The Western League was the name of several American sports leagues in Minor League Baseball. This article concentrates on the Western Leagues that operated from 1900 to 1937 and from 1947 to 1958.
The league's longest-serving franchise was located in Des Moines, Iowa, which joined the WL in 1900 and played continuously through 1937, when the league shut down during the Great Depression. Des Moines then rejoined the reborn Western circuit when SenatorEdwin C. Johnson from Colorado founded it in 1947; this team, a Chicago Cubs affiliate called the Des Moines Bruins, then played for the final 12 years of the league's
existence.
Minor league baseball went unclassified through 1901. From 1902 until 1911, Class A was the highest level in the minor leagues. In 1912, a new top tier, Class AA, was created; in 1936, a second tier, Class A1, came into being. One year later, the existing Western League disbanded after it ended the 1937 season with only five teams, the Rock Island Islanders, disbanded on July 7. Then, in 1946, the Class AA leagues were renamed AAA, and the A1 loops were renamed AA. Thus the Western League – whose clubs were located in the Great Plains, Rocky Mountain States, the Upper Midwest and the Upper Southwest – was a top-level minor league until 1911, then two levels below Major League Baseball through 1935, and three steps removed in 1936–37 and when it was revived in 1947 during the post-war minor league baseball boom. For several years in the 1910s, the Western League champion played a postseason series against the champion of the Class AA American Association for supremacy of the central states.
The WL continued for four more seasons before folding in the autumn of 1958. Its last champion, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, attracted only 61,000 fans for the season. In addition to the founding clubs and the Sky Sox, the postwar WL had teams in Albuquerque, Amarillo, Topeka, and Wichita.
The Topeka team folded. A new team in Joplin, Missouri formed and joined the League. Colorado Springs moved back to Wichita. St. Joseph, with a record of 34–56, moved to Hutchinson, where their record was 32–24, on July 24. Sioux City moved to St. Joseph on August 5.
Hutchinson defeated Joplin 3 games to none for the second half title.
Des Moines defeated Hutchinson 4 games to 2 for the championship.
1918
The Denver and Lincoln teams folded. New teams in Sioux City, Iowa, and Topeka, Kansas, formed and joined the League. Hutchinson, with a record of 14–19, moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on June 2, where they compiled a record of 19–18. Topeka, with a record of 19–13, moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, where they compiled a record of 18–18, on June 2. The League suspended operations on July 7 due to World War I.
Oklahoma City beat Tulsa 2 games to 1 for the second half title.
Tulsa beat Oklahoma City 4 games to none for the championship.
1933
Denver & Pueblo folded. Oklahoma City and Tulsa moved to the Texas League. The teams from Hutchinson, Kansas and Springfield, Missouri joined from the American Association. New teams in Joplin, Missouri, and Topeka, Kansas, formed and joined the League. Wichita, with a record of 6–13, moved to Muskogee on June 6, keeping the Oilers name, where they had a record of 20–82. Hutchinson, with a record of 25–32, moved on July 7 to Bartlesville, where they had a record of 26–38.
St. Joseph beat Sioux City 3 games to 1 in the first round of playoffs. Davenport beat Des Moines by the same number. In the championship, St. Joseph beat Davenport 4 games to 3.
1935
Topeka folded. A new team in Keokuk, Iowa formed and joined the League. Omaha, with a record of 22–15, moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa on June 25, where they had a record of 33–31. Rock Island folded July 17. Council Bluffs folded August 27.
Sioux City beat Davenport 3 games to none, and St. Joseph beat Des Moines 3 games to none, in the first round of the playoffs. St. Joseph beat Sioux City 4 games to 3 for the championship.
1936
Keokuk and St. Joseph folded. New teams formed in Omaha, Nebraska, and Waterloo, Iowa, and joined the League. Omaha moved to Rock Island on August 18.
Cedar Rapids and Waterloo moved to the Three-I League. Sioux City moved to the Nebraska State League. Davenport, Des Moines, and the League itself folded.
Sioux City moved to Mitchell July 24.
The league played four quarters. Norfolk won the first, second and fourth quarters, while Sioux Falls won the third quarter. Playoff: Sioux Falls 4 games, Norfolk 2.
Playoffs: Lincoln 3 games, Des Moines 2; Sioux City 3 games, Denver 2. Lincoln defeated Sioux City 6-0 for third place. Finals: Sioux City 4 games, Lincoln 2.
Playoffs: Des Moines 3 games, Colorado Springs 1; Wichita 3 games, Pueblo 2. Wichita defeated Des Moines in a one-game playoff for third place. Finals: Wichita 3 games, Des Moines 0.
The Western League was the topic of the book The Western League: A Baseball History, 1885 through 1999 (2002, McFarland Publishing) by W. C. Madden & Patrick J. Stewart. The ISBN0786410035.[5]
References
Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, editors. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 1997 edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America.
Sumner, Benjamin Barrett. Minor League Baseball Standings: All North American Leagues, Through 1999. Jefferson, N.C.:McFarland. ISBN0-7864-0781-6