page_title: History of baseball in the United States
section_title: 1961–1962
hierarchical_section_title: History of baseball in the United States / The Major Leagues move west / 1961–1962
caption_attribution_description: English: The checklist card of the 1985 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics trading cards set. An interior photograph of the Oakland Coliseum during an Athletics baseball game appears on the front of the card and a checklist of all 28 of the trading cards in the set appears on the back. The card is numbered #28 in the set.
context_page_description: The history of baseball in the United States dates to the 18th century, when boys and amateur enthusiasts played a baseball-like game by their own informal rules using homemade equipment. The popularity of the sport grew and amateur mens' ball clubs were formed in the 1830-50s. Semi-professional baseball clubs followed in the 1860s, and the first professional leagues arrived in the post-American Civil War 1870s.
context_section_description: Along with the Angels, the other 1961 expansion team was the Washington Senators, who joined the American League and took over the nation's capital when the previous Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. 1961 is also noted as being the year in which Roger Maris surpassed Babe Ruth's single season home run record, hitting 61 for the New York Yankees, albeit in a slightly longer season than Ruth's. To keep pace with the American League—which now had ten teams—the National League likewise expanded to ten teams, in 1962, with the addition of the Houston Colt .45s and New York Mets.
caption: Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, opened in 1966, was built in part to lure the Athletics from Kansas City.
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