Wikipedia - Northwoods League

The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not paid, so as to maintain their college eligibility. Graduated senior pitchers are also eligible to play in the Northwoods League. Each team may have four of these players at a time.

Teams play 72 games scheduled from Memorial Day to the 2nd Saturday in August, while the playoffs take place the week after, starting on that Sunday and ending usually on Friday. The season itself is broken into two halves, with the winners of each half in each of the four sub-divisions playing against each other to determine a sub-divisional champion in a best-of-three series. The sub-divisional champions then meet in a winner-take-all game to determine a divisional champion. The divisional champions then meet in a winner-take-all game for the league championship.

In 2020, some teams cancelled their season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For those teams that did play, instead of playing within their usual divisions, they played in hub regions, with some creating "temporary teams".

In 2023, the Northwoods League announced plans to create a new professional softball league. The softball league will initially consist of four teams based in Madison, WI, La Crosse, WI, Mankato, MN, and Minot, ND.

History

Established in 1994, the Northwoods League was the first for-profit summer collegiate baseball league. It has more teams and plays more games than any other summer collegiate baseball league. The Northwoods League drew over 1.1 Million fans for the fourth consecutive year in 2017. The purpose of the league is to develop players while college baseball teams are not allowed to work out. Many of the teams in the league play in ballparks formerly occupied by professional clubs from the Midwest League, Prairie League, Northern League, and Frontier League. The wooden bat circuit allows communities deemed too small for professional ball to continue to enjoy high-quality, competitive baseball during the summer months. The Northwoods League was the first summer collegiate baseball league to broadcast on the ESPN network, and currently webcasts all of its games.

The teams are located in the Northwoods region of the Upper Midwestern United States and Northwestern Ontario, mostly in the U.S. states of Minnesota (five teams) and Wisconsin (nine teams); also with three teams in Michigan, two in North Dakota, and one team each in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ontario.

Over 200 league alumni have gone on to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) with 91 alumni entering the MLB ranks from 2013 to 2017. Alumnus Max Scherzer, the 2017 National League Cy Young Award winner, and American League runner-up Chris Sale faced each other as the starting pitchers in the 2017 and 2018 Major League Baseball All-Star Games.

北森林聯盟(Northwoods League)是美國一個著名的棒球錦標賽。該聯盟成立於1994年,是美國最受歡迎和最具競爭力的夏季木棒聯賽之一。北森林聯盟由22支球隊組成,分佈在美國中西部和加拿大的明尼蘇達州、密歇根州、威斯康辛州、伊利諾伊州、愛荷華州、俄亥俄州和安大略省。

北森林聯盟的比賽吸引了來自全球各地的優秀棒球選手,包括大學生和職業球員。這些球員在夏季聯賽期間獲得了寶貴的比賽經驗,並有機會展示自己的才華。北森林聯盟的比賽水平高,競爭激烈,經常吸引大量觀眾前來觀看。

北森林聯盟的賽季從5月初開始,一直持續到8月底。每支球隊都會進行70場比賽,其中包括主場和客場比賽。賽季結束後,排名前四的球隊將進入季後賽,爭奪北森林聯盟的總冠軍。

北森林聯盟的比賽場地設施一流,提供了舒適的觀賽體驗。觀眾可以在露天看台或室內座位上觀看比賽,並享受美國夏季棒球的熱情氛圍。此外,球場周邊還有各種美食和紀念品商店,讓觀眾在觀賽間休閒娛樂。

北森林聯盟不僅是一個優秀的棒球比賽,也是一個培養年輕球員的平台。許多北森林聯盟的球員在聯賽結束後獲得大學或職業球隊的邀請,繼續他們的棒球事業。因此,北森林聯盟被認為是美國棒球界的重要一環,吸引了大量球迷和球探的關注。

無論您是棒球愛好者還是想要體驗美國夏季棒球的熱情,北森林聯盟都是您不容錯過的賽事。在這裡,您可以欣賞到高水平的比賽,感受到棒球運動的魅力,並與其他球迷一同享受這個美妙的體育盛事。