IWL Baseball celebrating 70th anniversary

PORTSMOUTH -- On Sunday, July 30, the weekend of the annual Portsmouth St. Mary’s Parish Picnic, the Iowa Western League (IWL) baseball championship game will be held in Portsmouth for the 50th consecutive year.
    As part of the championship celebration, a 70th anniversary reunion is planned at the ballpark, and will continue at the parish hall during the picnic dinner.  All former and present players and fans are welcome.
    Just like in Iowa, baseball throughout the nation had flourished from the late 1800s to 1940.  But in 1943, 1944 and 1945, there were no organized baseball teams in Western Iowa due to World War II and the enlistment of young men.
    Then, in the spring of 1947, Father Duran from Westphalia with the help of a young Barney Zimmerman, sent letters to different towns in Western Iowa encouraging the possible formation of an organized baseball league.  In May, 1947, the Iowa Western Amateur Baseball League was formed.  Over the years the league has included 32 towns from six Iowa counties.