The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played sporadically in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League Baseball clubs in Boston and alongside stronger, higher-classification leagues. Ultimately it could not survive the region's economic problems (and competing sources of entertainment) in the mid-20th century.
In 1946, the NEL, the International League and the Canadian-American League - which all included farm teams of the Brooklyn Dodgers - were the first 20th century leagues (except for the "outside 'organized baseball'" Negro Leagues) to permit African-Americans to play. The following season, Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby would integrate the major leagues.
Read more about New England League: Early History, Semi-pro League During The Early 1940s, Return To Professional Status
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“Tried by a New England eye, or the more practical wisdom of modern times, they are the oracles of a race already in its dotage; but held up to the sky, which is the only impartial and incorruptible ordeal, they are of a piece with its depth and serenity, and I am assured that they will have a place and significance as long as there is a sky to test them by.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the bestits all theyll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you moneyprovided you can prove to their satisfaction that you dont need it.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)