Oct 11: AL conceived

OCTOBER 11, 1899 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS • In the late 1800’s the National League was the only “major league.” It began play in 1876, hence the description “senior circuit.” Two executives of the Western League, a minor league, Ban Johnson and Charles Comiskey, thought there was room for one more major league. So on this date in 1899 they gathered their fellow Western League owners in Chicago’s Great Northern Hotel to discuss a plan which would allow them to affiliate with the National League, but remain a minor league.

It was like letting the fox into the chicken coup. As part of the deal, Johnson and Comiskey got the National League to allow the St. Paul, Minnesota franchise of the Western League to relocate to Chicago. It did, and became the Chicago White Stockings – today’s White Sox. It was also decided at that October 11, 1899 meeting to change the name of the Western League to the American League of Professional Ball Clubs. It was later simplified to the American League.

The American League didn’t last long as a farm system for the National League. By the 1901 season, less than two years later, the American League officially became a second major league.


Contributing sources: Total White Sox: The definitive encyclopedia of the World Champion franchise, by Richard Lindberg, 2006 More on the American League More on the National League

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Bill Grimes

I'm from Chicago. I worked in broadcast journalism for much of the 1970's and 80's. In 1990 I became a litigation consultant, retiring in 2017. Around 2005 I recall flipping through the sports section of the newspaper coming across "On this day in baseball history Willie Mays hit his 600th home run." I enjoyed the one-liners, but I wanted more. I wanted a story. I took my news reporting skills and started researching and telling baseball stories, one for every day of the year. TodayinBaseball.com is the result.