The History of the NABL 

The history of the NABL can trance its beginnings as far back as the mid-1930s and it forever linked with the events that altered the divergent paths of both the American League’s St. Louis Browns franchise and the Pacific Coast Minor League.

The NABL has also been influenced by men of strong will and irreverent personalities, who were willing to ruffle the establishment and take huge risks.

And, as always is the case with anything to do with life, the NABL has been greatly affected by money, its pursuit, its manipulation, and its accumulation.

In November of 1936, following the death of Phil Ball, the wealthy owner of the St. Louis Browns, his estate sells the team to a syndicate headed by Donald L. Barnes and William O. DeWitt.

Although the new ownership was well intentioned and had deep pockets, they were unable to turn around the Browns ineptitude both on the field and at the gate. In Barnes and DeWitt’s first full season of ownership, the Browns only drew 80,922 paying fans for the entire season. Between 1937 and 1939, the Browns complied a won-loss record of 144-316.

By the beginning of the new decade, Don Barnes had taken control over the syndicate and began to realize that St. Louis could no longer support two major league teams. The Cardinals had wrestled control of the city from the Browns with their flamboyant play and 3 World Series Championships, and even though both teams played home games in the same Sportsman’s Park (the Cardinals were renters), the Browns were regulated to second-class citizenship by the city.

By 1941, Don Barnes had finally decided to move his franchise to Los Angeles, and throughout the season he was in deep negotiations with various parties. Phil Wrigley, the owner of both the Major League Chicago Cubs and the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels, finally agreed to sell the Angels and their home ballpark, Wrigley Field, for $1,000,000 to Barnes. Barnes also negotiated the sale of Sportsman’s Park to the Cardinals and intended to use the proceeds to help pay for the L.A. purchase. Barnes finalized difficult scheduling and travel plans for the first Major League team to play on the West Coast and acquired the necessary votes from his fellow owners, who still needed to formally approve the move. The transfer question of the Browns to L.A. was the first agenda item for the American League on the opening day of the Winter Meetings of 1941; Monday, December 8^th.

As fate would have it, the day before, Sunday, December 7^th, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, plunging the United States into war and baseball into uncertainty. The American League promptly voted down the Browns’ transfer request.

During the weeks following Pearl Harbor there were concerns throughout Organized Baseball that there would be no professional play in 1941, and along the West Coast the possibility of Japanese attack put the Pacific Coast League in particular doubt. But Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis formally queried President Roosevelt about the status of baseball and in Roosevelt’s now famous ‘Green Light’

Letter, he requested that baseball continue as a much-needed diversion during wartime for the benefit of American morale.