About This Quiz
Baseball has a pretty long history that predates America even though the game is often considered America's national past time. People played baseball in the 1700s in England, although there probably weren't a lot of grand slams being knocked out of the park back then. Still, it's nice to know people n London, England, were enjoying baseball before most American cities even existed. The game took off in America, though and has spread from coast to coast. Of course, there are a lot of gaps in between, and many cities that used to have teams lost them.
Teams like the Washington Senators, for example, have come and gone more than once. Legendary teams like the Brooklyn Dodgers rose and fell. Cities like Louisville, Newark, and Buffalo have all lost teams, while teams like the Tampa Bay Rays didn't join the league until 1998. There's a lot of history and a lot of geography to try to keep straight when it comes to Major League Baseball. But if you're a real baseball fan, it shouldn't be too hard for you to figure out which cities have pro teams and which don't, right? So why not take the quiz and show off your stuff?
The city of Columbus, Ohio, doesn't have a team in the MLB at the moment. Tampa Bay has the Rays, which used to be the Devil Rays. St. Louis is home to the Cardinals, and Milwaukee is where you'd go to find the Brewers.
There's no team in the league currennly called the Blues, but there used to be one back in the day in the Federal League, which was a short-lived outlaw major league in 1914. At the time, the Blues played in Buffalo.
Another team that dates back to the formation of the league in 1901, the Detroit Tigers are one of the few teams in the league that has always been in the same city with the same name since they first showed up.
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One of the most famous teams in baseball history, the Boston Red Sox are one of the original teams in the league that dates all the way back to 1901. The Red Sox have won the World Series nine times and appeared there 13 times.
The Washington Nationals call Washington, D.C., home and have done so since 2005. The franchise, however, has existed since 1969 when it was known as the Montreal Expos, the first MLB team in Canada.
The Baltimore Orioles are one of the oldest teams in the league and they date all the way back to 1901 when they were in Milwaukee for a year. After that they headed to St. Louis where they spent 52 years as the Browns.
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As big as all of these cities in Tennessee are and as many pro sports teams in other sports as it has — the Tennessee Titans in football, the Nashville Predators in hockey, the Memphis Grizzlies in basketball — there is no MLB team in the state.
Ohio is currently home to a pair of professional baseball teams. The Cleveland Indians are one of them and the Cincinnati Reds are the other. There are no teams in Columbus, Akron, or Toledo. The Reds are incredibly old and predate MLB, all the way back to 1882.
The Padres play in Petco Park in San Diego, California. They've been playing there since 1969 and are one of only two of the teams in California that began in the state. The other team is the Angels. All of California's other teams are transplants.
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The Kansas City Royals have been in the league since 1969 when they joined as an expansion team. The name isn't a reference to any actual royalty but comes instead from the American Royal livestock show and competition that dates back to 1899 in Kansas City.
Louisville, Kentucky, does not have a Major League Baseball team so you won't be catching any games while you're there without a time machine. In the late 1800s, the Louisville Colonels played in the American Association, though.
California is huge when it comes to baseball, and the state is home to five MLB teams. San Francisco is home to the Giants, Oakland is where you'll find the Athletics and San Diego is home to the Padres. Los Angeles is home to the Dodgers and the Angels. Sacramento, though? No team.
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Newark may be the biggest city in New Jersey, but it doesn't have a professional baseball team at the moment. In 1915, the city did have a team in the Federal League called the Newark Peppers, and the Peppers played in Harrison, not Newardk.
The Cleveland Indians have been in the league since it formed in 1901. Back in the day, they were called the Cleveland Naps after Napolean Lajoie who was a player at the time. When he retired, the name seemed kind of pointless, so they put out a call for a new name and Indians is what they came up with.
Arguably one of the most well-known teams in the game, the New York Mets have been playing in Queens, New York, since 1962 when they were added as an expansion team to replace the legendary Brooklyn, Dodgers.
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The Miami Marlins spent a good part of their career in the MLB as the Florida Marlins. They joined the league in 1993 under that name and kept it until 2011 when they officially changed to the Miami Marlins, even though they had played there the whole time.
Seattle, Washington, is a pretty big sports city. The Mariners are the professional baseball team in town. The city also has a professional football team called the Seahawks, the Sounders in soccer, the WNBA Storm, and the Seawolves in rugby.
Texas is home to two professional baseball teams, but the only one on this list is in Houston. The Astros joined the league in 1962, but for their first three years, they were the Houston Colt .45s.
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The Toronto Blue Jays were an expansion team that joined the league in 1977. For a good part of their career, they played at Toronto's famous Skydome. The Skydome was sold to Rogers Communications so now the team plays at the Rogers Center.
The St. Lous Cardinals are one of the oldest teams in the league. Since its inception, the team has won the World Series 11 times, which puts them in second place overall — after the New York Yankees — for most World Series wins.
San Jose is a big city, but it doesn't have an MLB franchise. It does, however, have a minor league baseball team known as the San Jose Giants and an NHL hockey franchise called the San Jose Sharks.
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Charlotte has a number of pro teams in leagues, like the NFL where the Panthers play and the NBA where the Hornets play. When it comes to Major League Baseball, however, there's no representation in Charlotte.
Portland, Oregon, does not have a major league team, despite the city's population of over 600,000. Portland is home to a professional basketball team, the Trail Blazers, as well as a major league soccer team, the Timbers.
Although Jacksonville has a population of nearly one million, making it the biggest city in the entire state, it's not home to a professional baseball team. Florida has teams in Tampa and Miami, though.
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Pittsburgh is home to the Pirates, and it's one of two teams you'll find in the state. The other team is the Philadelphia Phillies. The Pirates predate the league and formed as a team in 1881, then joined the National League in 1887.
New Orleans is well-represented in the world of pro sports with teams like the Pelicans in the NBA and the Saints in the NFL, but the city does not currently have a Major League Baseball team.
The Colorado Rockies are the team you'll find playing at Coors Field in Denver. The team doesn't have nearly as long a history as some in the league, having joined as an expansion in 1993. They played their first two seasons in Mile High Stadium while Coors Field was being built.
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As one of the biggest cities in California, San Francisco does have a team, the Giants. In 1883, the team was formed with the exceptionally cool name, the New York Gothams. In 1885, the team becamse the New York Giants. In 1958, the Giants headed across the country to San Francisco.
The Los Angeles Dodgers originally came from Brooklyn (1883), but the team moved to Los Angeles for the 1958 season. The Dodgers were in the market for a new stadium, and attendance in Brooklyn had been declining for some time.
The Minnesota Twins play at Target Field in Minneapolis. They started in the league in 1901 as the Washington, Senators. By 1961, they had moved to Minneapolis and took on the Twins name in reference to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
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The team is known as the Texas Rangers, but Arlington is home. The Rangers used to be the Washington Senators, which was a team that existed not once, but twice. The first Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. The second team known as the Senators moved to Texas and became the Rangers.
All these cities have MLB teams, but Houston has only one, the Astros. Chicago has the Cubs and the White Sox, New York has the Mets and the Yankees, and Los Angeles has the Dodgers and the Angels.
The city of Indianapolis does not have a pro baseball team but it does have an NFL team called the Colts and an NBA team called the Pacers. And, of course, Indy is home to the Indianapolis 500 race, which is a pretty big deal as well.
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Philadelphia has been home to the Phillies since 1883. The Phillies were formed to replace a team from Worcester, Massachusetts. The Phillies have won the World Series only twice in their history, the last time in 2008.
Phoenix, Arizona, is a large city with a large number of sports teams, including the Diamondbacks. The team goes by the name "Arizona Diamondbacks," but they play in Phoenix.