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The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a minor league baseball league operating in the West and Midwest of the United States. It is one of two leagues, along with the International League, playing at the AAA level, which is the highest level below the American major leagues. History The PCL has had a long tradition on the West Coast, with teams with evocative names such as the Hollywood Stars, Los Angeles Angels, Mission Reds (representing San Francisco's Mission District), Oakland Oaks, Portland Beavers, Sacramento Solons, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Seals, and Seattle Rainiers. A Near-Major League In the early 20th century, the Pacific Coast League developed into one of the premier regional baseball leagues. With no Major League Baseball team existing west of St. Louis, the PCL was unrivalled as the vehicle for West Coast baseball. Although never recognized as a true major league, the quality of play was considered very high. Drawing from a strong pool of talent in the area, the PCL produced a number of outstanding players, including future major-league stars Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Tony Lazzeri, Paul Waner, Earl Averill and Ernie Lombardi. While many PCL stars went on to play in the major leagues, teams in the league were often successful enough that they could offer competitive salaries to avoid being outbid for their stars' services. In addition, the mild climate of the West Coast, especially in California, allowed the league to play longer seasons, sometimes starting in late February and ending as late as the beginning of December. This let players earn an extra month or two worth of pay and reduced the need to find offseason work, something which even some major league players found necessary because of the low salaries, by today's standards, paid to many players. The longer playing season also provided room for additional games on the schedule, giving team owners a chance at generating more revenue. Teams sometimes played over 200 games in a single season. One consequence is that a number of the all-time minor league records for season statistical totals are held by players from the PCL. In 1952, the PCL became the only minor league in history to be given the "open" classification, a step above the AAA level. This limited the rights of major league clubs to draft players from the PCL, and was seen as a step toward the circuit becoming a third major league. Sudden Decline The shift to the Open classification came just as minor league teams from coast to coast suffered a sharp drop in attendance, primarily due to the availability of major league games on television. The hammer blow to the PCL's major league dreams came in 1958, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the New York Giants moved to San Francisco. As a result, three of the PCL's flagship teams (the Los Angeles Angels, the Hollywood Stars, and the San Francisco Seals) were immediately forced to relocate to smaller markets. Additionally, the PCL did not benefit from the comparison with the major leagues, which now occupied the same territory and drew away much of the attention of its former fans. The league never recovered from this blow. It reverted to AAA classification, and soon diminished in the public eye to nothing more than another minor league. Of the cities represented in the PCL in its heyday, only Salt Lake City, Portland and Sacramento remain, and even these are represented by different franchises than those that had originally called these cities home. The Oakland Oaks had moved to Canada two years before the arrival of the Giants. The San Diego Padres and Seattle Rainiers were displaced by Major League teams in 1969, but by this time the PCL's decline was already far advanced. Recent Expansion In 1997, the Pacific Coast League agreed to take teams from the disbanding American Association, which had operated in the Midwest. The league now stretches from western Washington to Middle Tennessee. The league is divided into two conferences, the American Conference and Pacific Conference; after a realignment for 2005 necessitated by the move of the Edmonton Trappers to Round Rock, Texas, each is divided into a Northern Division and a Southern Division. The Trappers' move also ended the league's presence in Canada; as recently as 1999 the league had teams north of the border in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, but they left for Sacramento in 2000, Albuquerque in 2003 and Round Rock in 2005 respectively. In 2005, the Pacific Coast League became the first minor league ever to achieve a season attendance over 7 million. Northern Division Southern Division Northern Division Southern Division 2006 Standings As of August 10 American Conference Pacific Conference 1903-1957 Teams Present Franchise Genealogy The roots of many of today's Pacific Coast League teams can be traced back to "classic" PCL franchises. Albuquerque Isotopes Calgary Cannons 1985-2003 Salt Lake City Gulls 1975-84 Salt Lake City Angels 1971-74 Salt Lake City Bees 1970 Vancouver Mounties 1965-69 Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers 1962-64 Vancouver Mounties 1956-61 Oakland Oaks 1903-55 Colorado Springs Sky Sox Hawai'i Islanders 1961-84 Sacramento Solons 1936-60 Sacramento Senators 1918-35 Portland Beavers 1905-17 Portland Giants 1904 Portland Browns 1903 Fresno Grizzlies Phoenix Firebirds 1986-97 Phoenix Giants 1966-85 Tacoma Giants 1960-65 Phoenix Giants 1958-59 San Francisco Seals 1903-57 Las Vegas 51s Las Vegas Stars 1983-2000 Spokane Indians 1973-82 Portland Beavers 1915-72 Portland Beavers Albuquerque Dukes 1971-2000 Spokane Indians 1954-70 Los Angeles Angels 1903-53 Round Rock Express Edmonton Trappers 1981-2004 Ogden A's 1979-80 San Jose Missions 1977-78 Sacramento Solons 1974-77 Eugene Emeralds 1969-73 San Diego Padres 1936-68 Hollywood Stars 1926-35 Salt Lake City Bees 1915-25 Sacramento Sacts 1909-14 Tacoma Rainiers Tacoma Tigers 1980-94 Tacoma Tugs 1979 Tacoma Yankees 1978 Tacoma Twins 1972-77 Tacoma Cubs 1966-71 Salt Lake City Bees 1958-65 Hollywood Stars 1938-57 Mission Reds 1928-37 Mission Bells 1926-27 Vernon (and Venice) Tigers 1909-25 Tucson Sidewinders Tucson Toros 1969-97 Seattle Angels 1965-68 Seattle Rainiers 1938-64 Seattle Indians 1922-37 Seattle Rainiers 1919-21 Presidents of the PCL See also | |||||||
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