Town Team Baseball

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Town Team Baseball is a variety of baseball played in the United States. In Town Team baseball, sometimes also called townball, the teams represent either a given city or town, or a commercial enterprise which sponsors the team. Usually a statewide governing body sets uniform rules for two or more classes, including proximity (how close the player must live to the town for which he plays) and other eligibility rules, pay or stipends for players and coaches, boundaries, and rules to prevent players from switching teams without reason. Such governing bodies may also coordinate annual statewide playoffs, facilitate communication between teams and leagues, and help to arrange for training and placement of umpires.

Contents

[edit] History

The history of Town Team Baseball varies from state to state. In addition to the states included below, Townball was played in Iowa, Kansas, and Wisconsin.

[edit] Minnesota

Townball has been played in Minnesota since the 1920s. Townball enjoyed its peak of popularity in the 1940s and 1950s, with as many as 799 teams participating in the 1950 season.[1] The first town baseball team in Minnesota is believed to have been Nininger's, in 1857.[2] Although many towns in Minnesota have fielded baseball teams continuously since the 1880s, townball as we know it really came into existence in 1924 with the organization of the State Tournament, masterminded by the Saint Paul Pioneer Press and Saint Paul Dispatch writers Roy Dunlap and Lou McKenna.[3] One year later, the AM-ABL was formed as a governing body for Townball in Minnesota. This organization still exists as the Minnesota Baseball Association.

Numbers of teams and leagues operating in Minnesota peaked between the end of World War II (1945) and the arrival of Minnesota's new Major League Baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, in 1961. Since the minimum number of players required to field a team for a single game with no substitutions is nine, then at least 7191 (and in actuality a much larger number) individuals participated in Minnesota townball in the peak year, 1950.

[edit] Historic divisions

Historically, Townball teams in Minnesota were divided into three classes: AA, A, and B. In Class AA leagues, teams were permitted three players from outside the local area, and salaries were unlimited; essentially, whatever the team's owners or shareholders could afford, they could pay. Because the unrestrained competition and unlimited budgets bankrupted many teams and forced others to move to a lower class, this form of Townball disappeared in Minnesota by 1960, its leagues all victims of their own excesses. Legendary football coach Bud Grant played Class AA townball in Minnesota and Wisconsin and remarked, "I made more money playing [town team] baseball than I did playing for the Minneapolis Lakers...And we won an NBA title while I was playing for them." [4] Another perspective came from a former official from Bird Island, Fabian Sheehan: "We priced ourselves out of the business, but we sure had a good time doing it." [5]

Nonetheless, some teams were able to turn a profit at this level. Former Fergus Falls pitcher Harley Oyloe said, "As far as Fergus Falls, anyone who was around back then remembers those days and talks about them still. You tell the young kids that we used to have two or three thousand fans for a game and they think you're nuts." [6]

At the Class A level, teams were permitted two players from outside the local area, and salaries were still unlimited. Class B teams were required to draw all their players from a 15 mile radius from city limits, and no salaries were permitted, although many players were enticed to relocate to towns with B-level teams by offers of employment in local schools or establishments. Because this was the most economical level of Townball, it was also the most prevalent. However, it was always the least prestigious level of amateur baseball in Minnesota. It was not unheard-of for a town to field a B-class team in addition to an A or AA level team. Some towns even fielded three teams, with lower-level teams developing talent and feeding it to higher-level teams.

[edit] Today

In some states, townball is all but extinct in its traditional form. In others, particularly in Minnesota, it remains vibrant and popular.

[edit] Minnesota

Today there are more than 300 active Townball teams in Minnesota[7], playing in over 30 leagues throughout Minnesota[8], with major concentrations in the southern and central areas of the state.

[edit] Modern divisions

The classification system was revamped in 1986 to restore Minnesota amateur baseball to a 3-tiered format[9]. Today the three classes are A, B, and C. Class A is reserved for teams from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area[10] and Class B teams are typically composed of larger outstate towns and teams that have won the Class C Championship.[11] As of 2000, there were 48 teams in this class.[12] All remaining teams are in Class C. There are over 200 teams in this class.[13] This division is equivalent to class B under the old classification system.[14] The 2007 champions in Minnesota are:

[edit] Notable Players

Notable players from Minnesota Town Team Baseball include Herb Brooks, Carmen Cozza, Bobby Dill, Paul Giel, Bud Grant, Sam "Toothpick" Jones, Dana Kiecker, Jerry Kindall, Dick Lanahan, Tom Mee, Eugene McCarthy, Gread McKinnis, Les Munns, Frank O'Rourke (the sports and western author, not the Major League infielder), Jim Pollard, Jim Rantz, Frank "Pep" Saul, Howie Schultz, Herb Score, Dick Siebert, Whitey Skoog, Moose Skowron, Hilton Smith, Terry Steinbach, Dick Stigman, Hy Vandenberg, Rudy York, and Bert Blyleven (for one game in the 2007 season).

[edit] Nebraska

In 2007 in Nebraska, under the auspices of the Nebraska Baseball Association, there were nine leagues fielding over 50 teams. The 2007 state champions are:

  • The Lawlor Polecats in class A
  • Ogallala Moose Lodge #1624 in class B

[edit] North Dakota

The 2007 champions for North Dakota are:

[edit] South Dakota

Great Town Team Baseball teams and players from South Dakota are honored by the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in Lake Norden. The 2005 champions for South Dakota were:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Town Ball, the Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball, Armand Peterson and Tom Tomashek, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis and London, page x (introduction), ISBN 0-8166-4675-9
  2. ^ http://www.herald-journal.com/crvl/pages/ballhist.html
  3. ^ Town Ball, the Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball, Armand Peterson and Tom Tomashek, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis and London, page x (introduction), ISBN 0-8166-4675-9
  4. ^ Town Ball: The Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball
  5. ^ Town Ball: The Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball
  6. ^ Town Ball: The Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball
  7. ^ http://www.herald-journal.com/crvl/pages/ballhist.html
  8. ^ Minnesota Amateur Baseball Teams
  9. ^ http://www.herald-journal.com/crvl/pages/ballhist.html
  10. ^ Official Site of the Ada A's
  11. ^ Official Site of the Ada A's
  12. ^ http://www.herald-journal.com/crvl/pages/ballhist.html
  13. ^ Official Site of the Ada A's
  14. ^ http://www.herald-journal.com/crvl/pages/ballhist.html

[edit] External links

[edit] Bibliography

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