Decatur Commodores
The Decatur Commodores, or Commies for short, were a historic and long running team from Decatur, Illinois. The Commies played from 1900 through 1974, with most of their run taking place in the Tripe I League, with additional stints in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League and the Midwest League after the Triple I collapsed in 1961. The Commies won four league titles; 1928, 1952, 1953, and 1957. Our Commodores shirt is based off of the real logo for the team.
In the 1920s, the Commodores played at Staley Field and shared it with the Decatur Staleys football team. That football team would eventually become the Chicago Bears.
While the Commies moniker may sound strange, it was in reference to Stephen Decatur, a US Navy Commodore from the early 1800s for which the city of Decatur was named.
One of the most successful Commies is Carl Hubbell, who is a hall of famer and won the 1933 series playing for the New York Giants.
The Triple I 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.
