The Wichita Aviators were a minor league baseball team based in Wichita, Kansas from 1905 to 1933. Wichita was a member of the Western Association (1905–1908) and Western League (1909–1933).
54-797: The club played mostly in the Western League . However, the club began play as the Wichita Jobbers , a member of the Western Association . The Jobbers played in the Western Association from 1905 to 1908, winning the league championship in 1905 and 1907. The 1907 Jobbers were recognized as one of the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time . The Jobbers then moved to the Western League, where they played until midway through their 1911 season. That year,
108-689: A group of leagues that are tied together in a hierarchical fashion by promotion and relegation, and to the individual leagues within the league system. For example, in English association football , the English Football League (EFL) is a league system, while the term "National League" refers both to the league immediately below the EFL in the English pyramid and to its associated league system . An alternate system of league organization which
162-530: A record of 18–18, on June 2. The League suspended operations on July 7 due to World War I. The Hutchinson team folded. A new team was formed in Tulsa, Oklahoma , and joined the League. Tulsa lead St. Joseph 3 games to 1 in the championship series when the series was cancelled due to bad weather. Wichita's Joe Wilhoit had a 69-game hitting streak, which remains the professional baseball record. Joplin moved to
216-623: A record of 58–84, moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado on September 10. Their record there was 2–10. Louisville of the American Association defeated Omaha 4 games to 1. The Topeka team folded. A new team in Joplin, Missouri formed and joined the League. Colorado Springs moved back to Wichita. St. Joseph, with a record of 34–56, moved to Hutchinson, where their record was 32–24, on July 24. Sioux City moved to St. Joseph on August 5. Hutchinson defeated Joplin 3 games to none for
270-484: A regular season in a league format, the top teams (possibly determined by conference or division) advance to the playoffs. In some such leagues having the best regular season record is relatively unimportant, though top-seeded teams in some leagues, such as the NFL , can gain byes to later rounds of the playoffs, and teams finishing with the best records usually have the advantage of playing the weakest teams that have advanced to
324-399: A single competition or a related group of competitions. Many groups use promotion and relegation , where the best-ranked team(s) in the lower division are promoted to the higher division for the next season, and the worst-ranked team(s) in the higher division are relegated to the lower division for the next season. Under this system, "league" may refer both to a league system ,
378-716: A small amount of interleague play , with the main AL-NL competition occurring between their champions in the World Series . Thus the two leagues played mostly separate competitions within the larger framework of MLB. Finally, until 2000, they were actually separate legal entities, unlike the conferences of other leagues. Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan has a similar history, with the Central League and Pacific League not founded together. Due to this naming custom, it
432-519: Is a major factor in many sports. When teams competing for a tournament championship do not play the same teams the same number of times, it is known as an unbalanced schedule. In such a set-up, the team with the best record becomes champion, based on either a strict win–loss–tie system or on a points system where a certain number of points are awarded for a win, loss, or tie, while bonus points might also be added for teams meeting various criteria. Many leagues also use playoffs , where after teams compete in
486-550: Is a sports league where all the fixtures take place at the same venue, instead of rotating around the venues of the 'home' team, for each fixture. Several UK basketball leagues operate on this basis, intended to keep the costs of participation as low as possible, including: Many sports leagues also participate in a single-elimination tournament each year. In the United States, Mexico, and some other countries, these tournaments are commonly called "playoffs" and are played at
540-509: Is a structure that allows teams or individuals to compete against each other in a nonrandom order on a set schedule, usually called a season , with the results of the individual competitions being used to name an overall champion. A league championship may be contested in a number of ways. Each team may play every other team a certain number of times in a round-robin tournament . Usually, teams play an equal number of games or matches at their own stadium and at other teams', because home advantage
594-499: Is common to use slightly different terms to discuss MLB. Where someone might refer to "the best quarterback in the league" and be understood to mean the overall NFL, a similar mention of "the best outfielder in the league" is almost always a reference to the American or National League, while "in all of baseball" or similar is used to denote the larger status. Each of the major leagues also has its own set of awards to recognize
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#1732801965172648-559: Is especially common in individual sports, although the term "league" is sometimes used in amateur individual sports such as golf . The term "league" is also sometimes applicable to competitions that would more traditionally be called tournaments , such as the UEFA Champions League , which is organized with multiple small round-robin competitions followed by a single elimination tournament to choose an overall winner. "League" and its synonyms may be used to encompass either
702-551: Is still used in many team sports around the world. One potential drawback of this simple double round-robin format is that the number of teams in the league determines the schedule. Larger leagues may not be able to play as many games as such a system would require, and smaller leagues may want more games. In addition, leagues whose teams are geographically spread out over a wide area (a common situation for leagues in North America) may face significant travel costs. One solution
756-411: Is to allow teams to play each other whenever they see fit. In some sports, such as horse racing , the main goal of the entrants is to win individual purses , and there is little or no ranking or competition outside winning certain major races. A small amount of league organization may be imposed on these non-league sports by way of a series or tournament tying several individual events together, such as
810-428: Is to play an unbalanced schedule, with some teams playing additional games against some other teams; this is the way Major League Soccer has traditionally been scheduled, with the additional games being played against local rivals. Some leagues also break the league into subunits, often known as divisions and conferences , each of which may itself play a balanced or unbalanced schedule. A "central venue league" (CVL)
864-624: Is used primarily in Australia, Canada, and the United States is a closed model which always has the same teams playing, with occasional admission of expansion teams and relocation of existing teams . There is no team movement between the higher major league and the lower minor leagues . In many of these closed-model leagues in Canada and the United States, they are divided into subdivisions on historical or geographical lines. These may be referred to as conferences or divisions . For example,
918-427: Is used similarly in the United States to describe baseball teams that play in leagues other than those sanctioned by Major League Baseball . These teams do play in leagues and should not be confused with barnstorming teams that play truly non-league schedules. Individual sports often use an alternative type of league organization where competitors are ranked against each other. In the simplest cases, such as boxing ,
972-547: The American Association . New teams in Joplin, Missouri , and Topeka, Kansas , formed and joined the League. Wichita, with a record of 6–13, moved to Muskogee on June 6, keeping the Oilers name, where they had a record of 20–82. Hutchinson, with a record of 25–32, moved on July 7 to Bartlesville, where they had a record of 26–38. St. Joseph beat Topeka 4 games to 1. St. Joseph lost to the Davenport Blue Sox from
1026-582: The American League (AL) and the older National League (NL). They are titled leagues rather than conferences for several reasons. The National League predates the American by 25 years and was considered a "major" league in comparison to its early competitors, and in a sense it simply extended this recognition to the AL, the only league of similar financial clout. In addition, the leagues played no interlocking schedule of any kind until 1995, and then added only
1080-573: The Mississippi Valley League 4 games to 2. Bartlesville, Joplin, Muskogee, and Springfield moved to the Western Association . The teams from Davenport Blue Sox , and Rock Island Islanders joined from the Mississippi Valley League . New teams in Cedar Rapids, Iowa , and Sioux City, Iowa formed and joined the League. St. Joseph beat Sioux City 3 games to 1 in the first round of playoffs. Davenport beat Des Moines by
1134-845: The National Football League (NFL) is divided into the National Football Conference and American Football Conference ; the latter conference was formed largely from the remnants of the American Football League after it merged with the NFL , though it now contains three original NFL teams and three expansion teams. Both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) are divided into Eastern and Western Conferences. The conferences in
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#17328019651721188-534: The Triple Crown . Even in team sports that normally use a traditional league format, some teams often exist outside any league; these teams are generally known as barnstorming teams and either schedule games against local professional or amateur competition or bring their own competition, such as the barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters did when they toured with the Washington Generals . As with
1242-724: The Western Association . A new team formed in Denver, Colorado , and joined the League. Tulsa beat Mobile of the Southern Association 4 games to 1, with 1 tie Sioux City moved to the Tri-State League . Lincoln joined from the Nebraska State League . Springfield of the Three-I League led Des Moines 3 games to 1 when the series was cancelled due to bad weather. St. Joseph moved to
1296-712: The Western Association . A new team in Amarillo, Texas formed and joined. Waco of the Texas League beat Tulsa 3 games to 2, with 1 tie. Lincoln moved to the Nebraska State League . A new team in Pueblo, Colorado , formed and joined the League. Tulsa beat Oklahoma City 4 games to 1, with 1 tie, for the championship. Amarillo folded. The Topeka, Kansas team from the Western Association joined. The Tulsa team folded. A new team formed in St. Joseph, Missouri and joined
1350-619: The Wichita Indians began play in 1950. Photo of 1912 Team https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43637540/ Western League (1900%E2%80%931958) The Western League was the name of several American sports leagues in Minor League Baseball . This article concentrates on the Western Leagues that operated from 1900 to 1937 and from 1947 to 1958. Its earliest progenitor, the Western League of 1885–1899 ,
1404-568: The Class AA American Association for supremacy of the central states. The Western League reformed in 1947 with six teams: Denver Bears , Des Moines Bruins , Lincoln A's , Omaha Cardinals , Pueblo Dodgers and Sioux City Soos . All six clubs were affiliated with major league farm systems . The WL expanded to eight teams in 1950 , adding the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and Wichita Indians , but
1458-581: The Globetrotters, barnstorming teams sometimes emphasize spectacle over athletic competition. In Europe, the term "cup competition" is used to describe single elimination or knock-out tournaments, where the pairing of teams in each round is determined by a "draw" (see for example, the FA Cup in England), to distinguish it from league competition, in which every club in the league or division plays
1512-656: The Great Plains, Rocky Mountain States, the Upper Midwest and the Upper Southwest – was a top-level minor league until 1911, then two levels below Major League Baseball through 1935, and three steps removed in 1936–37 and when it was revived in 1947 during the post-war minor league baseball boom. For several years in the 1910s, the Western League champion played a postseason series against the champion of
1566-508: The League itself folded. Sports league A sports league is a group of individual athletes, sports teams or clubs who form a league to compete against each other and gain points in a specific sport . At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete periodically, at its most complex, it can be an international professional league making large amounts of money and involving dozens of teams and thousands of players. Many uses of
1620-441: The League. Des Moines Demons beat Wichita 4 games to 2 for the championship. Topeka moved to the Western Association . The Tulsa team joined. Oklahoma City beat Tulsa 2 games to 1 for the second half title. Tulsa beat Oklahoma City 4 games to none for the championship. Denver & Pueblo folded. Oklahoma City and Tulsa moved to the Texas League . The teams from Hutchinson, Kansas and Springfield, Missouri joined from
1674-491: The League. The Colorado Springs team, with a record of 22–48, moved to Pueblo, Colorado on July 15, where they had a record of 30–44. The St. Joseph team moved to the Western Association . A new team in Lincoln, Nebraska , formed and joined the League. Teams from Topeka, Kansas , and Wichita, Kansas , joined from the Western Association . The Pueblo team folded. A new team in St. Joseph, Missouri , formed and joined
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1728-532: The League. The Wichita team, with a record of 15–9, moved to Pueblo, Colorado on May 22, Their record there was 77–66. The Pueblo team moved back to Wichita, Kansas . Denver defeated the Minneapolis team of the American Association 4 games to 1. Milwaukee of the American Association defeated Denver 4 games to 2. Wichita Jobbers renamed Wichita Wolves. Indianapolis of the American Association defeated Denver 4 games to 2. The Wichita team, with
1782-642: The League. Teams from Kansas City, Missouri , and Minneapolis, Minnesota moved from the American League . The Minneapolis and St. Paul teams joined the American Association . New teams in Milwaukee, Wisconsin , and Peoria, Illinois , formed and joined the League. The teams in Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Peoria folded. the Sioux City, Iowa team from the Iowa–South Dakota League joined
1836-424: The NFL, NBA, and NHL are further divided into subsets, all of which are called divisions . These are geographically based, and teams play their divisional opponents more than any others, and then play the other clubs in their conference more than their non-conference opponents. Baseball has a unique nomenclature, with " Major League Baseball " (MLB) the name of the overall grouping of 30 teams in two "major leagues",
1890-631: The WL in 1900 and played continuously through 1937, when the league shut down during the Great Depression . Des Moines then rejoined the reborn Western circuit when Senator Edwin C. Johnson from Colorado founded it in 1947; this team, a Chicago Cubs affiliate called the Des Moines Bruins , then played for the final 12 years of the league's existence. Minor league baseball went unclassified through 1901. From 1902 until 1911, Class A
1944-612: The Wichita Aviators became the Wichita Oilers . After beginning the year 6–13, the club moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma , where they became the Muskogee Oilers . Overall the Oilers were 26–95, one of the worst records ever posted in the Western League. The club was just 20–82 after leaving Wichita, and only went 8–57 in the second half. The Oilers did not return in 1934 and Wichita would not have another team until
1998-671: The club was renamed the Wichita Aviators, and from 1930 to 1931 they became an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates . In 1931, the Aviators won their second Western league title, and fourth overall league title. The Aviators affiliation changed in 1932 from the Pirates to the Chicago Cubs . Former Aviators include Indian Bob Johnson , Woody Jensen , Vern Kennedy , Jack Mealey , and Hall of Famer Arky Vaughan . In 1933
2052-482: The conference, as other sports leagues do, but the individual schools also schedule a certain number of "non-conference" games that are organized independently between two schools in different conferences, or between a conference team and a non-conference team. Also, national championships in some college sports are determined by a ranking or playoff system that is independent of the individual conferences. Most major team sports play some form of round-robin schedule, where
2106-706: The encroachment of televised baseball and major league franchise shifts into former AAA cities hit the league hard. In 1955 , the Western League's two strongest franchises, the Denver Bears and the Omaha Cardinals , were admitted to the AAA American Association . The WL continued for four more seasons before folding in the autumn of 1958. Its last champion, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, attracted only 61,000 fans for
2160-471: The first round of the playoffs. St. Joseph beat Sioux City 4 games to 3 for the championship. Keokuk and St. Joseph folded. New teams formed in Omaha, Nebraska , and Waterloo, Iowa , and joined the League. Omaha moved to Rock Island on August 18. Rock Island folded July 7. Cedar Rapids and Waterloo moved to the Three-I League . Sioux City moved to the Nebraska State League . Davenport, Des Moines, and
2214-570: The goal is for each team to play a relatively balanced schedule with each other team in the league or in its league subdivision. Within this structure, there are a few significant differences between leagues, a few of which are set forth below. The simplest way to organize a sports league, and still one of the most common, is in a double round-robin format where each team plays each other team twice, once at home and once away. This ensures that every team plays an equally difficult schedule and that no team has undue home field advantage . This organization
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2268-463: The other teams a pre-determined number of times in a season, usually on a home and away basis. Further, in England, the term non-league football is used for historical reasons to describe association football teams that play in organized leagues, but not in the English Football League or Premier League , the two highest levels of competition in that sport in that country. Independent baseball
2322-464: The playoffs. While round-robin and modified round-robin competitions are the most common form of league organization, there are a number of ways to organize a sporting competition, almost all of which may be described as a "league". Many sports organizations fall on a continuum between a total lack of organization, as in a pick-up game, and a formal league such as is common at the highest level of professional team sports. The simplest form of competition
2376-989: The previous three seasons in the majors, hit safely in 69 consecutive games. Wilhoit's streak lasted from June 14 to August 19, during which he was 153-for-297 for a .515 batting average. He would lead the Western League with a .422 batting average and 211 hits before finishing the season (and his big league career) with the Boston Red Sox . Multiple Izzies players had or would go on to have major league experience. 1923: Johnny Butler , Joe Casey , Jocko Conlan , Howie Gregory , Ed Hovlik , Ernie Maun , Hugh McMullen , Paul Musser 1924: Fred Beck , Butler, Archie Campbell , Chuck Corgan , Gregory, Hovlik, McMullen, Musser 1925: Campbell, Chet Chadbourne , Corgan, Fred Graf , Gregory, Raymond Haley , Don Hankins , Hovlik, McMullen, Ray Morehart , Ken Penner , Bill Sweeney 1926: Jack Berly , Fred Brickell , Campbell, Pete Compton , Bill Doran , Gregory, Haley, Sweeney In 1920,
2430-826: The rankings mean little and the major competition is to crown a champion in a title fight. In other sports, the rankings and leaderboards gain importance when they are used in seeding tournaments. In some sports, points are assigned to results at individual competitions, and the resulting points are used to generate a season rankings and determine the season champion. While not usually referred to as "leagues", but "tours" or "series", these season-long competitions with set events are very similar to league structures in team sports. Examples of this are motorsport , tennis , golf , skiing , beach volleyball and rugby sevens . American college sports are traditionally organized into groups of teams known as conferences . These conferences ordinarily keep league tables and crown champions within
2484-475: The same number. In the championship, St. Joseph beat Davenport 4 games to 3. Topeka folded. A new team in Keokuk, Iowa formed and joined the League. Omaha, with a record of 22–15, moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa on June 25, where they had a record of 33–31. Rock Island folded July 17. Council Bluffs folded August 27. Sioux City beat Davenport 3 games to none, and St. Joseph beat Des Moines 3 games to none, in
2538-788: The season. In addition to the founding clubs and the Sky Sox, the postwar WL had teams in Albuquerque , Amarillo , Topeka , and Wichita . The new Western League formed as a Class B league in 1900. Charter teams were the Denver Grizzlies , Des Moines Hawkeyes , Omaha Omahogs , Pueblo Indians , Sioux City Cornhuskers and St. Joseph Saints . The teams in Pueblo and Sioux City folded. New teams in Colorado Springs, Colorado , and St. Paul, Minnesota , formed and joined
2592-417: The second half title. Des Moines defeated Hutchinson 4 games to 2 for the championship. The Denver and Lincoln teams folded. New teams in Sioux City, Iowa , and Topeka, Kansas , formed and joined the League. Hutchinson, with a record of 14–19, moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on June 2, where they compiled a record of 19–18. Topeka, with a record of 19–13, moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, where they compiled
2646-539: The separation between the two, which means there are two MVPs , two Cy Young Award winners, etc. Since its name is constructed differently—a description of the status of two leagues rather than the title of one—it is common to hear "MLB" without "the" attached to it, as in "the most home runs in MLB this year", since one would not say "the Major League Baseball". The common thread between all sports leagues
2700-560: The team relocated to Pueblo, Colorado , where they finished out the year as the Pueblo Indians . However, a team representing Wichita was fielded in 1912 to compete in the Western League. The Wichita Witches played continuously in the league until 1916. The team finished their 1916 season in Colorado Springs, Colorado as the Colorado Springs Millionaires , before returning to Wichita in 1917. The team
2754-480: The term league in sports and for sports organizations are misnomers as the term league relates specifically to the form of organization, requiring persons or bodies to be in league together. A sport competition owned and controlled other than by its participant players, teams or clubs is not a league. In many cases, organizations that function as leagues are described using a different term, such as association , conference , division , leaderboard , or series . This
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#17328019651722808-674: Was again renamed the Jobbers from 1918 to 1920, before retaking the Witches moniker as they won their third league title, the first in the Western League, in 1921. From 1923 to 1926, the club was renamed the Wichita Izzies , and they took the name the Wichita Larks from 1927 to 1929. In 1919, Jobbers outfielder Joe Wilhoit posted the longest hitting streak in professional baseball history. The 33-year-old, who had spent much of
2862-617: Was the highest level in the minor leagues. In 1912, a new top tier, Class AA, was created; in 1936, a second tier, Class A1, came into being. One year later, the existing Western League disbanded after it ended the 1937 season with only five teams, the Rock Island Islanders , disbanded on July 7. Then, in 1946, the Class AA leagues were renamed AAA, and the A1 loops were renamed AA. Thus the Western League – whose clubs were located in
2916-628: Was the predecessor of the American League . Later, during the 20th century, there were four incarnations of the Western League, including the Western League of 1939–1941 (succeeding the Nebraska State League ) that played at the Class D level, and an independent baseball league that operated as the Western Baseball League from 1995 to 2002. The league's longest-serving franchise was located in Des Moines, Iowa , which joined
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