Patrick T. Powers
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Patrick T. Powers (1862 - August 2, 1925) was an American baseball executive who served as the president of the Eastern League, an independent league that is nearly as old as the National or the American Leagues. Elected at a meeting of independent baseball executives on September 5, 1901 at the Leland Hotel in Chicago, he was also the first president of the second National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, or NABPL ("NA" for short), from 1901 to 1909.
The purpose of the association was to keep the independent leagues of baseball independent, and separate from the National League and the American Association, who were engaged in a nasty turf war, stealing players and hurling accusations at one another.
Ban Johnson, president of the AA, which later became the American League, found Powers' organization very useful. In the same peace treaty signed with the National League, the NA teams made agreements to feed players to the National and American leagues. By 1903, they were subordinate to the "major" leagues, and became the first "minor" leagues.
Powers' NA has continued on as the overseeing body of the various baseball leagues that make up affiliated baseball. The NA goes by the moniker Minor League Baseball today, even though that is misleading; there are still many independent leagues, like the Northern League, the Central League, and the Golden Baseball League, whose ballclubs throughout the United States and Canada also feed players, albeit fewer, to the major leagues.
Powers retired from the post at the NABPL in 1909. At the time there were 35 leagues and 246 professional baseball clubs in the organization.
External link
- [Minor League News] - story of the rise of the second National Association
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