Now we're ready for the other half of Triple-A (for some value of half), the Pacific Coast League. The league was founded at the very end of 1902 and played it's first season in 1903. For a long time, it had a bit of a maverick or even renegade history, employing blacklisted players and placing teams in areas that were supposed to be in exclusive territory of other leagues. The part of this history that is probably best known, though, the PCL's bid to become a third major league. They somewhat achieved this goal, being classified as "Open" starting in 1952. This meant they could protect their players from the major league clubs, and the thought was they may start participating in the draft directly. This all fell apart pretty quickly with the advent of games on TV and minor league attendance plummeting all across the nation. This was followed with the arrival of the Dodgers and Giants in 1958, which cemented the PCL back into Triple-A status, where it has stayed ever since. It suffered another blow with the recent MLB realignment. Several teams were moved into the International League. Off the top of my head, Iowa, Omaha, Memphis, and Nashville all moved leagues. There are likely others I have forgotten as well. At the end of the day, the PCL is now down to ten teams. I have presented them here in alphabetical order by division. Albuquerque IsotopesFounded: 2003 Affiliate: Colorado Rockies Stadium: Isotopes Park Opened: 2003 Capacity: 13,500 Championships: 0 El Paso ChihuahuasFounded: 2014 Affiliate: San Diego Padres Stadium: Southwest University Park Opened: 2014 Capacity: 7,500 Championships: 2016 Oklahoma City DodgersFounded: 1962 Affiliate: Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium: Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark Opened: 1998 Capacity: 9,000 Championships: 4 (1963, 1965, 1992, 1996) Round Rock ExpressFounded: 2000 Affiliate: Texas Rangers Stadium: Dell Diamond Opened: 2000 Capacity: 11,631 Championships: 1 (2000 [AA]) Sugar Land Space CowboysFounded: 2012 Affiliate: Houston Astros Stadium: Constellation Field Opened: 2012 Capacity: 7,500 Championships: 3 (2016 [Atlantic League], 2018 [Atlantic], 2020 [Constellation Energy League]) Las Vegas AviatorsFounded: 1983 Affiliate: Oakland A's Stadium: Las Vegas Ballpark Opened: 2019 Capacity: 10,000 Championships: 2 (1986, 1988) Reno AcesFounded: 2009 Affiliate: Arizona Diamondbacks Stadium: Greater Nevada Field Opened: 2009 Capacity: 9,013 Championships: 1 (2012) Sacramento River CatsFounded: 2000 Affiliate: San Francisco Giants Stadium: Sutter Health Park Opened: 2000 Capacity: 10,624 Championships: 5 (2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2019) Salt Lake BeesFounded: 1994 Affiliate: Los Angeles Angels Stadium: Smith's Ballpark Opened: 1994 Capacity: 14,511 Championships: 0 Tacoma RainiersFounded: 1960
Affiliate: Seattle Mariners Stadium: Cheney Stadium Opened: 1960 Capacity: 6,500 Championships: 6 (1961, 1969, 1978, 2001, 2010, 2021) Comments are closed.
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