As we hurtle toward the end of February 1924 and toward the start of spring training, it's time for a quick look ahead at the season to come and our coverage here.
Baseball has already been meaningfully played this season, as the newly-expanded Caribbean League championship was decided in two early-January games in Tampa. The Smokers got off to a fast start in the Northern Division, and though the Pilots caught them with a week or so to go, Pensacola tumbled while Tampa took care of business. The Southern Division once again was won by a Havana team, though this year it was the Leones who unseated Almendares. The newcomers of Violette AC will need to wait their turn for glory, in line with the Stars and the long-suffering Tigres del Licey.
There will be yet more newcomers in 1924 in addition to Haiti's Violette EC and their Carribean League Southern Division counterpart St. Petersburg Saints: The Cotton States League joins the MLB system, though it is not clear if or how they might join the Eastern Classic competition between the American Association and Eastern League. Nevertheless, this brings the number of teams at the A level to 22, which is a likely harbinger of affiliating the teams in A-class leagues with MLB teams¹ and also looking ahead to the anticipated expansion of the AL and NL about 3-4 years hence. The Cotton States League serves to proudly plant the flag of the MLB system in two states where it was heretofore absent: South Carolina and Mississippi, and it adds Florida as well for those who consider the Caribbean League an aberration. With those additions, every state east of the Mississippi River has a team in the MLB, AAA, AA, or A levels. One can already travel the Victory Highway from New York to San Francisco and never stray far from baseball, with the Nevada portion the only state unable to offer high-quality games.
Beyond the wide Pacific, we will also be able to offer coverage of games and leagues thanks to the interests of far-off stringers. We will be able to give you results of "The Big Six" league, offering the finest baseball being played in Japan today. We have also agreed to provide coverage of the Manila Bay League as a tribute to the fine folks serving in our military and the military of our close Philippine allies who play in that league. Even though we don't imagine they'll ever play in the Polo Grounds or Comiskey Park², we're happy to include them.
Remaining on the topic of ballparks, we can look forward to play in two new stadia in 1924: the new Buffalo Baseball Park, and Spiller Park in Atlanta, which replaces Ponce de Leon Park. These come on the heels of 1923's new parks for the Colonels, the Packers and the Yankees, and rumors of more ballparks on the horizon from Los Angeles to Dallas to Toronto.
We return to both 1924 and the Yankees presently, however. The Ruling House of the American League find themselves in a position similar to two years ago at this time, and perhaps five years ago as well--exceedingly well-positioned for yet another pennant but on the wrong end of a thrilling, 7-game World Series and thus unable to fully claim honors as 1923's Best Club. In 1922, they responded by gutting out a win in one of the greatest pennant races we have ever seen, and went on to make Brooklyn a speed bump. In 1919, they fell back to second place as a resurgent Red Sox team took the pennant. As winners of the AL by 28 games, one can hardly imagine a competitor challenging them for the league championship, but stranger things have happened, and they perhaps used up some of that margin by trading away popular infielder Dobie Moore for veteran pitcher Jose Mendez in an effort to shore up their bullpen³. But they remain stocked with talent and more likely to leave great players on the bench than be lacking them. How manager Rivkin will juggle Cobb, Williams, Faber, and Baker when Goslin, Arlett, Pennock, and Traynor are ready to play every day is yet to be seen.
For now, though, that question sits on the other end of Spring Training. So make sure you're tied in for what's sure to be a great season!
1. This is correct, I do intend to affilliate the teams either in 1925 or 1926, and ideally the expansion teams of 1927/1928 will just inherit the rosters of those teams (and then do whatever with them).
2. They will never play in those parks, no. I've set those leagues to have fictional players and I'm not allowing fictional players to come to the MLB. In principle, they also shouldn't be on the A, AA, or AAA levels.
3. OK, good guess by the writer, but wrong. I wouldn't pick up a 38-year-old reliever, but Tony Lazzeri was being offered, and I'm already trying to make sure as much as I can that the Yankees are competitive if not dominant in the late 20s/early-mid 30s.
