1961 Major League Baseball expansion

According to authors Andy McCue and Eric Thompson, "By 1953, ... Population had moved from the northeast quadrant to the vibrant cities of the West and South.

In addition, MLB faced pressure from the U.S. Congress, which indicated that efforts to prevent future expansion would potentially endanger the sport's exemption from antitrust laws.

[2] The potential threat posed by the Continental League ended in August 1960, when the NL proposed expanding to include four of the new organization's clubs.

At the time of the expansion (and still to this day), the Los Angeles area was the second-most populated in the U.S., and several sports teams had already moved into the city, including the NL's Dodgers.

Actor Gene Autry led a group that paid $2.1 million for the right to place an MLB team in Los Angeles.

[4] Autry, who owned radio stations, had been seeking to acquire a contract to broadcast baseball games when he traveled to MLB's Winter Meetings.

The Los Angeles team was initially scheduled to begin play in 1962, but a relocation plan elsewhere in the AL resulted in the start date being moved up to 1961.

[7] However, Senators owner Calvin Griffith believed his team could not prosper in the capital city of Washington, D.C., and sought to relocate to Minnesota.

[12] The Angels won the first overall pick in the expansion draft via coin toss and used it to select New York Yankees pitcher Eli Grba.

However, the team's performance declined in future years, as its strategy of acquiring "recognizable names" led to aging talent whose output fell before the Angels' minor league system could replace them.

The team annually posted about 90 defeats in most future years, and did not win more games than it lost until 1969, when Washington ended the season with an 86–76 win–loss record.

As part of MLB's effort to prevent the formation of the Continental League, the NL added the New York Mets and Houston Colt .45s (who later changed their nickname to the Astros) for the 1962 season.

[24] Four new clubs joined the AL and NL in 1969, in San Diego, Kansas City, Montreal, and Seattle (although the team moved to Milwaukee the following year).