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The Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League was a minor league baseball organization that operated for the better part of 60 years, mostly in those three states. It was popularly known as the Three–I League and also sometimes jokingly as the Three-Eye League. The league began play in 1901 and disbanded after the 1961 season. It had also been inactive during some years of World War I, the Great Depression and World War II, following the lead of many minor leagues that suspended operations or failed during those severe times. As with many minor leagues, especially at the lower classifications, its membership fluctuated a great deal over its six decades. At various times it had teams in such medium-sized cities as Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Bloomington, Decatur, Danville, Peoria, Springfield, Evansville and Terre Haute. It was a Class B league in the old classification system that ran from Class D up to Class Triple-A. Since 1961 its territory has largely been supplanted by the Midwest League, which began as a Class D organization in 1947 and is now Class A under the restructuring of the minors that occurred in 1963. The league's unique name made it a convenient reference point for any mention of the minor leagues. Casey Stengel made the following comment in later life, evidently still feeling stung from having been traded by the New York Giants to the Boston Braves in the 1923-1924 off-season, despite having hit 2 game-winning home runs in the World Series: "It's lucky I didn't hit 3 home runs in three games, or McGraw would have traded me to the 3-I League!" ==Hall of Fame Alumni== At least 14 Baseball Hall of Famers spent part of their Minor League Career in the League: *Billy Williams, 1958 Burlington Bees *''Bob Uecker'', 1957 Evansville Braves -- NOTE: Uecker is the 2003 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award *Luis Aparicio, 1954 Waterloo White Hawks *Jim Bunning, 1951 Davenport Tigers *Warren Spahn, 1941 Evansville Bees *Lou Boudreau, 1938 Cedar Rapids Raiders *Burleigh Grimes, 1935 Bloomington Bloomers *Hank Greenberg, 1931 Evansville Hubs *Carl Hubbell, 1927 Decatur Commodores *Chuck Klein, 1927 Evansville Hubs *Tony Lazzeri, 1923 Peoria Tractors *Red Ruffing, 1923 Danville Veterans *Joe McGinnity, 1922 Danville Veterans *Red Faber, 1909-1910 Dubuque Dubs *Mordecai Brown, 1901 Terre Haute Hottentots; 1919-1920 Terre Haute Browns 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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