1898 New England League

After five years of relative strength as a minor league, the New England League barely made it to the Fourth of July before sadly disbanding. The main cause was "lack of interest", the era's euphemism for "low attendance", caused chiefly by the great start and apparent blowout the Brockton team was brewing for the season.

The New England League was an eight team league until 1896 when it cast off its underachieving four teams from Maine; Portland, Lewiston, Augusta, and, furthest North, Bangor. This produced a fairly good six-team (unresolved) pennant race in 1897 with the additions of centrally located Taunton, MA and the coastal city of Newport, RI. But chills went up the spines of investors as Brockton put together a 23-7 start by June 13. Only one other team, Pawtucket, was over .500. The six team league was an oddity and helped create the "lack of interest."

The number of teams in a league is the most important decision a league can make. A two team league, if one was created, implies four parameters about the schedule of one team: 1) A road trip of a three game series against every other opponent would take three days, 2) The "perfect" length of a schedule would be 156, 160, 164, games, etc., and 3) The number of times one team would play another would be 156, 160, 164 games, etc., or about 4) home games against one opponent every other day. Boring.

Simple math figures these four parameters for any number of teams in a league:

Four team league: 1) 9 days, 2) 150, 156, 162, etc., 3) 50, 52, 54, etc., 4) home games after 12 days.

Six team league: 1) 15 days, 2) 140, 150, 160, etc., 3) 28, 30, 32, etc., 4) home games after 24 days.

Eight team league: 1) 21 days, 2) 140, 154, 168, etc., 3) 20, 22, 24, etc., 4) home games after 36 days.

Ten team league: 1) 27 days, 2) 144, 162, 180, etc., 3) 16, 18, 20 , etc., 4) home games after 48 days.

Twelve team league: 1) 33 days, 2) 132, 154, 176, etc., 3) 12, 14, 16 , etc., 4) home games after 60 days.

Fortune team league: 1) 39 days, 2) 130, 156, 182, etc., 3) 10, 12, 14 , etc., 4) home games after 72 days.

Sixteen team league: 1) 45 days, 2) 120, 150, 180, etc., 3) 8, 10, 12 , etc., 4) home games after 84 days.

Twenty team league: 1) 57 days, 2) 114, 152, 190, etc., 3) 6, 8, 10 , etc., 4) home games after 108 days.

If you like your maximum road trips to be about three weeks, then the eight team league is your best bet. If you feel twenty games against each opponent makes for a substantial season series, then the eight team league is good for you. If you prefer each opponent at home about once a month, the eight team league, again, is your best bet.

For all these reasons (and more as we shall see) the eight team league has been the choice of the majors for most of baseball history. So the decision by President Murnane to cut the four Maine teams and make a six team league was radical. That it worked at all was only because the geographic distribution of teams was centrally located around south-eastern Massachusetts - and thus you COULD have an odd number of "eastern" teams and an odd number of "western" teams.

But it failed in three key ways: six teams don't "fill out the spectrum" of target seasonal winning percentages the way eight teams do (hence larger gaps between teams), teams in a six team league play each other week (boring), and, the longest road trips have teams back at home every other week (a fan's appetite for baseball whets better following a two-week absence). Another unique problem with the New England League was the departure of minor league superstar Nap Lajoie in 1897 from the Fall River team to the Phillies. The hearts of many fans went to the NL with him.