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For the high school sports league, see Pacific Coast League (California).
| Pacific Coast League | |
|---|---|
| |
| Sport | Baseball |
| Founded | 1903 |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Country(ies) |  United States
|
| Most recent champion(s) | Sacramento River Cats |
| Official website | www.pclbaseball.com |
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 Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.
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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, Salt Lake Bees, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Seals, Seattle Rainiers, Vancouver Canadians, and Vernon Tigers.
In the first half of the 20th century, the Pacific Coast League developed into one of the premier regional baseball leagues. The cities enfranchised by the other two high-minor leagues, the International League and the American Association, were generally interwoven geographically with the major leagues. Such was not the case with the PCL. With no major league baseball team existing west of St. Louis, the PCL was unrivaled as the vehicle for American 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. Some players made a career out of the minor leagues. One of the better known of those was Frank Shellenback, whose major league pitching career was brief [1] but who compiled a record PCL total of 295 wins, against 178 losses. [2]
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 allowed players to potentially hone their skills more sharply, and also to earn an extra month or two worth of pay and reduce the need to find offseason work, something which even some major league players found necessary because of the low salaries, by today\'s standards. 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. The high-water mark was the 1905 season, in which the San Francisco Seals set the all-time PCL record by playing in 230 games (PCL Record Book, p.30). Even just prior to the 1958 reshuffling, the league was playing 170-180 games per season. One consequence of such lengthy seasons was 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.
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.
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 the Pacific Conference; after a realignment for 2005 necessitated by the move of the Edmonton Trappers to Round Rock, Texas, each is divided into a North Division and a South 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 of over 7 million.
At the end of the season, the North and South Division winners within each conference meet in a best-of-five series to determine conference champions. Then, the American and Pacific Conference winners play a best-of-five series to determine a league champion.
Since 2006 the league champion has played against the International League champion in the Bricktown Showdown, a single game for the Triple-A Championship. Previously, the PCL champion also competed in the Triple-A World Series.
In further interleague play, in 1988, the three Triple-A leagues, the other being the American Association, met to play the first Triple-A All-Star Game. One team was made up of All-Stars from American League affiliates and the other of National League affiliates. Beginning in 1998, a team of PCL All-Stars faced off against a team of IL All-Stars.
| Division | Team | MLB Affiliation | City | Stadium | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North | Iowa Cubs | Chicago Cubs | Des Moines, Iowa | Principal Park | 11,500 |
| Memphis Redbirds | St. Louis Cardinals | Memphis, Tennessee | AutoZone Park | 14,200 | |
| Nashville Sounds | Milwaukee Brewers | Nashville, Tennessee | Herschel Greer Stadium | 10,139 | |
| Omaha Royals | Kansas City Royals | Omaha, Nebraska | Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium | 24,000 | |
| South | Albuquerque Isotopes | Florida Marlins | Albuquerque, New Mexico | Isotopes Park | 11,124 |
| New Orleans Zephyrs | New York Mets | Metairie, Louisiana | Zephyr Field | 10,000 | |
| Oklahoma RedHawks | Texas Rangers | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | AT&T Bricktown Ballpark1 | 13,166 | |
| Round Rock Express | Houston Astros | Round Rock, Texas | Dell Diamond | 10,000 |
| Division | Team | MLB Affiliation | City | Stadium | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North | Colorado Springs Sky Sox | Colorado Rockies | Colorado Springs, Colorado | Security Service Field | 9,000 |
| Portland Beavers | San Diego Padres | Portland, Oregon | PGE Park2 | 19,810 | |
| Salt Lake Bees | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | Salt Lake City, Utah | Franklin Covey Field | 15,500 | |
| Tacoma Rainiers | Seattle Mariners | Tacoma, Washington | Cheney Stadium | 9,600 | |
| South | Fresno Grizzlies | San Francisco Giants | Fresno, California | Chukchansi Park | 12,500 |
| Las Vegas 51s | Los Angeles Dodgers | Las Vegas, Nevada | Cashman Field | 10,000 | |
| Sacramento River Cats | Oakland Athletics | West Sacramento, California | Raley Field | 11,200 | |
| Tucson Sidewinders3 | Arizona Diamondbacks | Tucson, Arizona3 | Tucson Electric Park4 | 11,000 |
| American Conference North | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville Sounds | 89 | 55 | .618 | — |
| Iowa Cubs | 79 | 65 | .549 | 10 |
| Omaha Royals | 73 | 71 | .507 | 16 |
| Memphis Redbirds | 56 | 88 | .389 | 33 |
| American Conference South | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans Zephyrs | 75 | 69 | .521 | — |
| Albuquerque Isotopes | 72 | 70 | .507 | 2 |
| Oklahoma RedHawks | 71 | 72 | .497 | 3½ |
| Round Rock Express | 61 | 81 | .430 | 13 |
| Pacific Conference North | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake Bees | 74 | 69 | .517 | — |
| Colorado Springs Sky Sox | 69 | 75 | .479 | 5½ |
| Tacoma Rainiers | 68 | 76 | .472 | 6½ |
| Portland Beavers | 58 | 86 | .403 | 16½ |
| Pacific Conference South | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sacramento River Cats | 83 | 60 | .580 | — |
| Fresno Grizzlies | 77 | 67 | .535 | 6½ |
| Tucson Sidewinders | 75 | 66 | .532 | 7 |
| Las Vegas 51s | 67 | 77 | .465 | 16½ |
Note: Teams in italics are PCL "classic" teams.
Five current league teams were acquired by the PCL following the disbandment of the American Association after the 1997 season.
| Pacific Coast League | |
|---|---|
| American Conference - North Division | Iowa Cubs • Memphis Redbirds • Nashville Sounds • Omaha Royals |
| American Conference - South Division | Albuquerque Isotopes • New Orleans Zephyrs • Oklahoma RedHawks • Round Rock Express |
| Pacific Conference - North Division | Colorado Springs Sky Sox • Portland Beavers • Salt Lake Bees • Tacoma Rainiers |
| Pacific Conference - South Division | Fresno Grizzlies • Las Vegas 51s • Sacramento River Cats • Tucson Sidewinders |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
