The Northwestern League was a

sports league A sports league is a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other and gain points in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on wee ...

that operated in the

Central United States The Central United States is sometimes conceived as between the Eastern and Western as part of a three-region model, roughly coincident with the U.S. Census' definition of the Midwestern United States plus the western and central portions o ...

during the early years of

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

for five seasons: 1879, 1883–1884, and 1886–1887. After the 1887 season, the league was replaced by the

Western Association The Western Association was the name of five different leagues formed in American minor league baseball during the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest league, originally established as the Northwestern League in 1883, was refounded as the Weste ...

. A second Northwestern League, located in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

, formed in 1905. The Northwestern League of 1883–1884 is considered the first baseball " minor league", as it was party to the National Agreement of 1883, along with the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

and American Association, whereby the leagues agreed to honor each other's suspensions, expulsions, and player

reserve clause The reserve clause, in North American professional sports, was part of a player contract which stated that the rights to players were retained by the team upon the contract's expiration. Players under these contracts were not free to enter into an ...

s, and established territorial rights.

Results by season

The league operated for a total of five seasons, during a span of nine years.

1879

Ted Sullivan 1893 Nashville American illustration

Four teams participated in the 1879 season, which ran from May 1 to July 7. Source:

1883

The 1883 season featured eight teams and ran from May 1 to September 29. Source:

1884

The 1884 season began on May 1 with 12 teams. The Bay City team disbanded in late July and was replaced by Evansville. In early August, multiple other teams disbanded. Play continued through August 13, at which time Milwaukee had the best record of teams still active. Milwaukee was later offered the league championship for the abbreviated season, but declined it. PhillipsHorace

Source:

The league reorganized on August 14, and started a second season with a limited schedule of 24 games planned for each of four teams. This short season would also end early due to financial difficulties, with the final game played on September 7. Source: The St. Paul and Milwaukee teams were late-season additions to the major league Union Association.

1886–1887

In 1886, the league was recreated when the Duluth Jayhawks; Eau Claire Lumbermen; St. Paul Freezers, Minneapolis Millers, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Oshkosh, Wisconsin team composed the league. Duluth won the championship. In 1887, the Northwestern League featured the Des Moines Hawkeyes, Duluth Freezers, Eau Claire, LaCrosse Freezers, Milwaukee Cream Citys, Minneapolis Millers, Oshkosh and the St. Paul Saints. Oshkosh won the championship.

Cities Represented 1891

* Bay City, MI: Bay City *

Dayton, OH Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

: Dayton *

Detroit, MI Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at the ...

Detroit Wolverines The Detroit Wolverines were a 19th-century Major League Baseball team that played in the National League from 1881 to 1888 in the city of Detroit, Michigan. In total, they won 426 games and lost 437, taking their lone pennant (and winning the pre ...

* Evansville, IN: Evansville Hoosiers * Fort Wayne, IN: Ft. Wayne *

Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

: Grand Rapids Shamrocks *

Peoria, IL Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria Metropolitan Area in Cent ...

Peoria Distillers The Peoria Distillers were a minor league baseball team that existed on-and-off from 1894 to 1917. They played in the Western Association from 1894 to 1896; the Central League in 1900, 1904 and 1917; the Western League from 1902 to 1903; and the ...

* Terre Haute, IN: Terre Haute Hottentots

Teams and Statistics 1891

1891 Northwestern League
schedule
br> President: W.H. Ketcham Peoria and Dayton disbanded July 16; Bay City disbanded June 7; Detroit disbanded June 6
Peoria won the first and second split-season. Evansville won the third split-season

References

External links

Northwestern League - Baseball Reference
Defunct minor baseball leagues in the United States Baseball leagues in Iowa Baseball leagues in Illinois Baseball leagues in Wisconsin Baseball leagues in Indiana Baseball leagues in Minnesota Baseball leagues in Michigan Baseball leagues in Ohio Baseball leagues in Nebraska