GCBL History
Home
Game Summary
GCBL Rules
GCBL History
GCBL Pictures
Contact Page
Hall of Fame
League News
Labor Day Tourney Pictures
Labor Day Hardball Tournament
Maps to the Parks
Alma Mustangs
Coleman Philly's
Eaton County Outlaws
Fulton Sultans
Howard City Steelheads
Midland Cobras
Manistee Saints
Riverdale Lumberjacks
St. Louis Spirits
Sidney Knights
GCBL Forum
History of Gratiot County Baseball League
| PAST GRATIOT COUNTY BASEBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS | ||||||||||
| 1940's | 1950's | 1960's | ||||||||
| 1945 | Vestaburg | 1950 | Elwell | 1960 | Ashley | |||||
| 1946 | Riverdale | 1951 | Elwell | 1961 | Ashley | |||||
| 1947 | Pompeii | 1952 | Elwell | 1962 | Ashley | |||||
| 1948 | Elwell | 1953 | St. Louis | 1963 | Ashley | |||||
| 1949 | St. Louis | 1954 | St. Louis | 1964 | Ashley | |||||
| 1955 | Westphalia | 1965 | Ashley | |||||||
| 1956 | Portland | 1966 | Sumner | |||||||
| 1957 | Portland | 1967 | Alma | |||||||
| 1958 | Crystal | 1968 | Ashley | |||||||
| 1959 | Ashley | 1969 | Ashley | |||||||
| 1970's | 1980's | 1990's | ||||||||
| 1970 | Ashley | 1980 | Ashley | 1990 | Ionia | |||||
| 1971 | Ashley | 1981 | Marion Springs | 1991 | Ashley | |||||
| 1972 | Alma Container | 1982 | Ashley | 1992 | Ithaca | |||||
| 1973 | Alma Container | 1983 | Ashley | 1993 | Ionia | |||||
| 1974 | Ashley | 1984 | Ashley | 1994 | Ionia | |||||
| 1975 | Ashley | 1985 | Mt. Pleasant | 1995 | Ionia | |||||
| 1976 | Carrollton | 1986 | Ashley | 1996 | Ionia | |||||
| 1977 | Riverdale * | 1987 | Beal City | 1997 | Ionia | |||||
| 1978 | Riverdale | 1988 | Beal City | 1998 | Riverdale | |||||
| 1979 | Marion Springs | 1989 | Riverdale | 1999 | Ionia | |||||
| 2000's | ||||||||||
| 2000 | Ionia | |||||||||
| 2001 | Ionia | |||||||||
| 2002 | Riverdale | |||||||||
| 2003 | Carson City Crystal | |||||||||
| 2004 | St. Louis | |||||||||
| 2005 | Sidney | |||||||||
| 2006 | St. Louis | |||||||||
| 2007 | Fulton | |||||||||
| 2008 | Sidney | |||||||||
| * The 1977 season saw North Star and Riverdale each end the regular season with 13-3 records in their division and | ||||||||||
| North Star holding the #1 seed via a tie-breaker. In the other division, Ashley held a 15-1 record and was the | ||||||||||
| #1 seed while Merrill finished at 12-4 and was awarded the #2 seed. In a single 9-inning playoff format, Merrill | ||||||||||
| upset Ashley and Riverdale upset North Star. Moving on to a best-of-three format for the championship, Riverdale | ||||||||||
| won game one before rain set in and cancelled the second game. It continued to rain each scheduled makeup date | ||||||||||
| until late October when the GCBL announced the cancellation of the playoffs for the 1977 season. While no official | ||||||||||
| champion was acknowledged, it has been noted that Riverdale was the 1977 GCBL champion via their one game victory | ||||||||||
| in the finals. | ||||||||||
GCBL Participation:
| The Gratiot County Baseball League as it is known today dates back to 1948 although semi-pro baseball in Gratiot | |||||||||
| County was being played in formal leagues as early as 1921. In 1928, eight teams formed a league and named it the | |||||||||
| Gratiot County Men's Semi-Professional Baseball League. Four of those teams, Ashley, Elwell, Marion Springs and | |||||||||
| Pompeii started their own league in 1948 when the remaining teams expanded to the north and south. It is this | |||||||||
| league, founded by those four bergs (three of which lie in Gratiot County) that the current GCBL aligns itself to. | |||||||||
| That being the case, one might say that the Gratiot County Baseball League started in 1928 while others feel that | |||||||||
| the league as it is in 2007 was actually founded in 1948. Throughout the fifty-plus years in which a GCBL champion | |||||||||
| has been crowned, the following towns had at least one team (most on the list), as many as four teams (Saginaw) and | |||||||||
| a combination of towns to create a team (Ovid-Elsie, Morley-Stanwood): | |||||||||
| Alma | Lowell | ||||||||
| Ashley | Manistee | ||||||||
| Bannister | Maple Rapids | ||||||||
| Bath | Marion Springs | ||||||||
| Beal City | Merrill | ||||||||
| Breckenridge | Middleton | ||||||||
| Carrollton | Morley | ||||||||
| Carson City | Mt. Pleasant | ||||||||
| Clare | North Star | ||||||||
| Coleman | Ola Corners | ||||||||
| Crawford | Ovid | ||||||||
| Crystal | Perrinton | ||||||||
| Elsie | Pompeii | ||||||||
| Elwell | Riverdale | ||||||||
| Eureka | Saginaw | ||||||||
| Farwell | Shepherd | ||||||||
| Fowler | Sidney | ||||||||
| Fulton | St. Charles | ||||||||
| Hubbardston | St. Johns | ||||||||
| Ionia | St. Louis | ||||||||
| Ithaca | Stanton | ||||||||
| Lakeview | Stanwood | ||||||||
| Lansing | Sumner | ||||||||
| Founding league members | |||||||||
| Representative of the 2007 GCBL members | |||||||||
Map of Historical Teams (Click map to enlarge)
