Minor League history: Illinois State League

The Illinois State League saw the light in 1947 and lasted two years before it changed its name in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League in 1947. Eventually, the league became the current Midwest League. 

In its two years of existence, the Illinois State League operated as a class D league.
The league was created with completely new franchises and operated in Southern Illinois.
The charter franchises were in the Illinois cities of Belleville, Centralia, Marion, Mattoon, Mount Vernon and West Frankfort.After the Marion Indians moved to the State of Kentucky to become the Paducah Chiefs, the league changed its name into Mississippi-Ohio Valley League. Subsequently, the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League operated through 1955 and in 1956 changed names to become the Midwest League.

More to read here.

Fan Stories: 10 Questions for Baseball Uber-Fan Mike Dies (President, West Akron Baseball & Softball League)

For the next few weeks, FoulBallz.com will include a series of short interviews with ballhawks and uber-fans of baseball. These fans all agreed to answer 10 simple questions, no pressure, and very little editing. It’s been a wonderful experience for me to get to know these individuals in some capacity through Twitter. I hope you enjoy reading the answers as much as I have.

First up is Mike Dies, President, West Akron Baseball & Softball League (www.wabl.org and www.facebook.com/westakronbaseball).

1) When did you snag your first ball? 

After going to many games at an empty Cleveland Municipal Stadium as a kid, and lots of games at Jacobs Field when the Old Stadium closed, my first foul ball came in 1997 at Canal Park in Akron. I was walking in the concourse and caught it on one bounce.

2) What do you think about the extended netting issue?

I am all for it. I would like to see the netting extended to the end of each dugout. I would like MLB to be proactive in protecting the fans before someone is killed by a foul ball at a game. I understand that paying attention is 99.9% of it for the fans but it is not realistic to think that fans will sit and watch baseball for 3+ hours and not let their eyes wander from the action … especially with all of the distractions that the MLB clubs have created in the stadium. Attending baseball games today is nothing like attending games 10-15 years ago.

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Ed Comber (VP Of The BBBA/Owner – foulballz.com)  Follow @foulballz

High Desert and Bakersfield move to Carolina League

Sad news today. According to a source within Minor League Baseball, the California League will announce the contraction of the Bakersfield Blaze and the High Desert Mavericks later today. In the past few months, you could read here several posts with speculations about possible moves. Now it appears that those speculations were pretty close to the truth.

For years these two clubs have been named in rumors about two Cal League teams that would be moved to the East Coast.

More on the sad news can be read here.

Fayetteville a step closer t0 MiLB ballpark

The city council of the city of Fayetteville has unanimously agreed on a memorandum of understanding with the Houston Astros, continuing the city’s and the MLB team’s discussion about a new ballpark to support an Advanced A Carolina League team and outlining a basic framework as they move towards a more permanent agreement.

In the agreement is written that the stadium will be ready by 2019 and that the lease term will be 30 years. The Astros will pay the City of Fayetteville yearly rent for the stadium beginning in the amount of $250,000 which will increase after every fifth year for a total sum of more than $9 million.

More here