There were many Mississippi precursors to the Big River Alliance: the Minnesota-Wisconsin League (1909-1912), the first Northern League (1902), the Mississippi Valley League (1922-1933), the Illinois-Iowa-Illinois League (Three-I League)(1937-42, 1946-61), the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League (1949-1955), and a league that continues to this day, the Midwest League, formed in 1956. Of these other ancestors, the Northern League survives today as a recycled independent league, the vanguard of that erratic contingent.
For the most part, these teams from Old Man River's past were larger leagues than the rookie ball teams of the Big River Alliance, although the BRA outmatches many of those leagues for stability, having endured since the late 70s. None of the precursors to the BRA maintained such a strict geographical allegiance to the Big Muddy, and all of them predate the era of major-league affiliations. The river towns of the BRA are older than the Big River Alliance and any of its forefathers. They are old towns, old and despairing, many of them, wondering why commerce had to go the way of the steamboat and the barrel factory. They are towns with boarded business, vacant lots, the smell of river sludge, and shoe factory jobs sent out of the country. They are brown towns holding on. But they have their consolation in minor-league ball. They can say that occasionally a future big leaguer passes through the gates of their parks and runs the bases on his way to the Show. They can say that one summer, a future utility infielder lived in the room upstairs, the one that used to be Jimmy's before he moved away to Chicago and stopped writing anymore. No, it's not much compensation, but it's what they've got.
North |
South |
Clinton Rafters | |
Dubuque Bluffs | Hannibal Pilots |
La Crosse Stations | Nauvoo Martyrs |
Prairie du Chien Eagles | New Boston Clamdiggers |
Winona Idealists | Quincy Abolitionists |