The Northern League, like many other leagues, has had championships based on both regular season and post-season play. This document describes the various championship formats that have been used in the league over the years. For the details of which teams won championships, see the championship winners list.
Overall 1st-place winners. Every season has one team that finishes in first place with the best overall record. This team is identified variously as "champion" or "pennant winner," depending on the source you consult.
Split-season winners. A split-season format was used during 1916, 1933-1935, 1957, and 1993-present. Under this format, there are separate winners for each half of the season. In addition, since 1996, when the league was reorganized into Eastern and Western divisions, each division has its own season-half pennant winners. (The St. Paul Saints and the Madison Black Wolf finished the 1996 first half with identical records. A one-game tiebreaker was played to determine the Eastern Division first-half winner. St. Paul won this game, which became part of the first-half win-loss record for both teams.)
A split-season format is typically followed by a post-season playoff between the season-half winners, so the question naturally arises: what if the same team wins both halves of the season? In recent years, the question has been settled by designating as the second-half winner that team with the second-best full-seasn record . I suppose this rule might also have been in effect in earlier years; however, I'm unable to determine whether or not that was the case on the basis of the sources I've seen. (In 1995, St. Paul won both halves of the season and there was a tie between Winnipeg and Sioux City for next-best full-season record. A one-game tiebreaker was played to determine the other post-season contestant. Winnipeg defeated Sioux City in this game, which became part of the the second-half win-loss record for both teams.)
Baukol playoffs winners. During 1963-1964, two of the years in which Brooks Baukol was league president, the "Baukol playoffs" were used. These were not playoffs in the usual sense, since they involved no post-season competition. Instead, the team records for the final 30 days of regular-season play were used to determine playoff standings. I'm not sure what the purpose of this format was. Perhaps it acted as an incentive for all teams to do their best in the latter part of the season, when lower-ranked teams (and their paying fans!) might otherwise wane in enthusiasm. I'm not sure what provision, if any, was made to break a tie. For instance, in 1963, Grand Forks and Duluth-Superior finished with Baukol records of 17-11 and 18-12. The 17-11 record is a slightly higher winning percentage, which may be why Grand Forks is listed first in the results.
In addition to 1st-place winners determined according to team win-loss records, a league champion has been determined many years by some sort of post-season play.
Prior to 1933, there seem to have been no playoffs. Thus, there were apparently only pennant winners in 1903-1905, 1908, and 1913-1917. In 1904, 1908, and 1917 the league disbanded early; perhaps for those years there were not even pennant winners in the usual sense.
From 1933-1935, a split-season format was used, and playoffs were held between season-half winners. Series length varied between best-of-9 and best-of-7.
In 1936, a four-team playoff with two stages was introduced. In the first round, the 1st-place and 3rd-place teams played each other, as did the 2nd-place and 4th-place teams. The winners of those series advanced to the second (final) round to determine the league champion. This playoff format is recognizable as the "Shaughnessy playoffs." Developed in 1932 by International League executive Frank Shaughnessy, the idea was to heighten fan interest by making it possible for any of four teams to win a post-season league championship. Critics said this made the championship less meaningful if a 4th-place team could win it. Nevertheless, the idea caught on and several leagues had instituted Shaughnessy playoffs by 1936, the Northern League among them. During the period of 1936-1962, a 4-team playoff occurred every year the league was in operation except 1957. (A best-of-5 split-season playoff was used in 1957.)
The most common series length was best-of-7 in both the semi-finals and finals, although this varied somewhat as shown by the following table:
| Years | Semi-finals | Finals |
|---|---|---|
| 1936-1941 | best-of-7 | best-of-7 |
| 1942 | best-of-7 | best-of-9* |
| 1946 | best-of-7 | best-of-7 |
| 1947-1950 | best-of-5 | best-of-7 |
| 1951 | best-of-5 | best-of-3 |
| 1952-1955 | best-of-3 | best-of-5 |
| 1956 | single game | best-of-3 |
| 1958-1962 | single game | best-of-3 |
| * The finals in 1942 were best-of-9 because a team in one of the semi-finals series disbanded. The semi-finals series for the other two teams, having gone 2-2, was extended to a best-of-9 finals series. | ||
From 1963-1971 these was no post-season competition. Baukol playoffs (described earlier) were used in 1963-1964, and from 1965-1971 there were no playoffs at all.
When the league reformed in 1993, a split-season format was instituted once again, using a best-of-5 playoff.
An additional playoff round was introduced in 1996 due to the reorganization of the league into Eastern and Western divisions. Under this system, the 1st- and 2nd-half winners in each division play each other in a semi-finals round. The division winners advance to the finals. These series were all best-of-5, except that in 1997, the finals series was lengthened to best-of-7.
[R65] Johnson & Wolff. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, second edition, 1997. The primary source of information for this document.
[R48] Wright, Marshall D. The American Association, 1997. Source for Shaughnessy playoffs background information (p. 231).
R65 implies that a best-of-3 playoff was used in 1957, with Winnipeg taking the series over Duluth-Superior 2 games to 1. Examination of the newspapers of the day shows that the series was best-of-5, and that Winnipeg swept the series 3 games to none.