American Association (20th century)

The American Association (AA) was a minor league baseball league at the Triple-A level of baseball in the United States from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997. In both incarnations, it comprised teams primarily from Midwestern and South Central United States.

Together with the International League, the American Association contested the Junior World Series which determined the championship team in minor league baseball, at least for the eastern half of the United States. Later, its teams would also compete in the Triple-A World Series and Triple-A Classic, and its players in the Triple-A All-Star Game.

The league's attendance base began to be eroded significantly in the 1950s and early 1960s due to expansion and westward migration of major league teams into several of the AA's larger member cities: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Kansas City, Missouri; and Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. By 1961, the league was down to six clubs.

After the 1962 season, the American Association disbanded, and some of its member teams were distributed between the Pacific Coast League and the International League, while others (the Louisville Colonels and Omaha Dodgers) folded. The Indianapolis Indians were first assigned to the IL but then, in a geographic oddity, they were switched to the PCL. The Dallas Rangers, the Denver Bears, and the Oklahoma City 89ers also went to the PCL.