Baseball

Dubuque County, Iowa, and the Tri-State area have a rich baseball history going back to the mid-nineteenth century.  Sports writer Ed Prell of the Chicago Tribune called Dubuque an early cradle for baseball during the nineteenth century. In 1865, the Julien Base Ball Club of Dubuque hosted the North West Base Ball Tournament; the second-ever multi-state championship baseball tournament in baseball history.  In 1878, Ted Sullivan, Tom Loftus, and Charley Comiskey began a lifelong journey in Dubuque that would result in the creation of the American League and modern Major League Baseball as we know it today.

From 1860 to present, Dubuque County, Iowa, helped produce four MLB Hall of Famers, five MLB team owners, seven MLB player-managers plus five MLB managers, collectively winning twelve pennants and six World Championships.  Add to that numerous players who started their professional careers in Dubuque, or the eight born Dubuquer's who made it to the major leagues, and you have an impressive list for small-town America.  Four Dubuquers have also served as minor league presidents.  And finally, six league pennants where captured by Dubuque minor league teams in 1879, 1905, 1923, 1929, 1955, and 1962. All of this early American baseball history foreshadowed Dubuque County's Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.