In the world of professional baseball, the minor league system is an important hierarchy that helps develop the skills of young players as they proceed toward the major leagues. Below each team in the American or National League are a series of affiliated teams that play in the minor leagues, ranging from Rookie classification teams through Class A, Double A, and Triple A. The International League falls into the Triple A tier. It was instrumental in bringing baseball across international lines as well as breaking the sport's color barrier.
Origins
In the 19th century, the popularity of baseball led entrepreneurs across the country to form teams, and these teams organized themselves into leagues. Unfortunately, not every team was able to support itself, and as teams went bankrupt, leagues collapsed or merged in an attempt to save the solvent organizations. In 1884, the teams that would make up the International League played in three different leagues, the Eastern League, the Ontario League and the New York State League. Over the next three years, these three leagues would merge to form the International League.
Early Years
The early years of the International League were unstable. Larger leagues regularly poached the most prosperous teams from the minors, and only a few years after its creation the league reformed as the Eastern Association, keeping only a single team from its original lineup. The organization persevered and by the first decade of the 20th century, the teams under its banner were prosperous and successful. Throughout its early history, the team maintained its international nature by including teams from Canadian cities, and for a brief time in the 1950s, teams from Cuba and the Caribbean.
Jackie Robinson
In the 1940s, baseball as a whole was a segregated sport. African-American baseball players found themselves limited to the Negro League, originally chartered in 1920, and banned from Major League games. In 1945, however, the Brooklyn Dodgers sought to sign the talented Jackie Robinson to their International League farm team, the Montreal Royals. Despite considerable opposition, Robinson played in the International League in 1946, and performed well. The Dodgers called him up to the majors in 1947, making him the first African-American player in the Major Leagues since 1880.
The Longest Game
As of the end of the 2010 season, the International League holds the record for the longest game in baseball history. On April 18, 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox hosted the Rochester Red Wings. The teams ended the ninth inning tied at one run apiece, and neither was able to score for the next 11 innings. The Red Wings scored a run in the top of the 21st, only to see the Paw Sox respond in kind, and the umpires halted the game at 4:09 a.m. The teams returned to finish on June 23, and in the bottom of the 33rd inning, the Paw Sox scored the final run to take the marathon game, 3-2.
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