Oldest MLB franchises, cities and nicknames

For Reds fans, history is rightfully a point of pride.  But I do prefer to use facts instead of oft-repeated myths.


Professional baseball did, for all intents and purposes, start in Cincinnati in 1869.  However, that franchise is not connected to the current Cincinnati Reds as many fans believe.  In fact, it failed to remain financially viable, folded, and half the team became the original Boston Red Stockings who are now the Atlanta Braves.  Confused yet?  Good.  How about a few lists to muddy the waters a bit further?


The earliest MLB franchises still in existence (American Association, National League or American League teams):
1) Atlanta Braves (as the Boston Red Stockings, 1876 National League)
1) Chicago Cubs (as the Chicago White Stockings, 1876 National League)
3) Cincinnati Reds (as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1882 American Association)
3) Pittsburgh Pirates (as the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, 1882 American Association)
3) St. Louis Cardinals (as the St. Louis Brown Stockings, 1882 American Association)
6) Philadelphia Phillies (as the Philadelphia Quakers, 1883 National League)
6) San Francisco Giants (as the New York Gothams, 1883 National League)
8) Los Angeles Dodgers (as the Brooklyn Atlantics, 1884 American Association)

All others began in the 20th century.




The earliest MLB franchises (still in existence) to inhabit their current cities
1) Chicago Cubs (as White Stockings in 1876)
2) Cincinnati Reds (as Red Stockings in 1882)
2) Pittsburgh Pirates (as Alleghenys in 1882)
2) St. Louis Cardinals (as Brown Stockings in 1882)
5) Philadelphia Phillies (as Quakers in 1883)
6) Detroit Tigers (1901)
6) Chicago White Sox (1901)
6) Cleveland Indians (as Blues in 1901)
6) Boston Red Sox (as Americans in 1901)
10) New York Yankees (as Highlanders in 1903) 


All others moved to, or started in, their current cities in the 1950s or later.




The earliest MLB franchises to adopt their current nicknames (even if later abandoned and re-adopted)
1) San Francisco Giants, 1885 (in New York)
2) Cincinnati Reds, 1890 (switched to Redlegs from 1954-1959, then back to Reds)
2) Philadelphia Phillies, 1890
4) Pittsburgh Pirates, 1891
5) St. Louis Cardinals, 1900
6) Detroit Tigers, 1901
6) Chicago White Sox, 1901
6) Oakland Athletics, 1901 (in Philadelphia)
9) Chicago Cubs, 1903
10) Boston Red Sox, 1908
11) Los Angeles Dodgers, 1911 (in Brooklyn, and switched to Superbas in 1913, Robins in 1914, back to Dodgers in 1932)
12) Atlanta Braves, 1912 (in Boston)
13) New York Yankees, 1913
14) Cleveland Indians, 1915


All others adopted their current names in the 1950s or later.




The earliest MLB franchises to exist with their current cities AND nickname (even if later abandoned and re-adopted)
1) Cincinnati Reds, 1890 (switched to Redlegs from 1954-1959, then back to Reds)
1) Philadelphia Phillies, 1890
3) Pittsburgh Pirates, 1891
4) St. Louis Cardinals, 1900
5) Detroit Tigers, 1901
5) Chicago White Sox, 1901
7) Chicago Cubs, 1903
8) Boston Red Sox, 1908
9) New York Yankees, 1913
10) Cleveland Indians, 1915

All others first matched the current configuration in the 1950s or later. 


The longest-standing previous forms of current franchises
1) San Francisco Giants - played as the New York Giants for 83 seasons
2) Minnesota Twins - played as the Washington Senators for 60 seasons
3) Oakland Athletics - played as the Philadelphia Athletics for 54 seasons
4) Baltimore Orioles - played as the St. Louis Browns for 52 seasons
5) Atlanta Braves - played as the Boston Braves for 41 seasons


A few oddities:


- The New York Yankees began as the Baltimore Orioles in 1901.


- The Baltimore Orioles began as the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901, then the St. Louis Browns from 1902 through 1953.


- The Dodgers have had a ridiculous number of nicknames: Atlantics, Grays, Bridegrooms, Grooms, back to Bridegrooms, Superbas, Dodgers, back to Superbas, Robins, and finally back to Dodgers.  That's ten different incarnations with seven different names.


- Two different current franchises began as two separate forms of the Washington Senators.  The 1901 version of the Senators eventually became the Minnesota Twins (in 1961).  The 1961 version of the Senators eventually became the Texas Rangers (in 1972).


- Of the 16 current franchises established in 1901 or earlier, only three have kept the exact same nickname throughout history: the Tigers, White Sox, and Athletics.




Baseball-reference.com was my main source for this post.  If you find any errors, don't hesitate to point them out.

The best- and worst-run MLB franchises

I've been looking at payroll vs. results from a variety of angles. Some argue, based on the Rays' ability to make the playoffs and the Marlins' two World Series titles, that the class disparity in MLB is overblown. While it's true that high-payroll teams can struggle if poorly managed and low-payroll teams can succeed with good management, scouting and a little luck, it's still much easier to win big if you pay big. I'll show a couple graphs to support my viewpoint in some upcoming posts. For now I wanted to focus on the teams that have been managed well and managed poorly.

I examined the period from 1998-2011. The dramatic payroll class disparity started forming in the mid-90s, but since 1998 was the most recent expansion and I wanted to average evenly across years for all teams, I started with that timepoint. I then broke the teams down into four tiers based on the average number of millions spent in payroll for each regular season win achieved.

Tier 1 ($1.1 million or more per win) - Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and Cubs
Average playoff appearances per team out of 14 seasons - 7
Best-managed - Yankees (13 playoffs/4 titles), Red Sox (8/2)
Worst-managed - Mets (3/0), Cubs (4/0)

Tier 2 ($900,000 to 1.099 million per win) - Cardinals, Braves, Angels, Phillies, Giants, White Sox, Astros, Rangers, Orioles, Tigers, Mariners
Average playoff appearances per team out of 14 seasons - 4.36
Best-managed - Cardinals (8 playoffs/1 title), Braves (9/0), Angels (6/1)
Worst-managed - Orioles (0/0), Tigers (2/0), Mariners (2/0)

Tier 3 ($700,000 to 899,000 per win) - Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Indians, Blue Jays, Reds, Rockies, Brewers
Average playoff appearances per team out of 14 seasons - 2.57
Best-managed - Diamondbacks (5 playoffs/1 title)
Worst-managed - Blue Jays (0/0), Reds (1/0)

Tier 4 (less than $700,000 per win) - Twins, Athletics, Rays, Padres, Marlins, Nationals/Expos, Pirates, Royals
Average playoff appearances per team out of 14 seasons - 2.25
Best-managed - Twins (6 playoffs/0 titles), Athletics (5/0)
Worst-managed - Nationals (0/0), Pirates (0/0), Royals (0/0)

So during this 14-year period, if I had to rank the teams based on overall results achieved for money spent, I'd list them as follows.

The best:
1) Yankees
2) Cardinals
3) Twins
4) Braves
5) Red Sox
6) Diamondbacks
7) Athletics
8) Angels

The worst:
1) Orioles
2) Mets
3) Blue Jays
4) Cubs
5) Mariners
6) Tigers
7) Reds
8-10) Nationals/Pirates/Royals

Teams that don't appear on either list but are trending upward: Phillies and Rays (especially if either wins a title this season)
Teams that don't appear on either list but are trending downward: Dodgers, White Sox, Astros

Big Red Machine

One way in which the 1970s Cincinnati Reds stand out is the fact they dominated the entire NL head-to-head during that decade. Their worst performance against any team was .508 versus the Chicago Cubs.

Here is a list (it might be incomplete) of other MLB teams that dominated to the same extent over the course of an entire decade of regular season play, without a losing record against any league opponent.

1910s New York Giants
1910s Boston Red Sox

1920s New York Giants
1920s New York Yankees

1930s New York Yankees

1940s St. Louis Cardinals

1950s Brooklyn/LA Dodgers
1950s New York Yankees

1990s Atlanta Braves

Some teams that barely missed the cut - 1900s Cubs, 1930s Giants, 1960s Cardinals