During the 19 seasons of Northern League baseball, between 1933 and 1954 (in 1943, '44 and '45, league play was suspended for World War II), teams from North Dakota won the league championship seven times.

The Grand Forks Chiefs and Fargo-Moorhead Twins each won three league titles and the Jamestown Jimmies won one championship, despite the fact that they were only in the league for two years.

Because of the Great Depression, the number of minor leagues had dwindled from 25 in 1929 to 16 in 1931. Many professional baseball players were now out of work, and a large number of youngsters, aspiring to play the game professionally, had less of an opportunity to find a team.

In 1932, a group of former professional baseball players, led by former major league player Bruno Haas, met with businessmen and decided to reconstitute the Northern League with eight teams.

The clubs included Grand Forks, Fargo-Moorhead, Winnipeg in Manitoba, Superior and Eau Claire in Wisconsin, and Crookston, Brainerd and Little Falls in Minnesota. Before the season began, the Little Falls team dropped out.

Russell L. Voelz, a Grand Forks salesman and owner of the Grand Forks Colts, was named league president. The Colts received 400 applications from players for the inaugural season in 1933, and more than 200 were asked to report for the opening of spring training.

When the season began, Grand Forks did not have a suitable ball park, so all of the home games were played in East Grand Forks until the franchise moved to Jamestown in 1936.

The 1933 Fargo-Moorhead Twins team was largely made up of youngsters, a number of them local, and veterans.

The Twins lost their first 11 games and were never able to get untracked. They finished the season in last place with a 30-75 record. Most of the players were not paid their full salary, and, at the end of the season, the team's franchise was revoked.

Veteran sports promoter Steve Gorman was brought in, the team was reinstated, and Gorman negotiated a deal to make the Twins a franchise of the Cleveland Indians. Former major league pitcher Jack Knight was hired as manager, and, in 1934, the Twins won the league championship. Throughout the rest of the 1930s, the Twins were one of the strongest teams in the Northern League.

In 1936, John Anderson, the manager and now owner of the Colts, moved the franchise to Jamestown because he was unhappy with the attendance in Grand Forks.

The Jamestown Jimmies won the league championship in 1936, but after seven of Anderson's best players were signed to major league contracts at the end of the season, the Jimmies dropped to fifth place.

In 1938, the franchise was moved back to Grand Forks where it became a farm team of the Chicago White Sox.

In the late 1930s, the franchises at both Fargo and Grand Forks received new stadiums with modern lighting, the result of WPA projects. Barnett Field, at 19th Avenue North and Broadway, opened in Fargo on July 29, 1937, and the Municipal ball park, at Fifth Avenue and Washington Street, opened in Grand Forks on June 14, 1938.

In the early 1940s, things looked optimistic for the Chiefs. They won the league championship in 1940 and finished second in 1941.

However, in 1942 the team floundered badly and finished the season dead last with a 31-84 record, one of the worst records in league history. The FM Twins never finished above sixth during the first three years of the 1940s.

With many professional athletes serving in the military during World War II, the Northern League suspended operation after the 1942 season.

When the war was over, the Northern League resumed operation in 1946.

During the 1949, '50 and '51 seasons both the Chiefs and the Twins struggled to play winning ball. Only once did either of the teams finish higher than sixth place, and that was the 1951 Chiefs.

The Twins, however, put together the two best seasons of their franchise history in 1953 and '54, winning the league championships both years. It all started in 1952 when the team acquired a player by the name of Frank Gravino, the greatest slugger in Northern League history.

In 1952, Gravino led the league in both home runs (32) and runs batted in (108). This however, was just a warm-up. In 1953, he hit 52 homers and drove in an incredible 174 runs.

His teammate, Roger Maris, won rookie of the year honors with nine home runs and 80 runs batted in. The Twins finished the season at 86-39, yet Maris was the only player on the team to ever earn a promotion higher than AA in the minors.

(Correction: Last week I mistakenly reported that Calumet and Houghton were in Wisconsin instead of Michigan. Next week we will conclude our report on the Northern League.)

(Written by Curt Eriksmoen and edited by Jan Eriksmoen. Reach the Eriksmoens by e-mail at cjeriksmoen@;cableone.net.)