Cedar Rapids Raiders

Baseball in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, goes back over 120 seasons to 1890. The Cedar Rapids Raiders were a historic team prior to WWII. The Raiders played first in the Western League from 1934 to 1937 and then moved to the Triple I League (Illinois - Indiana - Iowa League) from 1938 to 1942. These were minor leagues that ran in the early 1900s consisting of teams from across the Midwest. 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.  

The Raiders were associated with the St. Louis Cardinals for a time, and that might be what helped them win the Western League in 1937 with a 78-38 record after finishing second the year before. After that year, the Western League disbanded prompting the Raiders moved to the Three I League. 

In 1939, the Raiders won the regular season Three I League pennant with a 73-46 record by one game over the Evansville Bees. Oddly, the Bees played two more games, losing them both. The Raiders would repeat in 1940, this time also capturing the playoff title. They would win the same double in 1942 as well! 

The Three I would break for WWII and when it returned in 1946, Cedar Rapids wasn't represented. Baseball would return to the city in 1949 with the Rockets of the Central Association.