The Northern League has operated professional baseball teams during six different time cycles. These include 1902 to 1905, 1908, 1913 to 1917, 1933 to 1943, 1946 to 1971, and 1993 to the present time.

In each of these eras, teams from North Dakota have participated in Northern League baseball. State cities that have had league franchises include Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, Bismarck, Jamestown, Devils Lake and Cavalier.

The Northern League began in 1902 when the Crookston Crooks in Minnesota and Winnipeg (Manitoba) Maroons were joined by the North Dakota teams: the Cavalier Swordsmen, the Devils Lake Salties, the Fargo Nine, and the Grand Forks Forkers.

A "forker" was a hard-working member of a harvesting crew who pitched the grain bundles into the threshing machine.

Because of poor attendance, the teams from Cavalier and Devils Lake disbanded on July 21. They were replaced by Minnesota teams from Duluth and Superior in 1903. Most of the players on the Northern League teams were supplied by the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints minor league baseball teams. The season was short, comprising 80-plus games, which allowed college students to play baseball during the summer.

Following the 1906 season, the teams from Fargo and Grand Forks were replaced by squads from Calumet and Houghton in Wisconsin when the Northern League was absorbed by the Copper County Soo League.

The Northern League reemerged in 1908 as the Wisconsin teams were replaced by the Brandon Angels and the Fargo Browns. As in the past, the Fargo ballpark was at the site where St. Luke's Hospital is now located.

One of the most beloved figures in the early Northern League was Arthur "Artie" O'Dea, who had been a star player for the St. Paul Saints at the turn of the century.

He was entrusted with much of the financial responsibility of the league. In early August of 1908, O'Dea disappeared, and when the league players were not paid, the season abruptly ended and the Northern League was again disbanded. When O'Dea resurfaced a couple of months later, he said he went to his home in Beaver Bay, Minn., where he "occasionally knocked over a rabbit or a partridge." I have no records showing that any legal action was ever taken against O'Dea.

From 1909 to 1911, the name of the league was changed to the Minnesota-Wisconsin League, and in 1912, most of those teams formed the new Central International League. Between 1909 and 1912, there were no North Dakota cities in those leagues.

The Northern League once again emerged in 1913 with teams from Winnipeg, Duluth, Superior, La Crosse, Minneapolis, Winona, and Grand Forks. In 1914, the Fargo-Moorhead Grain Growers replaced the Minneapolis Roughriders.

Because of financial difficulties, the Grand Forks Flickertails withdrew from the Northern League on July 5, 1915. The league was comprised of eight teams in 1913, 1914, and 1915, but dropped down to six teams in 1916.

Only four teams existed in 1917, and a big reason for the drop in number of teams was because the U.S. had declared war on Germany on April 6. Many young ballplayers enlisted in the army, and the only remaining Northern League teams from the prior season were the Winnipeg Maroons and the Fargo Grain Growers.

Two new teams joined the league in 1917 - the Warren Wanderers, from Minnesota, and the Minot Why Nots. With Denny Sullivan as their new manager, the Grain Growers were leading the league on July 2, 1917, when the season was halted because of the war.

Although the Northern League and no other minor leagues existed in North Dakota between 1917 and 1933, baseball was still a popular sport in the state. Almost every town with a population of 100 or more had a baseball team, and many of them contained professional ball players.

Following the Great Depression of 1929, organized baseball in America fell on hard times. There were 25 different minor leagues in 1929, and by 1931, the number was down to only 16 leagues.

Several former major league ballplayers, who were living in the Midwest, and who were unable to find a professional team with which to play, got together with some businessmen and decided to form a league of their own. They resurrected the Northern League, which began operation in 1933.

Next week we will continue the history of North Dakota teams in the Northern League.

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