1900 Atlantic League

What began as the Pennsylvania State League in 1892 died in 1900 as the Atlantic League under the excuse-making Horace Fogel who would then go on to mismanage the Giants.

Fogel dropped the far-southern Richmond team which had profited by selling all it's star players, the troublesome last-place Patterson team, and the Lancaster team when Cal McVey dropped his support. He brazenly put a team in Philadelphia without gaining necessary NL support and added teams in Jersey City and Elmira, NY. He let "owners" delay in paying league fees such that, by early June, with Scranton running away with a 19-7 record, many of them simply denied being owners at all. When one unnamed "investor", realized he was the "owner" of four teams: Jersey City, Newark, Reading, and Philadelphia. He quit and the entire league folded. Call it a blowout if you must. This collapse ruined professional baseball in most of these cities for many years.

Newark and Jersey regrouped to solve many geographic problems for the Eastern League in 1902 and were successful for many years. Elmira, which had gained entry into the league by falsely promising to offer "Sunday baseball", was quickly invaded by the New York State League. In 1904, the NYSL took on Scranton and Wilkes Barre. Reading and Harrisburg hooked on with the Tri-State League within a few years and then Reading became a surprise addition to the International League in 1919. Allentown became a proud Interstate League city during World War II, but Philadelphia never again fielded a minor league team.

Richmond and Norfolk, of course, would eventually stabilize the Virginia League.