An Informal History of
the Northern Baseball League

Notes on Content

Herman D. White's "An Informal History of the Northern Baseball League" is a valuable look back into earlier years of the league, from the perspective of one who was there.

White's discussion focuses primarily on the fourth and fifth instances of the Northern League. As I attempted to ascertain the exact chronology of events outlined in the document, I encountered some ambiguities, however. I've outlined these below. If you have comments are additional information that sheds some light on these issues, please let me know.

The original document had no page numbers, so I have referenced errors by section heading and paragraph number. Selecting the links in the descriptions below takes you to the location of the referenced text.

It's difficult to ascertain from White's document just when the Northern League was re-formed, i.e., was it in 1932 or 1933? From other sources, I would have expected the date to be 1933, but the dates in the document seem to vary between 1932, 1933, and 1934:

• 1933 is the starting date implied by the title of the second section, "General Economic Conditions in 1933."
• Section "The Clubs and Their Cities," paragraph 5 implies that 1933 was the first year for the Superior team.
• Section "The Clubs and Their Cities," paragraph 13 says the league started in 1932.
• Section "The Clubs and Their Cities," paragraph 10 says that the Grand Forks club moved to Jamestown, N.D. after four seasons for 1936-1937. That would make 1932 the starting date for the club. This implies the league started in 1932, unless the Grand Forks club existed but in another league in 1932. Did it?
• Section "The Clubs and Their Cities," paragraph 8 says that Danny Boone was selected as president in mid-1933. Since he was chosen in the middle of the first season (reference), that would make the first year 1933.
• Section "The Organization of the Northern League," paragraph 7 says that Fargo-Moorhead was present in the first season of the new league. However, section "The Clubs and Their Cities," paragraph 11 says there was dissension between the two groups of owners of the Fargo-Moorhead club during the first two seasons, and that at the end of 1935, direction of the club was turned over to Steve Gorman. That would make 1935 the second year and thus 1934 the first.

Section "The Clubs and Their Cities," paragraph 4 says the record for runs in a professional game was set by Winnipeg over Eau Claire, 35-19, on August 16, 1933. But that record seems already to have been set in the Texas League by Corsicana over Texarkana, 51-3, on June 15, 1902 (Lamb, p. 86 [R33]; Obojski, p. 187 [R34]).

Section "The Clubs and Their Cities," paragraph 8 says Boone and Turnquist continued as league president and secretary to end of 1935 season. Section "League Officials," paragraph1 says 1934.

Section "The Organization of the Northern League," paragraph4 says the league hadn't operated since 1922. I have no record of the league operating in 1922. I suspect the date here should be 1917. See: NL Teams List

It's not clear how long the World War II cessation of operations was. Section "Early Pennant Winners" says the league was non-operational from 1943-1945. But section "The Clubs and Their Cities," paragraph 11 says this about the Fargo-Moorhead team: "Except for the war years of 1943-44, the Fargo-Moorhead club operated until it moved to Bismarck-Mandan in 1962." This implies the league ceased operations only during 1943-1944, unless Fargo-Moorhead had a non-Northern League team in 1945? Did it?