Minor League Baseball
Reorganization of 1963
The forerunner to the modern Double-A classification, the A1 level existed from 1936 through 1945. In 1936, two Class A circuits, the Texas League and the Southern Association, were upgraded to Class A1 to signify their continued status as one step below the highest classification, then Double-A, yet a notch above their former Class A peers, the New York–Pennsylvania League and Western League. Ten years later, after World War II, with the minor leagues poised for unprecedented growth, classification terminology was changed. Beginning in 1946, the three Double-A leagues of 1912–1945, the American Association and International and Pacific Coast leagues, joined a new classification, Triple-A, and the Class A1 level became known as Double-A.
Minor League Baseball-40