Madison Blues

The Madison Blues, from Madison, Wisconsin, were a long-running team that climbed the ranks of minor league baseball over two decades. The Blues began play in 1923 and progressed through the Wisconsin State League, the Tri-State League, and finally the Class B Three-I League (the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League) from 1940 to 1942. They won the Tri-State League in 1938 over the Sheboygan Chairmakers and, as a Chicago Cubs affiliate, reached the 1942 Three-I finals.

The Blues played at Breese Stevens Field in Madison, the first sports facility in Wisconsin with electric lights, installed in 1931. In 1938 the great Jesse Owens ran exhibition races at Breese Stevens during a Blues game, and one of the Blues' 1940 opponents was Warren Spahn of the Evansville Bees.