Southern League of Professional Baseball
The Southern League of Professional Baseball is a AA professional baseball league which which now represents ten AA minor league baseball teams across the Southeast. The Birmingham Barons have been members of the league for most of the team's history. The League is headquartered in Marietta, Georgia. Its current president, appointed in 2012, is Lori Webb.
The league traces its history back to 1885, when Henry Grady of the Atlanta Constitution organized a Southern League of Professional Baseball Clubs with teams from Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus and Macon in Georgia, as well as Birmingham in Alabama and Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee. The organization did not survive Grady's death in 1889, but was reorganized in 1892, with the Barons winning the first pennant of the revived league. Organization remained loose, however, with unreliable transportation and no provisions for make-up games. By 1897, the League had again faded away.
In 1900, a meeting was held in Birmingham to organize the Southern Association, with traveling secretaries assigned to each club to coordinate travel and personnel issues. The league began play in the Spring of 1901 with the Atlanta Crackers, Birmingham Barons, Little Rock Travelers, Memphis Chickasaws, Mobile Bears, Nashville Volunteers, and New Orleans Pelicans. The association came apart in 1964, with some of its members joining up with teams from the former South Atlantic League to form a new Southern League.
This Southern League was headquartered on Main Street in downtown Trussville from 1979 through 1994. The offices were moved to Marietta after then-league president and Trussville resident Jimmy Bragan retired.
Current members
Northern Division
- Carolina Mudcats
- Chattanooga Lookouts
- Huntsville Stars
- Tennessee Smokies
- West Tenn Diamond Jacks
Southern Division
- Birmingham Barons
- Jacksonville Suns
- Mississippi Braves
- Mobile BayBears
- Montgomery Biscuits
External links
References
- Martin, Wayne. (July 10, 1995) "New SL chief says transition has been smooth." Birmingham News
- Barra, Allen (2010) Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark. New York: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN 9780393069334