1960 Major League Baseball expansion draft

The draft, held in Boston, site of American League headquarters, had been scheduled for Tuesday, December 13, 1960, but had to be postponed one day due to a heavy snowstorm that struck the New England region.

Reacting belatedly to the National League's July 1960 announcement that it would expand to New York and Houston to begin play in April 1962 (twenty months later), the American League suddenly declared in October 1960 it would add two new teams as well—and that the AL's expansion teams would take the field in only six months, in time for the 1961 season.

Playing catch-up to the National League, under a much tighter deadline with no ownership groups, management or stadia yet in place, the Junior Circuit was forced to wait until November 17, 1960, to officially award an expansion franchise to Washington, D.C.,[2] to replace the recently-relocated Twins.

Finally, on December 6, 1960—one week before the expansion draft was expected to be held—the Angels franchise was officially created and awarded to Gene Autry.

[1] The league's chaotic, eleventh-hour approach to expansion resulted, on the day of the draft, in the new Senators' and Angels' noncompliance with rules that governed the maximum number of players each new club could select from each of the eight established teams.