History of amateur baseball

Reprinted from the 2000 State Amateur Baseball Program.

Town Ball, August 1857 in Nininger, Minnesota, a baseball club was formed to challenge other towns.

Guess what? 147 years later there are 59 leagues and 308 teams playing TOWN BALL in Minnesota. You can still see the signs in the middle of the streets telling everyone that passes through Main Street that there is a ball game Sunday at the park.

The Year 1865 brought inter-city baseball competition. Imagine that, wasn't there a big war going on at that time, "THE CIVIL WAR."

General Henry H. Sibley formed and ran the Minnesota State Association of Baseball Players. The year 1867!

The North Star Club of St. Paul beat the Excelsior Club of Minneapolis 38-14 before a very impressive crowd. The year, 1865! The North Star Club of St. Paul was the first state champion, beating the Vermillion Baseball Club 43-35. The year, 1867!

Four of the top known teams were St. Cloud, Stillwater, Vermillion, and Northfield. The year, 1860s-1870s.

Town Ball continued to grow in popularity as just about every town around the state at one time or another fielded a team. Between 1945 and 1959, the state tournament drew over 20,000 fans 11 times. These were considered the peak years.

In 1960, the Twins moved into town and the attendance began to drop. Minnesota had its first modern day major league team.

Town Ball has a rich history and can brag that there has been a continuous state tournament for the last 74 years.

Minnesota went to a three-tiered system in 1986, using a Class A, B, C format for dividing teams into a more equal level of competition.

Class A - All teams are composed of players inside the 694/494 loop. Not all your players have to live inside the loop, however if some do, the team will be classified as "A."

Class B- The elite of the non-city teams. There are 48 B teams.

Class C - This the heart of what Town Ball is all about. It is made up of teams from all over the state. They are organized into leagues with neighboring towns and have been playing each other for the past 100 years. Each league has its own recruiting limits (5-20 miles).
All the teams in the Crow River Valley League are Class C.