California League

The California League is a Minor League Baseball league which operates throughout California. it is classified at the Class A-Advanced, three steps below Major League Baseball. Most players reach this level in their third or fourth year of professional play.

All of the current teams are playing in stadiums that have been built or extensively renovated since 1990. They also are affiliated with MLB teams located west of the Rockies. League attendance continues to increase each season, with over one million fans attending games per year, part of a general nationwide growth and expansion to smaller towns, cities, and regions below those in the National League or American League with Minor League Baseball at various levels of play in growing popularity in the last few decades. The league is divided into a Northern Division and a Southern Division.

History
There were various attempts in the late 1800s and early 1900s to form a "California League" on the West Coast, considering the distance of the two current major leagues which generally had teams only in the Northeast and were restricted at first until World War I by long distance train travel. The first organized California League lasted from 1887–1889, then another followed in 1891, and 1893, and finally in 1899–1902. After the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, an organization of minor leagues was formed in 1902, (following the "truce" and agreements between the older National League of 1876 and the newly "upstart" American League of 1901), the California League operated outside the NAPBL system as an independent league in 1902 and again from 1907–1909. This led to huge differences in the quality of teams competing with each other. In 1907, the San Francisco team was 3-34, while later in 1908 San Francisco was 9-67 and Oakland was 4-71. Oakland and San Francisco competed in every year of these various state leagues, with San Francisco having two teams during 1887-88.

The current California League was founded in 1941, and included teams in Anaheim, Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Stockton. The following year, as a result of World War II, the league dropped to four teams, then ceased and suspended operations altogether, although major league baseball and some minor leagues continued as much as possible with limited availability of players during the war years. It reorganized and came back in 1946, adding teams in Visalia, San Jose, and Ventura by 1947. Further east, Reno, Nevada joined the league in 1955 with the movement of the old Channel Cities Oilers in Santa Barbara and continued as a member for 37 years.

Though nicknames and affiliations shifted, the California League's postwar configuration was largely stable by the late 1950s; four of the six cities in the league in 1960 would still be part of the league 50 years later. The league reached eight clubs in 1966 and would hold that for ten years, briefly dipped to six before wavering between eight and nine clubs in the early eighties, then reached ten in 1986 and held that configuration for thirty-one seasons. From 1996 to 2016, the league had a remarkably stable alignment for Class A baseball, with no teams moving or folding for twenty-one years. After the 2016 season, the Bakersfield Blaze, long dogged by inadequate facilities and unable to negotiate significant repairs, and the High Desert Mavericks, suffering from falling attendance and a lease dispute with the city of Adelanto, were folded; the High-A level replaced them by expanding the Carolina League to ten teams.

California League Champions
Year by Year list of league champions:

Complete team list (1941–42, 1946–present)
The Los Angeles area, Riverside, San Bernardino, Palm Springs, Yuma (AZ) and Las Vegas (NV) were also major league spring training site cities, as well possessed California League teams on different occasions.

Cities that have had California League Teams (current in bold)
Modesto has hosted a California League team longer than any other city, hosting a team in all but two of the CL's 65 seasons.

League timeline (1941-present)
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1906–09

 * Alameda Grays/Alameda Encinals 1906–08
 * Fresno Tigers/Fresno Raisin Growers 1908–09
 * Oakland Commuters 1906–09
 * Sacramento Cordovas/Sacramento Senators 1906–08
 * San Francisco Orphans 1906–09
 * San Jose Prune Pickers 1906–09
 * Santa Cruz Sand Crabs 1908–09
 * Stockton Millers 1906–09

1896, 1898–1902

 * California of San Francisco 1896
 * Fresno 1898
 * Imperials of San Francisco 1896
 * Los Angeles Angels 1901–02
 * Oakland 1896
 * Oakland Reliance/Oaks/Commuters/Clamdiggers 1898–1902
 * Sacramento Gilt Edges 1899–1902
 * San Francisco Metropolitans 1896, 1898


 * San Francisco A's 1899
 * San Jose 1896, 1898
 * San Jose Brewers/San Francisco Brewers 1899–1900
 * San Francisco 1902
 * Santa Cruz Sand Crabs 1899
 * Stockton 1896, 1898
 * Stockton Wasps/San Francisco Wasps 1900–1901
 * Watsonville Hayseeds 1899

1879–1893

 * Los Angeles Seraphs/Los Angeles Angels 1892–1893
 * Oakland Colonels 1889-93
 * Oakland Greenhood & Morans 1886-88
 * Oakland Pioneers 1879
 * Sacramento Altas 1886-87, 1889
 * Sacramento Senators 1890-91
 * San Francisco 1880, 1884–85
 * San Francisco Athletics 1879-81
 * San Francisco Bay City 1880
 * San Francisco Californias 1879-80, 1882–83
 * San Francisco Friscos/Metropolitans 1891-93
 * San Francisco Haverlys 1883-90


 * San Francisco Knickerbockers 1881
 * San Francisco Nationals 1882
 * San Francisco Mutuals 1879
 * San Francisco Niantic 1883
 * San Francisco Occidental 1884-85
 * San Francisco Pioneers 1886-88
 * San Francisco Reddingtons 1883
 * San Francisco Reno 1881-82
 * San Francisco Star 1884-86
 * San Jose Dukes 1891-92
 * Stockton 1888–1890
 * Stockton River Pirates/Sacramento Senators 1893

California League Hall of Fame
The California League inducted its first class of 15 inductees into its Hall of Fame in 2016.

Most Valuable Player
The California League Most Valuable Player Award was established in 1941.

Pitcher of the Year

 * For award winners, see footnote.

Rookie of the Year

 * For award winners, see footnote.

Manager of the Year

 * For award winners, see footnote.

Doug Harvey Award
The Doug Harvey Award—established in 2010—is for the umpire of the year.