Midwest League

The Midwest League is a Class A minor league baseball league which operates in the Midwestern United States.

History

Six teams – the Belleville Stags, the Centralia Cubs, the Marion Indians, the Mattoon Indians, the Mount Vernon Braves, and the West Frankfort Cardinals – began operating as the Class D Illinois State League in 1947. The league changed its name to the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League in 1949 after the Marion team moved to Paducah, Kentucky. The league added teams in Clinton and Dubuque, Iowa, in 1954 and was renamed the Midwest League two years later. After the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League folded in 1961, teams from Appleton, Burlington, and Cedar Rapids joined the Midwest League for the 1962 season and remain in the league today. In 1963 the Midwest League became a Class A league after the minor league classification structure was reorganized.

In 1976 the Midwest League contracted from ten teams to eight when teams in Danville and Dubuque were eliminated. In 1982 the league expanded to 12 teams by adding the Beloit Brewers, the Danville Suns, the Madison Muskies, and the Springfield Cardinals. The Peoria Suns replaced the Danville Suns in 1983, and acquired their current name, Peoria Chiefs, the following year. The league began splitting its season into two halves and expanded to the present 14 teams in 1988 with the addition of franchises in South Bend, Indiana, and Rockford, Illinois. During the 1990s several teams changed cities as Major League Baseball placed higher standards on minor league baseball facilities; franchises in smaller cities were sold to new owners who moved those teams to new ballparks in larger cities. Kenosha, Madison, Rockford, Springfield, Waterloo, and Wausau lost teams during this decade while Battle Creek, Dayton, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids (West Michigan), Kane County, and Lansing gained teams.

The Fort Wayne Wizards are the oldest franchise in the league, having begun as the Mattoon Indians in 1947 and playing in Keokuk, Iowa, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, and Kenosha, Wisconsin before moving to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1993. The Clinton LumberKings have been in one city longer than any Midwest League team, having called Clinton, Iowa, home since 1954.

On September 2, 2008, Minor League Baseball announced that two teams would be transferring from the fellow Class A South Atlantic League to the Midwest League. These two teams are the Lake County Captains (an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians playing in Eastlake, Ohio) and a future team in Bowling Green, Kentucky (the former Columbus Catfish in Columbus, Georgia).

Season structure

The league plays a 140-game schedule that begins on the first Thursday in April and ends in early September, usually on Labor Day. Since 2000 it has been divided into an Eastern Division and a Western Division, with four teams from each division (the winners of each half of the season and one or two runners-up) qualifying for the first round of playoffs. The first two rounds of playoffs are best-of-three series; the league championship series is a best-of-five.

Midwest League presidents

1947-1948: Howard V. Millard
1949-1962: C.C. "Dutch" Hoffman
1963-1964: Walter C. Wagner
1965: Jim Gruenwald
1966-1973: James Doster
1974-1985: Bill Walters
1986: Ed Larson
1987-present: George Spelius

Current teams

Division	Team	MLB Affiliation	City	Stadium	Capacity
Eastern	Dayton Dragons	Cincinnati Reds	Dayton, Ohio	Fifth Third Field	8,200
	Fort Wayne TinCaps	San Diego Padres	Fort Wayne, Indiana	Parkview Field	6,500-9,000
	Great Lakes Loons	Los Angeles Dodgers	Midland, Michigan	Dow Diamond	5,500
	Lansing Lugnuts	Toronto Blue Jays	Lansing, Michigan	Oldsmobile Park	11,000
	South Bend Silver Hawks	Arizona Diamondbacks	South Bend, Indiana	Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium	5,000
	West Michigan Whitecaps	Detroit Tigers	Comstock Park, Michigan	Fifth Third Ballpark	11,123
Western	Beloit Snappers	Minnesota Twins	Beloit, Wisconsin	Harry C. Pohlman Field	3,501
	Burlington Bees	Kansas City Royals	Burlington, Iowa	Community Field	3,500
	Cedar Rapids Kernels	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	Cedar Rapids, Iowa	Veterans Memorial Stadium	5,300
	Clinton LumberKings	Seattle Mariners	Clinton, Iowa	Alliant Energy Field¹	4,000
	Kane County Cougars	Oakland Athletics	Geneva, Illinois	Philip B. Elfstrom Stadium	7,400
	Peoria Chiefs	Chicago Cubs	Peoria, Illinois	O'Brien Field	7,377
	Quad Cities River Bandits	St. Louis Cardinals	Davenport, Iowa	Modern Woodmen Park	4,024
	Wisconsin Timber Rattlers	Milwaukee Brewers	Grand Chute, Wisconsin	Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium	5,500