Valley City Hi-Liners

The Valley City Hi-Liners, based in Valley City, North Dakota, carried their name through two Class D seasons that were, strictly speaking, two different ball clubs. The first was a 1922 Dakota League franchise. The second was a 1923 North Dakota League club that arrived from somewhere else entirely.

The 1922 version began under team president J.H. Sampson, who hired former major league pitcher Charlie Boardman as player-manager. Boardman was signed away by the Kansas City Blues shortly after the season started, first baseman Ernie Menne took over briefly, and the club never recovered. Sitting at 25-46 on August 3, 1922, the franchise moved to Bismarck and finished the year as the Bismarck Capitals, ending 30-64 and last in the eight-team league.

Valley City got the name back the following summer by the same mechanism that took it away. The New Rockford-Carrington Twins, a charter member of the 1923 North Dakota League, relocated to Valley City on July 17 and became the Hi-Liners. Under manager Earl Pickering the combined club went 30-38 and placed third in the four-team circuit, 17.5 games behind the Minot Magicians. The league folded when the season ended early that August.

Valley City has not hosted professional baseball since. 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.