Baseball Expansion Franchise Success

[Guest treble charged]

This is something I've been thinking about recently. MLB always adds teams in pairs when it expands and I've been thinking about which ones have been the most successful as compared to the teams they entered the league with. I'm pretty much just taking into account post-season success here when coming to my conclusions.

 

1961: (AL) Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels & Washington Senators/Texas Rangers

-The Angels have 4 playoff appearances (1979, 1982, 1986, 2002) and the 1 World Series win (2002), while the Senators/Rangers have made the playoffs 3 times (1996, 1998, 1999), as well as the '94 AL West title in the strike year, but have never gone past the Divisional series. Advantage: Anaheim

 

1962: (NL) New York Mets & Houston Colt .45s/Astros

-New York have gotten to the post-season 6 times (1969, 1973, 1986, 1988, 1999, 2000) and have won the World Series twice (1969, 1986), while losing in the final round twice (1973, 2000). The Colt .45s/Astros have made the playoffs 7 times (1980, 1981, 1986, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001), yet have never won a series. Advantage: New York

 

1969: (AL) Kansas City Royals & Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers (NL) San Diego Padres & Montreal Expos

-Firstly, the AL teams; The Royals have made 7 apperances in the playoffs (1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985) and have won the World Series in 1985 and the ALCS in 1980, while the Pilots/Brewers have made the playoffs twice (1981, 1982), winning the ALCS in 1982. Advantage: Kansas City. As for the NL teams; the Padres have made the playoffs 3 times (1984, 1996, 1998) and have made two World Series (1984, 1998) losing both times. Montreal has made only one apperance in the post-season (1981), losing in the NLCS after winning their divisional series. They also have the 1994 NL East title from the strike shortened season. Advantage: San Diego.

 

1977: (AL) Toronto Blue Jays & Seattle Mariners

-Toronto's playoff appearances number 5 (1985, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993) and have gotten past the ALCS twice, winning the World Series both times (1992, 1993). The Mariners success has been more recent, with 4 playoffs since the last time the Jays have advanced (1995, 1997, 2000, 2001), however, they have never advanced past the ALCS. Advantage: Toronto

 

1993: (NL) Colorado Rockies & Florida Marlins

-Both teams have just the one playoff apperance thanks to the Wildcard. The Rockies (1995) were eliminated in the divisonal series, while the Marlins (1997) won the World Series. Advantage: Florida

 

1998: (AL) Tampa Bay Devil Rays (NL) Arizona Diamondbacks

-The Rays have never won more than 69 games in a season and have never finished higher than 5th in their division, while the D-Backs have made it to the playoffs three times in their brief history (1999, 2001, 2002) and have the one World Championship (2001). This one's a no-brainer. Advantage: Arizona.

 

I think the toughest ones for me to decide were the Padres/Expos and Blue Jays/Mariners. The 'Spos have had some good seasons, but their sole apperance in the playoffs as opposed to the Padres' 3 was the kicker. As for the Jays/Mariners match-up, I might have been tempted to give it to the Mariners had the Jays not won those 2 Championships, but the fact that Seattle has never won a pennant made the decision easier, too. Anyway, discuss away.

 

(It's possible that I've made some mistakes with regards to some of the older stats [i used baseball-almanac.com and baseball-refernce.com as sources. Not to imply that they would be wrong, just that I needed to use a source occasionally and may have misread something], so please correct me if I have.)

Edited June 18, 2003 by treble charged

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Nice work here. You've done an exemplary job here, so all I can really say is the Brewers suck, and expansion is bad. Ideally, it'd be 28 for each league, except 30 for the NFL.

[Guest Choken One]

Baseball doesn't need the florida teams and Canada teams...Get rid of them...

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Baseball doesn't need the florida teams and Canada teams...Get rid of them...

Florida yes Canada no. I'm going to try and make it to an Expos game this summer. I like the Canadian teams. Screw you.,

[Guest Choken One]

yeah but they don't draw shit...

 

Yes Toronto did at once and they could again...but leave the fucking skydome would ya?

[Guest Lightning Flik]

yeah but they don't draw shit...

 

Yes Toronto did at once and they could again...but leave the fucking skydome would ya?

That's the problem. Unless it's named "Maple Leafs" nothing new will be built for a franchise there.

 

And hell, even then, it's an outside shot.

 

Besides, where would you build a new park in Toronto? No where really...

[Guest Choken One]

build it in D.C but call it the Toronto Blue Jays anyways.

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Question: if our beloved Expos move to Washington, will they also be the Senators? Because they've already lost two Senator teams, and I don't want them infringing on Ottawa's team name. They've earned it.

 

and we can't lose Youppi! Over at LCS Hockey, they have a whole feature to finding the lost Badaboum. Let's hope that we don't have to add Youppi! to that list of lost Quebecois mascots.

[Guest Choken One]

D.C Expos don't work fore me...nor do Portland Expos...

 

 

Just what the fuck is a EXPO?

 

Express would've been better ya know...

 

DC EXPRESS sounds nice...

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Just what the fuck is a EXPO?

Montreal hosted a World's Fair.

 

 

What the fuck is a Met?

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Metropoliatian

 

The NFL wouldn't be hurt cutting it down 4 teams. The leagues too mediocre for 32 teams.

[Guest starvenger]

Yes Toronto did at once and they could again...but leave the fucking skydome would ya?

The SkyDome is/was a suckhole of taxpayer money and unless Toronto gets the summer Olympics you're not gonna see new government-funded stadiums built for ANY team in Toronto.

 

Personally I think that Toronto needs to focus more on getting rid of the Gardiner Expressway and doing something akin to the Big Dig in Boston, but that's a discussion for another folder.

 

Besides, where would you build a new park in Toronto? No where really...

On the other side (and a bit further south) of the CN Tower, to make the world's tallest free-standing phallic symbol more anatomically correct...

[Guest Lightning Flik]

Besides, where would you build a new park in Toronto? No where really...

On the other side (and a bit further south) of the CN Tower, to make the world's tallest free-standing phallic symbol more anatomically correct...

Geezus you HAVE to underhand me. Don't ya. Still though, would be interesting to say the least.

[Guest starvenger]

Besides, where would you build a new park in Toronto? No where really...

On the other side (and a bit further south) of the CN Tower, to make the world's tallest free-standing phallic symbol more anatomically correct...

Geezus you HAVE to underhand me. Don't ya. Still though, would be interesting to say the least.

Actually I was just kidding, and wanted to work in the old "CN Tower/penis" joke somehow. As it stands they'd have to tear down the south part of the Metro Convention Centre and I can't see that happening. The most logical place (in my mind) would probably be at the CNE, where they used to play, or close to the airport, by the Woodbine racetrack...

[Guest Some Guy]

Nice job Tim. I can't argue with any of that.

 

Since a few guys asked what certain things were. I really wonder what they were thinking when tehy decided to change Boston's team from "The Americans" to the "Been Eaters" and then to "The Red Sox"? I like the first name better. I've always thought it was stupid to have a team named after footwear. And they're my team, I own two jerseys that say "Red Sox" right across the front.

 

While I'm complaing about team names I hate "Devil Rays", "Marlins", "Cubs" (a baby bear?), and "Dodgers" (why name a team "the Trolley Dodgers"?.

 

My favorite is "The Brewers" I marked otu every time Bernie Brewere slid into the beer keg at County Stadium. I ahte this new PC shit with him just going down a slide to nowhere.

[Guest Lightning Flik]

My favorite is "The Brewers" I marked otu every time Bernie Brewere slid into the beer keg at County Stadium. I ahte this new PC shit with him just going down a slide to nowhere.

Get used to it. PC is the way every team is going nowadays.

[Guest Fallen Angel]

More than just baseball teams heading in that direction. Nice job to TC, though. Fun read.

[Guest alkeiper]

Weren't the Sox also called the Pilgrams at one point?

 

And the Dodgers were named after the way the Brooklyn fans navigated their way through busy city streets.

[Guest treble charged]

I think the Braves have had the most nicknames.

 

I still markout for the 'Boston Doves' and I wish they would have kept that name. I wonder what they'd do in place of the Tomahawk Chop.