Amateur Leagues popped up again at a high rate, but most of them had to be amateur in every sense of the word as the MLB Closure Act was very strict. No salary, no gate recipe, players have to have a main job. Leagues like the Texan Baseball League, the Bronx League, the Desert League and the Pacific Coast League got founded… and folded over the years, just to be founded again in a different structure, but with the same problems.
Years passed by, and while baseball was still in the hearts of the American people, it wasn’t in the radio, the television or the media. Some presidential candidates tried to bring the MLB Closure Act into their program, hoping to gather some extra votes into their campaign… but it wasn’t until 1997 when things got moving again.
In his second term, President Clinton was looking into some moves to get himself a legacy, and he found the right partner to do so. Michael Henderson, a rich transport tycoon that loved baseball ever since he played it in his home town of Boise every Sunday, disregarding cold and bad weather, was trying to move things.
He organised an All-Star Tournament from four Amateur Leagues and hosted it in Washington, and both President Clinton and Texan senator George W. Bush were in attendance for most of the games. They drew a huge crowd, and Henderson managed to get some TV coverage for free… a move that paid off for both sides as ratings were off the charts for a baseball game.
Two weeks later Henderson was invited to the White House, together with Joseph Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada. Canada became a safe haven for baseball players of the years, allowing for a small, but professional league that was showing profit and attendance in Canada, but was banned from TV in the USA.
The three man spoke deep into the night… and the framework was laid. Canada provides the knowledge about how to run a professional league and gets up to four teams, Henderson got the job to organize teams from the USA, and the Clinton administration abolished the MLB Closure Act and provided financial support to ownership groups in need of new ballparks.
Target date for the league’s inaugural season was 2000… and they did it. 26 teams from the US and 4 from Canada reported for Spring Ball, and on March 30th, 2000, the
Cincinnati Eagles and the
Washington Nationals took the field to play the first game of the New Major League Baseball (NMLB).
