The

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ( ...

(IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

. A champion has been determined at the end of each season since the league was formed in 1884. Through 1932, champions were usually the regular-season pennant winners—the team with the best

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

at the conclusion of the season. From 1933 to 2020, postseason

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eit ...

were held to determine champions. Participants from 1933 to 1987 were usually the four teams with the highest

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

s. From 1988 to 2020, the four qualifiers were the division winners and one or two wild card teams. The winner of each season's playoffs was awarded the Governors' Cup. These playoffs and the issuing of trophy were discontinued in 2021, when the winner was the team with the best regular-season record. As of 2022, the league championship is determined by a single-game playoff at a neutral location between the East and West division winners, with the winner meeting the champion of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

in the

Triple-A National Championship Game The Triple-A National Championship Game is a single interleague postseason baseball game between the league champions of the two affiliated Triple-A leagues of Minor League Baseball (MiLB)—the International League (IL) and Pacific Coast Lea ...

. The

Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Field, located in downt ...

have won 19 International League championships, more than any other team, followed by the

Columbus Clippers The Columbus Clippers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. They are located in Columbus, Ohio, and are named for speedy merchant sailing vessels known as cli ...

(11) and the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

, original

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen F ...

, and

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

(10). Among active IL franchises, Rochester has won 19 championships, the most of all teams, followed by Columbus (11) and the

Durham Bulls The Durham Bulls are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. They are located in Durham, North Carolina, and play their home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which opened ...

and

Syracuse Mets The Syracuse Mets are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets. They are located in Syracuse, New York, and play their home games at NBT Bank Stadium, which opened in 1997 and has ...

(8). During the era of the Governors' Cup playoffs from 1933 to 2020, the most cup titles were won by Columbus (11), followed by Rochester (10) and Syracuse (8).

History

Pre-playoff era (1884–1932)

The

was founded in 1884. The modern circuit traces its roots from several predecessor leagues: the

Eastern League Eastern League may refer to: Baseball in the United States ''Most recent leagues listed first'' * Eastern League (1938–present), a minor league established in 1923 and renamed Eastern League in 1938, at the Double-A level * Eastern League (1916� ...

(1884),

New York State League The New York State League was an independent baseball league that played six seasons between 2007 and 2012 in New York State and the New York City metro area. Over 500 NYSL players have been signed by professional teams. Players from forty-eight ...

(1885), International League (1886–1887), International Association (1888–1890),

Eastern Association The Eastern Association of counties was an administrative organisation set up by Parliament in the early years of the First English Civil War. Its main function was to finance and support an army which became a mainstay of the Parliamentarian mi ...

(1891), and Eastern League (1892–1911). It adopted consistent use of the International League name in 1912. After the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the league was known as the Triple-A East in 2021 before reverting to the International League moniker in 2022. A league champion has been determined at the end of each season. With few exceptions, champions from 1884 to 1932 were simply the regular-season pennant winners—the team with the best

at the conclusion of the regular championship season. The first league champions were the

Trenton Trentonians The Trenton Trentonians were a minor league baseball team that played in Trenton, New Jersey, from 1883 to 1885. They were members of the Interstate Association in 1883 and the Eastern League from 1884 to 1885. Their home games were played at ...

, who won by four games over the

Lancaster Ironsides The Lancaster Red Roses baseball team, originally known as the Maroons, changed its name at the start of the 1906 season during a bitter match with the York, Pennsylvania-based White Roses. Some sources indicate that the rival teams were named fo ...

in 1884. The 1891 and 1892 seasons were contested as

split season A split season is a schedule format implemented in a variety of sports leagues. The season is divided into two parts, with the winners of both halves playing each other at the end for the overall championship. Split seasons are usually found in sp ...

s or "double seasons". Under this format, the schedule was split into two parts. The team with the best record at the end of the first season won the first pennant. Standings were then reset so that all clubs had clean records to begin the second season. If the same team won both seasons, they were declared the league champion. This was the case in 1891 when the original

won both halves. If a different team won the second season, the two winners would meet in a playoff series to determine the champion. This happened in 1892 when the

Binghamton Bingoes Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluenc ...

, winners of the second season, defeated the Providence Clamdiggers, winners of the first season, four games to two. In 1932, the

Newark Bears The Newark Bears were an American minor league professional baseball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They were a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and, later, the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball. T ...

became the last team to win the championship by virtue of winning the regular-season pennant before a recurring series of playoffs were instituted.

Governors' Cup era (1933–2020)

Frank Shaughnessy Francis Joseph "Shag" Shaughnessy (April 8, 1883 – May 15, 1969) was an American athlete and sports executive. Shaughnessy played both baseball and football and was an executive in baseball, football and ice hockey. He was born in the United S ...

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the International League's

Montreal Royals The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team in Montreal, Quebec, during 1897–1917 and 1928–1960. A member of the International League, the Royals were the top farm club (Class AAA) of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939; ...

, was interested in developing a way for multiple clubs to share in the excitement of postseason play. His new playoff format, devised to maintain the interest of fans and players alike during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, provided an opportunity for four teams to compete for the league's championship. In 1933, he introduced his plan to league president Charles H. Knappe, and the result was the Governors' Cup playoffs. Several other leagues noticed the success of the "Shaughnessy Plan" and began using the system as well. The governors of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and the lieutenant governors of the provinces of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

and

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, in which the league's eight teams were located at the time, sponsored a trophy to be awarded annually to the winner of the International League playoffs. The original trophy, designed by the supervisor of the league's

umpires An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

and

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...

W. B. Carpenter, was created out of solid silver. In 1988, IL president Harold Cooper donated the trophy to the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

Cooperstown, New York Cooperstown is a village in and county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the ...

, where it is on permanent display. A new trophy was minted in its place to be presented to the winner of the Governors' Cup playoffs. Under this system, the top four teams in the league, based on

, competed for the championship. From 1933 to 1987, the first round typically consisted of a best-of-seven-games series between the first and fourth-place teams and a series between the second and third-place teams. The winners of these semifinals then faced one another for the championship in a best-of-seven series. The first Governors' Cup was won in 1933 by the original Buffalo Bisons, who defeated the

, 4–2. Sporadically from 1966 to 1980, one or both rounds were reduced to best-of-five series. From 1981 to 2020, both rounds were the best-of-five. The IL utilized a divisional alignment for the first time in 1963. The first-place teams from each division, North and South, met in the first round, as did the second-place teams, with the winners meeting in the finals. The circuit reverted to having no divisions in 1964 but returned to the same playoff format with North and South Divisions for 1973 and 1974. From 1988 to 1991, the International League held an interleague partnership with the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

, called the

Triple-A Alliance The Triple-A Alliance was an interleague partnership between the American Association (AA) and International League (IL) Triple-A leagues of Minor League Baseball from 1988 to 1991. The two leagues played an interlocking schedule consisting of 40 ...

, in which they played an interlocking schedule, and the leagues' champions met in the Triple-A Classic. During this period, the IL was divided into East and West Divisions, and the division winners faced off in a best-of-five series to determine champions. After the dissolution of the Triple-A Alliance following the 1991 season, the International League maintained this divisional alignment but returned to having a semifinal round wherein the top two teams in each division played each other to qualify for the Governors' Cup finals. The league was split into three divisions, North, South, and West, from 1998 to 2020. Under this arrangement, the three division winners and a wild card team (the team with the best second-place record) qualified for the playoffs. The best-of-five semifinals pitted the North Division winner against the wild card team, and the South and West Division winners against each other. The winners then played in a best-of-five round to determine the champion. The last team to win the championship this way was the

, who won the last Governors' Cup in 2019. The 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Current era (2021–present)

The International League ceased operations before the 2021 season in conjunction with

's (MLB) reorganization of Minor League Baseball. In place of the International League, MLB created the Triple-A East, a circuit divided into three divisions, Northeast, Midwest, and Southeast. Prior to the 2022 season, MLB renamed the Triple-A East the International League, and it carried on the history of the IL prior to reorganization. Rather than hold playoffs for its championship, the Triple-A East's 2021 title was awarded to the team with the best regular-season record. The

won this championship by four-and-a-half games ahead of the

. Along with these changes, all references to the Governors' Cup as the championship of the International League were discontinued, and a different trophy was awarded in 2021. In 2022, the league was reorganized in East and West Divisions. Under this alignment, the winners of each division meet in a single game to determine the league champion.

Champions

Pre-playoff champions (1884–1932)

Governors' Cup champions (1933–2020)

2021–present

Wins by team

''Active International League teams appear in bold.''

Governors' Cup wins by team

Notes

References

Specific General * * * * {{International League

Champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...

International International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

International League champions