Wikipedia - Northwoods League

The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not paid, so as to maintain their college eligibility. Graduated senior pitchers are also eligible to play in the Northwoods League. Each team may have four of these players at a time.

Teams play 72 games scheduled from Memorial Day to the 2nd Saturday in August, while the playoffs take place the week after, starting on that Sunday and ending usually on Friday. The season itself is broken into two halves, with the winners of each half in each of the four sub-divisions playing against each other to determine a sub-divisional champion in a best-of-three series. The sub-divisional champions then meet in a winner-take-all game to determine a divisional champion. The divisional champions then meet in a winner-take-all game for the league championship.

In 2020, some teams cancelled their season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For those teams that did play, instead of playing within their usual divisions, they played in hub regions, with some creating "temporary teams".

In 2023, the Northwoods League announced plans to create a new professional softball league. The softball league will initially consist of four teams based in Madison, WI, La Crosse, WI, Mankato, MN, and Minot, ND.

History

Established in 1994, the Northwoods League was the first for-profit summer collegiate baseball league. It has more teams and plays more games than any other summer collegiate baseball league. The Northwoods League drew over 1.1 Million fans for the fourth consecutive year in 2017. The purpose of the league is to develop players while college baseball teams are not allowed to work out. Many of the teams in the league play in ballparks formerly occupied by professional clubs from the Midwest League, Prairie League, Northern League, and Frontier League. The wooden bat circuit allows communities deemed too small for professional ball to continue to enjoy high-quality, competitive baseball during the summer months. The Northwoods League was the first summer collegiate baseball league to broadcast on the ESPN network, and currently webcasts all of its games.

The teams are located in the Northwoods region of the Upper Midwestern United States and Northwestern Ontario, mostly in the U.S. states of Minnesota (five teams) and Wisconsin (nine teams); also with three teams in Michigan, two in North Dakota, and one team each in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ontario.

Over 200 league alumni have gone on to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) with 91 alumni entering the MLB ranks from 2013 to 2017. Alumnus Max Scherzer, the 2017 National League Cy Young Award winner, and American League runner-up Chris Sale faced each other as the starting pitchers in the 2017 and 2018 Major League Baseball All-Star Games.

Northwoods League — американская бейсбольная лига со средним уровнем игры, в которой играют студенты колледжей. Она была основана в 1993 году и состоит из 22 команд, расположенных в городах и поселках Среднего Запада, Великих равнин и Тихоокеанского Северо-Запада. Лига работает с июня по август, и в ней играют студенты колледжей со всей страны.

Northwoods League — одна из самых популярных летних бейсбольных лиг в США. В 2019 году лигу посетили более 1 миллиона болельщиков, что сделало ее второй по посещаемости летней бейсбольной лигой в стране после Кейп-Кодской бейсбольной лиги.

В Northwoods League играют многие будущие звезды бейсбола. Более 150 игроков Northwoods League были выбраны на драфте Главной лиги бейсбола, и многие из них стали игроками звезд и чемпионствами Мировой серии.

Сезон Northwoods League начинается в начале июня и заканчивается в середине августа. Команды играют по 72 игры в регулярном сезоне, и 4 лучшие команды в каждом дивизионе выходят в плей-офф. Полуфинальные игры и игры чемпионата плей-оффа проводятся в конце августа.

Билеты на игры Northwoods League можно приобрести в кассах стадионов и онлайн. Стоимость билетов варьируется от 5 до 15 долларов. Northwoods League — отличный способ провести летний вечер с семьей и друзьями.