What if there was a competing major league, set up by an undisputed genius, located in major cities, broadcast on pay cable and set up so that everyone shared revenue and TV money so as not to give one team a Yankees-like financial advantage? Neat idea? Well, they already had that idea and it didn't work out as planned:
Monday is the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Continental League, and it is understandable if the moment does not trigger a flood of happy associations or, for that matter, any memories at all.
The Continental was to be Major League Baseball's third league: an eight-team circuit that would, in the view of its architect, spread the game across the land, ensuring its position as America's pre-eminent spectator sport. That the vision for the league came from Branch Rickey, the sport's éminence grise, gave it instant and national legitimacy, so much so that on the day it was officially announced, July 27, 1959, reporters flooded the Biltmore Hotel to chronicle the event.
Fascinating article that presages a book on the Continental League by its author, Michael Shapiro. Definitely check it out if you have a moment or two.
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I just finished reading the book and will be posting a review of it soon on Boy of Summer. Fascinating stuff.
the Minneapolis StarTribune had a local angle to that story in their Sunday paper a few weeks back
Call me crazy, but I could see the idea of a rival league gaining momentum in the not-too-distant future as the live game experience continues down the path toward stimulatory overload. Assuming that chairback touchscreen monitors and the like will become MLB-wide status quo within a few decades (and assuming that most farm and indy-league teams will piggyback), I expect an underserved market of fans to emerge whose ideal live baseball experience is still an escape from their plugged-in, clamorous world--not the extension of it that MLB have become. It seems the market is already palpable, and it's not just made up of people over fifty.
I'm 25. I love the internet. I love loud music. I love thigns that flash lights and make noise when I touch them. However, I do not desire these things when I'm watching live baseball. Some things go together well. Others do not. Modern MLB games are like fine merlot with Skittles and a side of fireworks. I long to be one of those fans in the grainy newsreel footage, and I worry for the fate of the endangered organist.
You're crazy.
Seriously, though, I understand what you're saying, but I sincerely doubt that would ever happen--the demand would have to be huge for the sort of thing you're talking about to justify the creation of an entire other league, and it wouldn't just be the demand for watching games without looking at a chairback touchscreen monitor, e.g., but the demand for watching games without the option of a touchscreen monitor--that is, people for whom it's not enough just to not use a monitor during a game, but for whom its very presence is offensive. (Clearly that doesn't apply to things like fireworks, but you get the idea). I suspect that that's a very small minority of people, and considering that it's almost certainly a minority of current baseball fans (as a majority of people will enjoy the fireworks, touchscreens, etc., otherwise they wouldn't be there), I say there's absolutely no way that's enough to support another league.
Vinnie, if there's a vintage base ball team in your area ( is a good place to find one, or simply an internet search), I suggest checking it out. There certainly aren't any flashing lights and loud noises, and it's a blast.