| Classification |
|
|---|---|
| Sport | Baseball |
| Founded | 1916 |
| Ceased | 1932 |
| Owner(s) | George Weiss (1919–1929) |
| No. of teams | 8 annually |
| Country | United States |
| Last champion(s) | Springfield Rifles (1932) |
| Most titles | New Haven (4) |
The Eastern League was a Minor League Baseball sports league that operated from 1916 through mid-season of 1932. The successor to an early 20th-century edition of the New England League, it was not related to two other like-named leagues: an earlier Eastern League founded in 1884 that was absorbed into the International League, and a later Eastern League that began as the New York–Pennsylvania League in 1923.
The Eastern League of 1916–1932 was a mid- or higher classification league, beginning in 1916 as a Class B circuit and upgraded to Class A in 1919. Its president, Tim Murnane, a former sportswriter, and many of its original member clubs were inherited from the New England League, which ceased operation in 1915. While most of its teams were centered in New England and upstate New York, in its later years the Eastern League admitted teams from Pennsylvania and Virginia. The league consisted of eight teams annually during its existence. The New Haven franchise, owned and operated by George Weiss during 1919–1929, won four of the league's 17 championships, although under multiple nicknames. Weiss would go on to a Baseball Hall of Fame career as a top executive with the New York Yankees.
This edition of the Eastern League collapsed during the nadir of the Great Depression on July 17, 1932.
