The first league of that name played for four years (1887–1890) and consisted of teams in
Ohio,
Michigan and
West Virginia. The
Canton Nadjys won the 1889 Tri State League championship.
Cy Young pitched for the Nadjys in his first professional season and acquired his "Cy" nickname while pitching for Canton. The second league, played from 1904–1914, and had member clubs in
Delaware,
New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. The League contested its 1904 championship game in Philadelphia between York and Williamsport and attracted 3,500 fans to the
Phillies' ball park Charles F. Carpenter was president from 1906 to 1913. During the 1920s, two versions of the Tri-State League briefly existed: a 1924 loop with clubs in
Iowa,
Nebraska and
South Dakota, and a 1925–1926 association located in
Tennessee,
Mississippi and
Arkansas. In the late 1930s another iteration existed for two years, composed of six teams from
Wisconsin,
Illinois and
Indiana in its first season, and just four teams excluding Indiana in its second. The most recent incarnation of the league was the post-
World War II Tri-State, a Class B circuit with clubs in Tennessee,
North Carolina and
South Carolina. This league, which played from 1946–1955, typically included clubs in
Charlotte,
Asheville,
Knoxville,
Rock Hill and
Spartanburg; most of its teams were affiliated with
Major League Baseball farm systems. The attendance crisis in the minor leagues of the 1950s—and the defection of clubs like Charlotte to higher-classification loops—eventually took its toll on the Tri-State League. In its last season,
1955, there were only four clubs in the league. Its last champion was the Spartanburg Peaches, an affiliate of the
Cleveland Indians. There were teams in southern Maryland that played in a "Tri-State League" in at least the 60s, 70s, and the 80s. There was a team called the Pomonkey Giants associated with a Pomonkey social club in Pomonkey Maryland. They played teams in Berry Road near La Plata, Maryland and in Hughesville among others. It was very much a rural league and almost totally black players. The team is mentioned in the obituary of a player and coach, George Dyson, Jr in 2020. One of the most extensive discussions of this Tri-State League explains how integration of Major League baseball led to the demise of the
Negro leagues. It became neighborhood baseball. ==Teams==