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If Major League Baseball goes through with plans to eliminate the Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos, it will mark a historic moment for the game. This would be the first league contraction in 100 years and the end of one of the charter members of the American League. MPR’s Jim Bickal interviews Bill James, one of the country's leading authorities on the history of baseball and author of the book The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.

James compares Major League Baseball’s proposed contraction of two teams to the contraction of 1900, when the National League went from twelve to eight teams.

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Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.

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