Northwoods League Continues Growing After Twenty Years Of Baseball

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The Northwoods League (NWL) All-Star Game is tonight in Eau Claire.

The summer collegiate baseball league is in its 20th season, and it’s become as much of the fabric of Wisconsin as the Friday night fish fry.

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Vern Stenman is an executive with the league’s teams in Wisconsin Rapids and Madison.

Terry Bell: The Minnesota Twins and the Milwaukee Brewers – let’s face it, they’re not that good this year. Does the NWL see a bump [in attendance] when the Twins and Brewers are bad?

Vern Stenman: I think it works both ways, to be honest. I think when they do well it helps create more baseball fans – I think that’s good for us. When they do poorly, I think it contrasts really nicely with us, and we become this affordable option. I think that really, at the end of the day, we’re all good for each other because we’re all about promoting the game of baseball and creating the next generation of baseball fans.

TB: The All-Star Game is tonight in Eau Claire, and next week is something a little more novel: the Big League Dreams Showcase, where about one hundred or so of the league’s top players will play two games in a double-header in Madison next week.

VS: The opportunity to take it from fifty of our best players [in the All-Star Game], to 100 of our top prospects is really exciting for the league. I think it really tells the story and continues to develop the story about how good the baseball is in the Northwoods League. If you’re a good baseball fan, and you want to come out and see these guys before they go on and sign that big contract, the Big League Dreams Showcase here in Madison is going to really be the best amateur baseball game you can imagine seeing in the summertime.

TB: Six NWL alumni [are] in this year’s MLB All-Star Game.

VS: Yeah, pretty exciting to see. You know, Max Scherzer [of the Detroit Tigers, formerly of the La Crosse Loggers] getting the start, Chris Sale [of the Chicago White Sox, formerly of the La Crosse Loggers] pitching great. It’s been really exciting. All these guys came through the Northwoods League. I think you can make a really strong case that we’ve become a very important part of developing the next round of big leaguers as well.

TB: Next year sees expansion for the NWL – Kalamazoo, Mich. and Kenosha.

VS: We’re really excited about that. We’re going to get a unique opportunity to restore a beautiful, historic stadium that dates back to the All-American Girls Professional League – a team called the Kenosha Comets played there. Satchel Page pitched barnstorming games at this place. We signed an agreement with Kenosha to restore it, and I think it’s going to be one of the nicest stadiums in the entire NWL, and I think it’s going to have one of the most unique stories.

With it, that will be the eighth team in the state of Wisconsin, and we’ll really be in the … eight biggest media markets, if you will – in the entire state of Wisconsin at that point. We’ll actually comprise over half of the state’s population in the markets that Northwoods League teams are operating in. It’s a pretty exciting number for us to see on the horizon.

TB: I don’t know if I’m telling tales out of school, but I’ve heard you mention perhaps that Opening Day next year may be a state holiday.

VS: I’m in the baseball business, not the lobbying business, I guess. But because of the fact that NWL has been so successful in Wisconsin … When you break it down to attendance, for instance here in Madison, you could make a reasonable case that that the Madison Mallards are more popular in the city of Madison than the Milwaukee Brewers are in the city of Madison.

I think the same holds true in Wausau, and in La Crosse, and in Eau Claire. These teams are becoming integral parts of these communities, and really a unique part of the quality of life in each of the places where they play baseball. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate that.