front. Both home and away jersey sleeves sported the Bears' primary logo; the Bears wore navy blue socks with all uniforms.
2 Atlantic League Championships Shortly after the Newark Bears joined the Can-Am League, they announced a formal rivalry with the New Jersey Jackals. Since both teams played in Essex County, they established the County Executives' Cup to formalize this geographical contest. Bears games were aired on WSOU-FM 89.5 from 1999 to 2003, again from 2007 to 2008. Previous announcers for the team include Seton Hall color commentator Dave Popkin, former WNEW-FM disc jockey Jim Monaghan, MLB Network host Victor Rojas, Somerset Patriots announcer Brian Bender, former New York Islanders broadcaster Jim Cerny, Jason Page, Ray Alexander, Erie Otters broadcaster Paul Roper. In 2009, longtime New York sportscaster Spencer Ross served as both radio broadcaster and team on-field MC; the Newark Bears' official mascots were anthropomorphic bears named Effa. They wore cap. Ruppert was named after Jacob Ruppert. Effa alludes to Effa Manley, the first woman to own and operate a professional baseball team and the only female member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
21 OF, retired in 2009 42 2B, retired throughout professional baseball on April 15, 19
Farm team
In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, practice squad, or nursery club, is a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher level at a given point. This system can be implemented in many ways, both formally and informally; the term is used as a metaphor for any organization or activity that serves as a training ground for higher-level endeavors. For instance, business schools are referred to as "farm clubs" in the world of business. In the United States and Canada, Minor League Baseball teams operate under strict franchise contracts with their major league counterparts. Although the vast majority of such teams are owned and are therefore able to switch affiliation, those players under contract with the affiliated Major League Baseball team are under their exclusive control, would move to the MLB club's new affiliate. Not all players on a minor league team are under contract with the MLB club.
Minor league teams are based in smaller cities, players who are contracted to them, as opposed to major league players sent down to this level for rehabilitation or other professional-development assignments, are paid less than their Major League counterparts. Most major league players start off their careers by working their way up the minor league system, from the lowest to the highest classification, with the rare exceptions being those players signed from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Since the elimination of the Bonus Rule, only a small number of amateur players have gone directly into the MLB, including John Olerud, Jim Abbott, Dave Winfield; the process of a player working his way up through the minor leagues is formally referred by most MLB teams as "player development". However, minor league affiliates are informally referred to as "farm teams" and a major league player's misfortune of being sent back to the minors is sometimes described as being "farmed out"; the farm system as it is recognized today was invented by Branch Rickey, who – as field manager, general manager, club president – helped to build the St. Louis Cardinals dynasty during the 1920s, 30s, 40s.
When Rickey joined the team in 1916, players were purchased by major league teams from independent, high-level minor league clubs. Rickey, a keen judge of talent, became frustrated when the players he had identified for purchase at the A and AA levels were offered for bid and sold by those independent clubs to wealthier rivals such as the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants. With the support of Cardinal owner Sam Breadon, Rickey devised a plan whereby St. Louis would purchase and control its own minor league teams from Class D to Class AA, thus allowing them to promote or demote players as they developed, "grow" their own talent; the talent pipeline began at tryout camps that St. Louis scouts conducted throughout the U. S. "From quantity comes quality," Rickey once observed, during the 1930s, with as many as 40 owned or affiliated farm teams, the Cardinals controlled the destinies of hundreds of players each year. The Cardinals won nine National League pennants and six World Series championships between 1926 and 1946, proving the effectiveness of the farm system concept.
Indeed, the second club to embrace such a system, the New York Yankees, used it to sustain their dynasty from the mid-1930s through the middle of the 1960s. When Rickey moved to the Brooklyn Dodgers as president and general manager in 1943, he built a hugely successful farm system there as well after the end of World War II; the teams that ignored the farm system in the 1930s and early 1940s found themselves falling on hard times. The existence of the minor league system is due in part to MLB's ability to include a reserve clause in its contracts with minor league players, which gives the major league team exclusive rights to a player after the contract has expired. In a landmark 1922 Supreme Court decision, Federal Baseball Club v. National League, baseball was granted a special immunity from antitrust laws. Despite the advent of free agency in 1976, which led many to predict the demise of the farm system, it still remains a strong component of a winning baseball strategy; the teams of the National Hockey League have their own farm teams in the American Hockey League.
For example, the Cleveland Monsters are the farm team for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Additionally, NHL teams have affiliates in the ECHL, although the terms of the most recent CBA prohibited ECHL players from being recalled to the NHL or being sent down to that league without being assigned to the AHL first. Although some NHL franchises own their AHL and/or ECHL affiliates, many AHL and ECHL franchises are independently owned, with ties to NHL franchises made through affiliation contracts. Unlike baseball, not all the players on the rosters of the minor league teams are owned by an NHL team; the AHL system recognizes two types of contracts: the two-way contract, in which players can be sent back and forth between the NHL and AHL at will, the standard contract, which binds the player to the AHL. The NHL t
San Francisco Seals (baseball)
The San Francisco Seals were a minor league baseball team in San Francisco, that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 until 1957 before transferring to Phoenix, Arizona. They were named for harbor seal populations in the Bay Area; the 1909, 1922, 1925, 1928 Seals were recognized as being among the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time. Along with the Los Angeles Angels, Portland Beavers, Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons, Seattle Indians, the Seals were charter members of the Pacific Coast League, founded in 1903; the team played their home games at Recreation Park at Harrison and 8th Streets until it was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. The mild climate of the west coast allowed the PCL to play a much longer season than the major leagues and the other eastern professional baseball leagues. Seasons ran 200 games or more in the early years. In the 1905 season, the Seals set the all-time PCL record by playing 230 games; the Seals finished the 1906 season playing home games at Freeman's Park in Oakland.
A new Recreation Park was constructed at Valencia Streets for the 1907 season. The Seals won their first PCL pennant in 1909, finishing 13 1⁄2 games over the runner-up Portland Beavers, they won flags in 1915, 1917, 1922, 1923 and 1925. During the 1914 season, the Sacramento Solons were moved to San Francisco, where they finished out the season playing as the San Francisco Missions, representing the city's Mission District; the idea of a second team in San Francisco remained alive and, after the 1925 season, the Vernon Tigers were purchased by a group headed by San Francisco businessman Herbert Fleishhacker and moved to San Francisco and renamed the Mission Reds or the "Missions", again representing the Mission District as this team played their games five blocks from Mission San Francisco de Asís. From 1926 through 1930, they played their home games at Recreation Park, playing at home while the Seals were on the road. In 1918, financially strapped owner Henry Berry put the San Francisco Seals up for sale and Charles H. Strub, George Alfred Putnam and Charles H.
Graham each acquired a one-third share in the team. In 1931, the Seals moved to their own park, Seals Stadium, an 18,600-seat facility located at 16th and Bryant Streets. Seals Stadium was unusual in that it boasted three clubhouses: one for the visitors, one for the Seals, one for the Missions, who moved there with the Seals and were the Seals' tenants from 1931 through 1937, after which the team moved back to Los Angeles to become the Hollywood Stars in 1938. There were three breweries on the adjoining northwest corners of Seals Stadium, which included Hamm's, Budweiser and Lucky Lager; the Seals celebrated their inaugural year in Seals Stadium by winning the PCL pennant in 1931. The following year, Seals outfielder Vince DiMaggio arranged a tryout for his younger brother Joe. In 1933, Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 61 straight games, a harbinger of his 56-game hitting streak for the New York Yankees in 1941; the team won the pennant again in 1935. In 1945, a controlling interest in the team was purchased by businessman Paul Fagan, with the stated intention of bringing Major League Baseball to the west coast by having the Pacific Coast League becoming the nation's third major league.
He spent thousands of dollars upgrading Seals Stadium to perceived major league standards. He hired former major league player Lefty O'Doul, a native San Franciscan and fan favorite, as manager. Though the Seals won the pennant in 1946, subsequent teams under Fagan's watch did not fare as well finishing in the second division. Rival clubs did not buy into Fagan's major league ambitions. Rather, they established working agreements with major league teams, fared better than did the independent Seals. Fagan gave up his aspirations and sold his interest in the Seals, who became an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. After their Bay Area rival, the Oakland Oaks, moved to Vancouver after the 1955 season, the Seals won their last PCL pennant in 1957, which proved to be their final season. Late in that season, the New York Giants announced their move to San Francisco for the 1958 season, the Seals were forced to relocate; the Seals moved to Arizona for the 1958 season. They became the top affiliate of the now-San Francisco Giants, were renamed the Phoenix Giants.
The franchise moved to Tacoma, where they played from 1960 to 1965, returning to Phoenix for the 1966 season. The team remained in Phoenix–from 1986 onward as the Firebirds–until 1998, when they were displaced by MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks. In a complicated deal, the Firebirds' ownership group bought the Tucson Toros, inheriting the Toros' staff and facilities. After an interim one-year affiliation with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Toros affiliated with the Diamondbacks and changed their name to the Sidewinders; the Giants' affiliation was transferred to the displaced Tucson AAA franchise, which became today's Fresno Grizzlies. In 2009, the Sidewinders franchise moved to Nevada, they retained their affiliation with the Arizona Diamondbacks as the Reno Aces, play their home games at Aces Ballpark. The Tucson Toros returned under the same ownership as the Sidewinders, but they are not affiliated with a major league club; the new Toros played their home games at Hi Corbett Field, the longtime home of minor league baseball in Tucson, until 2010.
The Giants played their home games at Seals Stadium in 1958 and 1959, moving to Candlestick Park in 1960. Seals Stadium was subsequently torn down to make way for a White Front store; when this chain of stores went out of business, the building sta
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