Northwoods League

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Northwoods League

Founded	1994
Sports fielded	men's: Baseball women's: Fastpitch softball
Divisions	Great Lakes Division, Great Plains Division
No. of teams	24 baseball, 6 softball
Countries	United States, Canada
Continent	North America
Most recent champion(s)	Baseball: Green Bay Rockers (2) (2025) Softball: Madison Night Mares (1) (2025)
Most titles	Rochester Honkers (5)
Level on pyramid	Summer Collegiate
Official website	www.northwoodsleague.com

The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer wooden-bat baseball and softball league. 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 and Wisconsin. Other teams are located in Michigan, North Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and Ontario.

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.

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.^[1] 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.

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 softball league. The softball league initially consisted of four teams, based in Madison (Madison Night Mares) and La Crosse, Wisconsin (La Crosse Steam); Mankato, Minnesota (Mankato Habeneros); and Minot, North Dakota (Minot Honeybees).^[2] In 2025, the Wausau Ignite was added.^[3][4] For 2026, the league will expand to Grand Forks, North Dakota; it will be the first Northwoods League Softball team to play in a non-Northwoods League Baseball market.^[5][6]

Over 400 league alumni have gone on to play in Major League Baseball (MLB). 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. Both pitchers had previously played for the La Crosse Loggers.

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 small cities it may be hard to find the financial stability in a newly-founded baseball league. League leaders realized they needed to gain significant revenue from sponsors in order to succeed. According to league chairman and co-founder Dick Radatz, Jr, two-thirds of the revenue comes from sponsors and the remainder from ticket sales, concessions, and team merchandise. Radatz also noted the importance of having the sponsor revenue before the beginning of the season.^[7]

Northwoods League

Division	Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Great Lakes Division[8]
East	Battle Creek Battle Jacks	Battle Creek, Michigan	C.O. Brown Stadium	2,193
	Kalamazoo Growlers	Kalamazoo, Michigan	Homer Stryker Field	4,000
	Kenosha Kingfish	Kenosha, Wisconsin	Simmons Field	3,218
	Rockford Rivets	Loves Park, Illinois	Rivets Stadium	3,279
	Royal Oak Leprechauns	Royal Oak, Michigan	Memorial Park	1,000
	Traverse City Pit Spitters	Chums Corner, Michigan	Turtle Creek Stadium	4,200
West	Fond du Lac Dock Spiders	Fond du Lac, Wisconsin	Herr-Baker Field	2,000
	Green Bay Rockers	Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin	Capital Credit Union Park	3,359
	Lakeshore Chinooks	Mequon, Wisconsin	Kapco Park	3,000
	Madison Mallards	Madison, Wisconsin	Warner Park	7,500
	Wausau Woodchucks	Wausau, Wisconsin	Athletic Park	3,850
	Wisconsin Rapids Rafters	Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin	Witter Field	1,560
Great Plains[8]
East	Duluth Huskies	Duluth, Minnesota	Wade Stadium	4,200
	Eau Claire Express	Eau Claire, Wisconsin	Carson Park	3,800
	La Crosse Loggers	La Crosse, Wisconsin	Copeland Park	3,550
	Rochester Honkers	Rochester, Minnesota	Mayo Field	2,570
	Thunder Bay Border Cats	Thunder Bay, Ontario	Port Arthur Stadium	3,031
	Waterloo Bucks	Waterloo, Iowa	Riverfront Stadium	5,000
West	Badlands Big Sticks	Dickinson, North Dakota	Dakota Community Bank & Trust Ballpark	1,200
	Bismarck Larks	Bismarck, North Dakota	Bismarck Municipal Ballpark	1,900
	Mankato MoonDogs	Mankato, Minnesota	ISG Field	4,000
	Minot Hot Tots	Minot, North Dakota	Corbett Field	1,266
	St. Cloud Rox	St. Cloud, Minnesota	Joe Faber Field	2,000
	Willmar Stingers	Willmar, Minnesota	Bill Taunton Stadium	1,500
Expansion
2026	Richmond[9]	Richmond, Indiana	Don McBride Stadium	1,787

Northwoods League

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Grand Forks	Grand Forks, North Dakota	Albrecht Field	1,000
La Crosse Steam	La Crosse, Wisconsin	Copeland Park	3,550
Madison Night Mares	Madison, Wisconsin	Warner Park	7,500
Mankato Habaneros	Mankato, Minnesota	ISG Field	4,000
Minot Honeybees	Minot, North Dakota	Corbett Field	1,266
Wausau Ignite	Wausau, Wisconsin	Athletic Park	3,850

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Result
1994	Rochester Honkers	---	---
1995	Kenosha Kroakers	Manitowoc Skunks	2-0
1996	Waterloo Bucks	Rochester Honkers	2-0
1997	Rochester Honkers (2)	Waterloo Bucks	2-1
1998	St. Cloud River Bats	Rochester Honkers	2-0
1999	Rochester Honkers (3)	St. Cloud River Bats	2-1
2000	St. Cloud River Bats (2)	Waterloo Bucks	2-0
2001	Wisconsin Woodchucks	St. Cloud River Bats	2-1
2002	Waterloo Bucks (2)	Brainerd Mighty Gulls	2-0
2003	Wisconsin Woodchucks (2)	St. Cloud River Bats	2-1
2004	Madison Mallards	Duluth Huskies	2-0
2005	Thunder Bay Border Cats	Madison Mallards	2-1
2006	Rochester Honkers (4)	Thunder Bay Border Cats	2-0
2007	St. Cloud River Bats (3)	Eau Claire Express	2-0
2008	Thunder Bay Border Cats (2)	Madison Mallards	2-1
2009	Rochester Honkers (5)[10]	La Crosse Loggers	2-1
2010	Eau Claire Express	Rochester Honkers	2-1
2011	Battle Creek Bombers	Mankato MoonDogs	2-0
2012	La Crosse Loggers	Mankato MoonDogs	2-0
2013	Madison Mallards (2)[11]	Duluth Huskies	2-0
2014	Lakeshore Chinooks[12]	Mankato MoonDogs	2-0
2015	Kenosha Kingfish[13]	St. Cloud Rox	2-0
2016	Wisconsin Rapids Rafters	Eau Claire Express	2-0
2017	St. Cloud Rox (4)	Battle Creek Bombers	2-1
2018	Fond du Lac Dock Spiders	Duluth Huskies	2-1
2019	Traverse City Pit Spitters	Eau Claire Express	3-2
2020	No official league champion as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic	---	---
2021	Traverse City Pit Spitters (2)	St. Cloud Rox	9-3
2022	Kalamazoo Growlers	Duluth Huskies	8-3
2023	Green Bay Rockers	St. Cloud Rox	4-3
2024	Kalamazoo Growlers (2)	La Crosse Loggers	8-7 (14)
2025	Green Bay Rockers (2)	Duluth Huskies	10-8

From 1995-2018, the league championship series was a best-of-3 between the two division champions. When the league expanded in 2019, the championship became a one-game playoff.

2020 Pod Champions^[14]

Pod	Champion	Result(Record)
Kenosha	Kenosha Kingfish	17-9
Michigan North	Traverse City Pit Spitters	33-8
Michigan South	Kalamazoo Growlers	40-25
Minnesota-Iowa	Waterloo Bucks	28-13
North Dakota	Bismarck Larks	33-15
Wisconsin-Illinois (East)	Fond du Lac Dock Spiders	31-17
Wisconsin-Illinois (West)	Wisconsin Rapids Rafters	35-11

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Result
2024	Mankato Habaneros	(no playoffs, best regular-season record)	31-11
2025	Madison Night Mares	Minot Honeybees	2-0

The Northwoods League, in addition to being a developmental league for players and coaches, is also a developmental league for umpires. The concentrated game schedule, travel, and Minor League-like game conditions give NWL umpires a pre-professional experience. Since the League's inaugural season in 1994, 44 of its former umpires have furthered their careers in affiliated professional baseball.

The League recruits its umpires from the two umpire schools whose curricula have been approved by the Professional Baseball Umpire Corps. (PBUC): The Minor League Umpire training Academy and Harry Wendelstedt School for Umpires. The umpires ultimately chosen are usually among the top school graduates who were then selected to the pre-season, PBUC sponsored Umpire Evaluation Course.

The NWL contracts with eleven three-man crews during the regular season, a six-man crew during the mid-season All-Star game, and six umpires for both the divisional playoffs and championship series.