Bloomington Bloomers

The Bloomington Bloomers, hailing from Bloomington, Illinois, were a long-standing team in the Iowa-Indiana-Illinois or Three-I League during the early 20th century. The Bloomers started play in 1903 and played 29 seasons through 1939. The Bloomers won four league titles in 1903, 1919, 1920 and 1939. The 1935 team was player-managed by Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes, who was winding down his playing career. Grimes would move on to coach the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1937. 

The III League was a Class B league that ran from 1901 through 1962 consisting of teams from across Illinois, Indiana and Iowa, and occasionally other midwestern states such as Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. In the 1800s and first half of the 1900s, teams existed in thousands of small towns across the United States, as Americans looked for recreational activities and entertainment in the era before TV.