American League

American League of 1900

By Patrick Mondout

If you ask American League officials what year they began as a major league, the answer invariable will be 1901. Virtually every historian agrees or simple acquiesces to the AL's wish to not be considered a major league in 1900, the year Ban Johnson changed the name of the league from the Western League to the American League.

At a glance... 1900 AL STANDINGS TEAM WON LOST Chicago White Stockings 82 53 Milwaukee Brewers 79 58 Indianapolis 71 64 Detroit Tigers 71 67 Kansas City 69 70 Cleveland Blues 63 73 Buffalo 61 78 Minneapolis 53 86 1900 American League

There is some justification, however, for considering the talent level, the playing fields, and the cities of the 1900 American League as turn-of-the-century "major league" quality. Note that I find the arguments against sufficient, but to give you an idea of the quality of the league, I'm going to briefly discuss the starting nine of one of the better 1900 American League teams.

See also: American League, Western League, National League

The February 10, 1901 Washington Post gives us the perfect team as it mentions in its "Baseball Notes" column that the Milwaukee Brewers have "signed every played of last season's team, except Dave Fultz (which is unfortunate for the Brew Crew, since he went on to have a career year with Nap Lajoie and the Philadelphia Athletics while his former mates languished in last place before leaving for browner pastures in St. Louis, but I digress).

Let's look briefly at the rest of the 1900 Milwaukee Brewers and see how they fared in 1901 and how these players performed previously and/or where they ended up. Honest John Anderson (gotta love those turn-of-the-century nicknames; can you imagine 'Honest' Barry Bonds or 'Thoughtful' John Rocker?) was the first baseman and finished 6th in AL in batting, 4th in home runs, and 3rd in both RBIs and total bases. He had led the National League in slugging in 1898 and was second on the NL Champion Superbas in RBIs in 1899. He was clearly a major leaguer both before and after his "minor league" season of 1900.

At second base was 25 year old Billy Gilbert, who played eight fairly unremarkable seasons in the bigs (not including, of course, 1900), though he did finish in the top ten in stolen bases three straight seasons (1902-1904).

At third was Sunset Jimmy Burke, a mediocre 26 year old who had had little more than the obligatory cup of coffee in the National League in 1898 and '99.

At short was Wid Conroy, who was the kind of young, undistinguished player the '00 AL was built upon. He played 11 solid seasons in the bigs starting with 1901, most of them at third base.

The outfield consisted of career minor leaguers, Irv Waldron (1901 was his only major league experience), George Hogriever (who spent the '95 season with Cincy), and Bill Hallman (who was in and out of the majors after his 1901 debut). The third outfielder in 1901 was Hugh Duffy, who was a future Hall of Famer though he was past his prime and did not play for Milwaukee in 1900.

Pitcher Tully Sparks won 8 games as a 24 year old rookie for Pittsburgh in 1899, and would later become a 22 game winner for the 1907 Phillies.

The manager of the team, by the way, was none other than Connie Mack. Mack was also the business manager of the team dating back to 1897.

Again, this was the second best team in the '00 AL, but became the worst team in the American League in 1901 despite only losing catcher Dave Fultz from their starting lineup. Either every other AL team upgraded their talent or the Brewers of '00 were a good team in a mediocre league. Well, every other AL team did improve its lineup in '01 and yet the '00 Brewers clearly started major league talent.

The AL burst onto the scene in 1901, finishing with 5 of the top 6 spots in Major League attendance. The momentum from 1900 had at least something to do with this. Still, if one wants to make the case that the 1900 AL should be considered a major league in the same sense that most consider the 1884 Union Association to be, one must contend with the statements from AL President Ban Johnson, who continued to honor the National Agreement as a minor league to the National League. There is, of course, a quite logical reason why BJ would do this whatever he really thought of the true measure of his league. Johnson was no fool. There was no reason to declare war on the NL before he was absolutely sure of his position. Despite the many NL missteps of 1899, the AL's eventual showdown with the Senior Curcuit was still something for the upstarts to fear. Johnson and his owners were doing everything they could to position themselves for the coming war short of actually calling themselves a major league in 1900. It's not as if the NL was fooled, however. It thought enough of this pesky new competitor to put an American Association (the relatively new minor league, not the old major league AA) club in each AL city in 1900, hoping to drain the owners out of business. The AL cities themselves were well chosen - each had had an NL franchise at one time or another.

It is also tempting from a statistical standpoint to ignore 1900; the 1901 season is for a number of reasons a very convenient place to start keeping records from. In spite of the fact that the National League has existed since 1876, most NL records from before 1901 are largely ignored since the game was scored so differently.

As a final note, the Spalding Guide for 1906 mentions the brief history of the Western/American League but significantly only lists season results from 1900 on. Where it lists the summary of the Major Leagues from 1900-1905, it lists the 1900 AL with no qualifications. An article from Irving Sanborn of the Chicago Tribune in the same publication mentions, however, that the league is in its fifth year "as a recognized major league of National scope."

While I still refuse to recognize the 1900 AL as a major league primarily because they chose to be a part of the National Agreement, this league was clearly little more than a press conference away from ML status. Had Ban Johnson simply said on April 1st of 1900, "we are now at war with the NL and consider ourselves a major league", it is hard to imagine historians disputing it now - assuming, of course, that such an announcement failed otherwise to alter hardball history in some major way.

American League sources/bibliography:
American League Story, The by Lee Allen
American League: The Early Years (Images of Sports) by David Lee Poremba
The Formation, Sometimes Absorption and Mostly Inevitable Demise of 18 Professional Baseball Organizations, 1871 to Present by David Pietrusza.
May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy by Andrew Zimbalist.
Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia by John Thorn, et al.