50th Anniversary of putting the "National" in our pastime.

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Posted By: ItsOnlyGil

Yep, do largely to the efforts of Horace Stoneham and Walter O'Malley fifty years ago this month, major league baseball was brought further west than Sy. Louis for the first time. This of course, eventually evolved from its comparitively megar 16 team two league format, to the exciting world which includes concepts such as Wild Card Teams.

Yet for some, they have never really gotten over the loss of the Brooklyn and NY NL franchises aka. the Dodgers and the Giants. You hear it in their voices when they speak of Koufax, trying to claim him as a part of the NY team. Which of course he was, but not an important part of that team. It was in California that Koufax blossomed. And the same with the Giants, Cepeda and McCovey were clearly products of the West Coast and form a part of the basis of the SF 50 year history.

I have not gotten over it. A large part of my interest in baseball left with the National League fifty years ago, and the remainder has been gone since the World Series was cancelled heading on 15 years ago.

How about you?