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
Famous quotes containing the words england and/or league:
“The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island.”
—William Blackstone (1723–1780)
“Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward the Light Brigade!”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)