In 1994 a new league was born. It flew under the RADAR of many outside of the American Midwest. It was a time when independent leagues came and went, the Major League was plagued by drug and steroid controversy, and many of the big names in the game today were just starting out in their careers, in some cases still tagging along to ballgames with their moms and pops. Today the League has topped over 900,000 attendees in a single season, a claim that can be made by no other summer collegiate baseball league. Â 
As it comes to the end of its season, before the players head back to their studies or join up with one of the better known Minor League teams and baseball fans in the Midwest devote their entire attention to the pennant races of MLB, let’s take a short look at the Northwoods League.
The Northwoods League was created to provide university students, the next generation of ball players, a chance to experience life on the circuit without major disruption to their studies. Players must have NCAA eligibility; in other words cannot be paid, must attend a specified number of classes, and must perform to a certain academic level to be part of the team.
Unlike most MLB-affiliated Minor Leagues and Independent Leagues, the Northwoods chose to use wooden bats, allowing players to practice with the sort of equipment that would be used in the bigs.
The League is named for the famed woods of the upper Midwest and lower Canada, where the teams are based (7 in Minnesota, 6 in Wisconsin, 1 each in Michigan, Iowa and Ontario, Canada.) It is split into North Division and South Division. Although, as with many league division splits, the geographical location of some teams seems to play little part in whether they are in the North or South.
The North and South divisions meet for an All Star game once a year, in much the same fashion as in Major League Baseball. And just like MLB it is the winning team of each Division pennant who meet in the final.
At least 54 Major League players once graced the Northwoods League. Continue reading
or a while now, and we’re not even half way through yet. At the time of writing my team, the Milwaukee Brewers, have just completed a closely fought four game sweep of the Florida Marlins, immediately followed by a fairly disappointing series at home to the New York Mets.