The Heartland League was an

independent baseball league An independent baseball league is a professional baseball organization in the United States or Canada that is not overseen by Major League Baseball and is outside the Minor League Baseball clubs affiliated to it. The Northern League and Frontie ...

that operated from 1996 to 1998 in the

central United States The Central United States is sometimes conceived as between the Eastern and Western as part of a three-region model, roughly coincident with the U.S. Census' definition of the Midwestern United States plus the western and central portions of ...

. The Heartland League was founded with teams in

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

;

Anderson, Indiana Anderson, named after Chief William Anderson, is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Anderson, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses Madison County. Anderson is ...

;

Will County, Illinois Will County is a county in the northeastern part of the state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 696,355, an increase of 2.8% from 677,560 in 2010, making it Illinois's fourth-most populous county. The county seat ...

; and

Dubois County, Indiana Dubois County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2020, the population was 43,637. The county seat is Jasper. Dubois County is part of the Jasper Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Dubois County was formed on Decem ...

. Lafayette won the championship in 1996. In 1997, the Clarksville Coyotes, Tennessee Tomahawks, and Columbia Mules joined the league from the

Big South League The Big South League was an independent baseball league that operated from 1996 to 1997 in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. The BSL sought to establish baseball clubs in a number of rapidly expanding urban areas without professiona ...

. The Altoona Rail Kings also joined the league from the

North Atlantic League The North Atlantic League was the name of two minor baseball leagues. The first was a Class D affiliated system that operated from 1946 until 1950, and the second was an independent minor league that played from 1995 until 1996. Three of that le ...

. The four teams from the previous year remained, giving the league eight teams. In 1997. the league drew over 210,000 fans, more than three times as many fans as in 1996. The league fielded six teams in 1998, but teams in

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

, and

Booneville, Mississippi Booneville is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi and is the county seat of Prentiss County. It is located in the hilly North Mississippi region, and ecologically is part of the Southeastern Plains region. The city of Booneville is nicknamed ...

, suspended operations midway through the season and the league suspended operations after the

Cook County Cheetahs The Windy City ThunderBolts are a professional baseball team based in the Chicago suburb of Crestwood, Illinois, in the United States. The ThunderBolts are a member of the Frontier League, which is a partner league of Major League Baseball. Sinc ...

jumped to the

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

. The Mid-America League was based in

, and was an

independent baseball Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independen ...

league located entirely within

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. The Mid-America League was the same league as the Heartland League with a different name and the same franchise.O'Neill, Paul. (May 19, 1996)

Worcester Telegram & Gazette The ''Telegram & Gazette'' (and ''Sunday Telegram'') is the only daily newspaper of Worcester, Massachusetts. The paper, headquartered at 100 Front Street and known locally as ''the Telegram'' or the ''T & G'', offers coverage of all of Worceste ...

''D'Auteuil wants to exit swinging / makes his last stand in Indiana.'' Section: Sports; Page D5. The Mid-America League operated in only four cities that were not served by

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

MAL Teams

Notes

References

See also