Springfield Red Birds

The Springfield Red Birds, based in Springfield, Illinois, were a one-season identity for a franchise that spent the 1920s and 1930s renaming itself to match its current Major League Baseball affiliation. The club played as the Senators from 1925 to 1930, became the Browns in 1931 when it affiliated with the St. Louis Browns, then took the Red Birds name in 1934, its second season as a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate, when it joined the Class B Central League.

The Red Birds were sitting in second place in the Central League standings at 14-12 under manager Joe Mathes on June 10, 1934, the day the Central League permanently disbanded. Springfield's season, and the league itself, ended there.

The franchise picked back up in the Illinois-Iowa-Indiana League in 1935, renamed the Senators again under a new Detroit Tigers affiliation. Springfield finished 74-45 for second place and beat the Bloomington Bloomers four games to two in the playoffs, but Bloomington was awarded the title anyway after Springfield refused to replay a protested final game, a ruling the league president upheld.

Springfield returned to the Browns name in 1938 and won the Illinois-Iowa-Indiana League championship in 1939, beating the Decatur Commodores in the finals. The franchise continued on and off in Springfield, under various names, into 1950.

The Central League itself was a Class B circuit that ran, often sporadically, from 1903 into the 1930s (with a later 1948-51 revival), fielding teams mostly from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.