Midwest League History The 1970s An overview of Midwest League history between 1970 and 1979. The Midwest League shed two franchises during this decade. The result was recognizably the current League's ancestor, as five of the eight 1979 teams continue as league franchises.

New 19feb07 (21jan97) Changed 31aug10 Major Change 19feb07

After the 1976 season, two franchises closed their doors and were not replaced; this began a short session without Illinois teams. Although the supporting cast would change markedly over the years, the league's core teams--Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Quad Cities, Waterloo, and Appleton--were now obvious and permanent fixtures in the MWL structure. Decatur, on the other hand, became the first franchise to relocate after a long, unbroken residency when the team transferred to Wausau for the 1975 season. The year before, the Quincy team had moved to Dubuque. While both of these cities had significant involvement in the league prior to this period, by decade's end they'd both permanently left professional baseball. The league saw a major affiliation shuffle after the 1974 season, and a smaller one after 1976. Four teams went the Co-op route in this period. The Midwest League was a Class A member of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues during this period.

History Overview Predecessors 1947-59 1960-69 1970-79 1980-89 1990-99 2000-09 Cities Spring

Seasons

Franchises, 1970-79

This table is largely the work of Jon Mielke.

Sources:

• Jon tells me much of his information came from Peter Filichia's Professional Baseball Franchises (New York: Facts on File, 1993), a book Jon calls "great".
• I've found much of the same information in Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff's Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (Durham: Baseball America, 1994; 2nd ed, 1997), which is the source for the "Seasons" tables and which I highly recommend to anyone who finds these pages interesting.
• Several of the franchise shifts are shown in Kevin Saldana's This Date in Minor League Baseball History (self-published, 1999).
• I've checked some of this information against the League's Media Guide and Record Book.
• It's easy to take this table too seriously. Please don't do so.

Although I've attempted to proofread these tables, typing and transcription errors are basically inevitable. Formatting problems are quite possible. There may also be errors of interpretation. Please tell me if you locate any of these problems. Thanks.

The Midwest League plays Single-A, professional baseball in America's agricultural and industrial heartland. 16 teams play a 140 game schedule which begins in early April and ends Labor Day weekend.

Disclaimers:
This website is a private project and has no official relation with or sanction from the Midwest League or Minor League Baseball.
The opinions expressed on this page are mine, and are worth about that.