It was 64 years ago this week — May 21, 1959 — that the two major leagues gave their blessings to a newcomer. The New York Times blared the surprising news in a page-one headline the following morning: “Majors Invite a Third League.”
The invitation could not have been more insincere.
New York lawyer William Shea had been traveling the country for more than a year, lining up franchise owners for his proposed Continental League. His progress — and the prospect of new competition — deeply frightened the owners of the 16 clubs in the American and National Leagues.
Lawyers for the existing leagues warned against any attempt to smother the Continental League in its crib. Tactics so crude and heavy-handed would never be countenanced in an era of heightened antitrust-law enforcement.
So the majors pretended to be welcoming.
“Since there is no existing plan to expand the present major leagues,” they announced on that May day in 1959, “the two major leagues declare they will favorably consider an application for major-league status within the present baseball structure by an acceptable group of eight clubs.”
They appended 10 stipulations, an initial attempt to bring Shea and his fellow renegades to heel. Among them:
Every market in the new league must be larger than Kansas City.
Every ballpark must seat at least 25,000.
The schedule must be 154 games.
Proof must be supplied of the “financial ability and character” of all new owners.
Shea wasn’t fazed in the least. He was ecstatic. “We have been working for months, and I am sure they [American and National League owners] are aware of it,” he said. “We are elated.” He predicted that the third league would meet all 10 requirements within two years.
Shea soon lured baseball legend Branch Rickey to serve as president of the Continental League, and the two men proceeded to grant franchises to Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, and Toronto. The schedule for the CL’s initial 1961 season was released a year and a half in advance.
Not a single game on that slate would ever be played.
The American and National Leagues worked strenuously — always behind the scenes — to obstruct the upstarts. New roadblocks kept popping up in the latter half of 1959 and the early months of 1960, yet Shea remained optimistic. “We have no thought of disbanding,” he said as late as July 1960. “We’re going to break our necks trying to satisfy every possible demand made of us by the majors.”
But the renegades’ steely resolve melted in August 1960, when the two older leagues abruptly promised to admit Shea and Rickey’s eight clubs as expansion franchises in the near future. The existing leagues asked only that the Continental League disband, which it happily did.
It should come as no surprise to anybody familiar with baseball history that the majors reneged on their deal. Only two of the eight CL clubs were admitted in the expansion of 1961-1962 — Houston and New York — while the others were forced to cool their heels. The remaining two expansion bids in that round went to Los Angeles and Washington, which had no ties to the Continental League.
Bill Shea blasted the baseball establishment for “one of the lowest blows below the belt in the history of sport.” Branch Rickey assumed the mien of an elderly tragedian. “The dictionary definition of perfidy has now been confirmed,” he intoned.
It didn’t matter. The baseball establishment, then as now, did whatever it wanted.
Two Continental League markets, Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul, lured existing big-league clubs from other cities in the 1960s. But four CL cities — Dallas, Denver, Toronto, and Buffalo — remained on the outside as of 1969. The first three would be welcomed to the major-league fraternity between 1972 and 1993. Buffalo was the only Continental League city that never received the promised call.
Scroll below for capsule profiles of the eight markets that belonged to baseball’s long-forgotten third major league. You’ll see metro populations as of 1960 and 2020. (Toronto’s figures are for different years, matching the schedule of the Canadian census.) You’ll also find listings of each area’s ballclubs then and now, and an explanation of when and how each market joined the majors.
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Atlanta
1960 metro population: 1,017,188
1960 baseball club: Atlanta Crackers (AA Southern Association)
2020 metro population: 6,089.815
2023 baseball club: Atlanta Braves (MLB National League)
When joined majors: 1966
How joined majors: Relocation of Milwaukee Braves
Buffalo
1960 metro population: 1,306,957
1960 baseball club: Buffalo Bisons (AAA International League)
2020 metro population: 1,166,902
2023 baseball club: Buffalo Bisons (AAA International League)
When joined majors: Never did
Dallas
1960 metro population: 1,083,601
1960 baseball club: Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers (AAA American Association)
2020 metro population: 7,637,387
2023 baseball club: Texas Rangers (MLB American League)
When joined majors: 1972
How joined majors: Relocation of Washington Senators (second version)
Denver
1960 metro population: 929,383
1960 baseball club: Denver Bears (AAA American Association)
2020 metro population: 2,963,821
2023 baseball club: Colorado Rockies (MLB National League)
When joined majors: 1993
How joined majors: Expansion
Houston
1960 metro population: 1,243,158
1960 baseball club: Houston Buffs (AAA American Association)
2020 metro population: 7,122,240
2023 baseball club: Houston Astros (MLB American League)
When joined majors: 1962
How joined majors: Expansion
Minneapolis-St. Paul
1960 metro population: 1,482,030
1960 baseball clubs: Minneapolis Millers (AAA American Association), St. Paul Saints (AAA American Association)
2020 metro population: 3,690,261
2023 baseball club: Minnesota Twins (MLB American League)
When joined majors: 1961
How joined majors: Relocation of Washington Senators (first version)
New York
1960 metro population: 14,759,429
1960 baseball club: New York Yankees (MLB American League)
2020 metro population: 20,140,470
2023 baseball clubs: New York Mets (MLB National League), New York Yankees (MLB American League)
When joined majors: 1962 (Mets)
How joined majors: Expansion
Toronto
1961 metro population: 1,919,400
1960 baseball club: Toronto Maple Leafs (AAA International League)
2021 metro population: 6,202,225
2023 baseball club: Toronto Blue Jays (MLB American League)
When joined majors: 1977
How joined majors: Expansion