Midwest League History

Beginnings

An overview of the Midwest League's predecessor leagues, the Illinois State League and the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League, and the first few years under the MWL's permanent name.

This page shows the early era of Midwest League baseball. "Boisterous" is a good description for this period in all of minor league baseball; "expansive" is another, so is "chaotic". During this period teams lived unusually precarious existences. The 1956 change to the Midwest League name reflected a real change in structure, or perhaps attitude, as things began to stabilize and fly-by-night teams became a thing of the past.

The Illinois State League was born in rural Southern Illinois, in Mattoon and Centralia, in Mount Vernon and Marion. Belleville's Stags and West Frankfort's Cardinals filled out the team roster. The ISL was a decidedly local institution, fed much by local rivalries and community pride.

Before the 1949 season, Marion's franchise was moved to Paducah, and the league was no longer a purely Illinois concern. The name adjusted to the new geography; the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League lived where those valleys came together. This league was very unstable; teams would join, hang around for a couple years, then expire. Some years found teams in six towns; others saw eight.

The Hannibal team failed late in of 1955, and played its last two homestands on the road. The subsequent franchise move to Michigan City made the M-OV name inaccurate; thus the change, finally, to the Midwest League name which still prevails.

Our league was finding its identity, but it was also fighting for continued existence. During these years several small leagues formed and failed in the middle west; only the Midwest and Northern Leagues survived past 1962.

The ISL, the M-OV, and the early MWL were Class D members of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.