Also during that time, baseball spread to other areas of the in-game universe, with three leagues popping up in the Midwestern United States in 1882.
The first league was the Midwest's answer to the APBL, the
Midwestern Baseball League (MWBA). It started life with ten teams:
You might be wondering, "Where are the teams in places like Minneapolis/St. Paul and Kansas City?"
Well, in the 1880s some notable Midwestern markets were
nowhere near as large as they are today. While the cities in the MWBA ranged from 75,000 (Indianapolis) to 500,000+ (Chicago) at its foundation, cities like Minneapolis (~45,000), St. Paul (~40,000), and Kansas City (~55,000) were yet to resemble the large metropolises that they are today. However, those three cities would see their populations roughly triple over the next decade, while Omaha (Nebraska) exploded from 30,518 at the 1880 census to 140,452 just ten years later.
I'll include files for this league and the next two in a later post.
Some notes on names:
- Cincinnati: one nickname is "Queen City of the West", and once had an NBA team by the same name.
- Cleveland: founded by General Moses Cleaveland. Why the slight change from his name to the city name? Who knows...
- Detroit: the robin is the state bird of Michigan.
- Indianapolis: means "City of the Indians" and is located in Indiana, which means "Land of the Indians". So, I have them owned by a Native American.
- Lake Michigan: their stadium is on Lake Michigan in Chicago and their nickname pays tribute to Chicago being the "Windy City".
- Louisville: a tribute to Louisville Slugger bats.
- Milwaukee: a nod to Wisconsin's German influence.
- Missouri: the "Eastern" bluebird is the state bird of Missouri.