- PONY League
The Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York League, also known as the PONY League, was a Class D
minor league baseball circuit that played from 1939 through 1956. The forerunner of the modern Class ANew York - Penn League , the PONY served as the first professional baseball address of many futureMajor League Baseball players. Founded the year thatCanada (as well as the rest of theBritish Commonwealth ) enteredWorld War II , it was one of only two Class D leagues (along with the Appalachian) to remain active during the entire 1939-45 wartime period.In its maiden season, the PONY League included clubs in
Bradford, Pennsylvania ;Hamilton, Ontario ; and Batavia, Jamestown, Niagara Falls and Olean, all inNew York . Olean, a Brooklyn Dodgers farm club, won the pennant.It addition to those clubs listed above, the PONY League also had franchises in:
Erie, Pennsylvania ;London, Ontario ; and Corning, Hornell, Lockport and Wellsville, New York.One year after the Hamilton franchise, a longtime
St. Louis Cardinals affiliate, disbanded in May 1956, the league changed to its current identity, which it has retained despite the re-entry of several franchises based in Ontario during the 1980s.
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