After Walter O’Malley got Horace Stoneham good and drunk and persuaded Stoneham to move the New York Giants along with his Dodgers to the Left Coast a movement went through baseball to start a third Major League to be called the Continental League. This league would help NYC replace the Dodgers and Giants and allow cities like Houston, Toronto, Denver and Minneapolis-St Paul to join and have big league baseball.  The league would be headed by Branch Rickey. The creation of this league put pressure on MLB to expand and from this league sprang the Houston Colt 45′s (now the Astros) The LA Angels, Washington Senators and our beloved NY Mets.

In the Bottom Of The Ninth, (published by Henry Holt and Co) Michael Shapiro lays out in detail the behind the scenes negotiations that led to the threat of a new league helping bring back National League baseball to NYC plus the drama between Bill Shea, Casey Stengel and the Mahatma himself.

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