TEAMS OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUIT
While the actual details of the expansion draft format or where my Kansas City club (and fellow 1955 expansion partner Washington) will be slotted in the amateur draft have not yet been finalized I am expecting a fairly long period of very minimal success as I try to build my team from the ground up into a contender. My first step as we are in the opening sim of the 1954 season is to familiarize myself with the teams.
The league itself is made up of National Baseball League which has existed since 1876 and the American Baseball League which began in 1946. It is actually the second incarnation of the American Baseball League as a loop with the same name played as a rival to the NBL for a decade starting in 1882. It eventually folded in the 1890s with several ABL teams joining the NBL expanding that loop to 12 teams. Baseball remained with just 12 major league teams until the ABL's revival in 1946 when it was formed as an 8 team compeitor to the NBL. It was ground breaking as the ABL opened it's doors to stars of the Negro Leagues and the NBL had to quickly follow suit. Unlike in the 1880's when the two leagues were immediately at war, this time around there was an uneasy peace right from the beginning as the loops played a World Series in that first year. That first World Series was won by the senior circuit champion Philadelphia Quakers as they knocked off the ABL pennant winning San Francisco Seagulls in 6 games.
The twenty teams are presently (opening day 1954) aligned as follows:
The 20 team loop prospered in the early 1950's and by the winter prior to the 1954 season plans were officially announced to grow from 20 to 24 teams over the next couple of years. Kansas City (my team) and Washington will join for the 1955 campaign with Minneapolis-St Paul and Milwaukee coming on board for 1956.
My Kansas City squad will join the NBL Western Division along with the Buffalo club which is relocating to Dallas. The Cleveland Bobcats will move to the Eastern Division to replace the departed Beavers while Washington will also join the East.
The plan calls for further shifting in 1956 when the other new teams arrive. My Kansas City club will stay put but Detroit will leave the NBL West for the ABL East while expansion Milwaukee will join me in the NBL West. So once the dust is settled my NBL West rivals will be the Chicago Traders, Cincinnati and St Louis from the current Western Division as well as the transplanted Buffalo to Dallas franchise and expansion Milwaukee. I can see us immediately developing rivalries with our expansion brethern Milwaukee and also St Louis as a natural geographic rival.