All across North America, baseball leagues were folding rapidly. Unable to keep up
with the advent of a new form of recreation, Television... which allowed Americans
to stay home to enjoy a nice evening of entertainment instead of consistantly
having to leave the comfort of their homes in order to find "something to
do". Baseball began to suffer terribly. The strange thing is, as almost every Minor
League in the nation went bankrupt, the Wisconsin State League was still doing
farely well when it called it quits before the start of the 1954 season. Green
Bay had just won a title and drew an impressive 71,000. Fond Du Lac who had
the best hitter in the league drew 54,000. Most everyone else was in the 30,000's
range. Not good by anyone's standards but not quite bad enough to end the
dreams of 8 Minor League ballteams. Witter Field would go dark for 10 years to
professional baseball. Slowly but surely, 3 markets of the Wisconsin State League
would be picked up by the Class A Midwest League. In 1962, Appleton signed up
to the Midwest League. By the following season... Witter Field joined the party
and Wausau came along in 1975. |