The
Eastern League of 1916 through the mid-season of
1932 was an American
minor baseball league and the third of
four circuits to use the Eastern League name since the
19th century. The successor to an early 20th century edition
of the
New England League, it is
not related to the current
Eastern League, which formed in
1938 from the former
New
York-Pennsylvania League, or the current
International League, which was known
as the Eastern League from 1892 through 1911.
The Eastern League of 1916-32 was a mid- to higher classification
league, beginning in 1916 as a Class B circuit and upgraded to
Class A in 1919. Its president,
Tim
Murnane, a former sportswriter, and many of its original member
clubs were inherited from the New England League, which ceased
operation in 1915.
While most of its teams were centered in
New
England
and upstate New York
, in its
later years the Eastern League admitted teams from Pennsylvania
and Virginia
. The
league consisted of eight teams annually during its existence.
The
New
Haven
franchise, owned and operated by George Weiss from 1919-29, won four
of its 17 championships — though under multiple nicknames.
Weiss
would go on to a Baseball Hall of Fame
career as a top executive with the New York Yankees.
This edition of the Eastern League collapsed during the nadir of
the
Great Depression on
July 17,
1932.
Member teams
References
- Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of
Minor League Baseball, third edition. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America, 2007.
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