Welcome to Kitty League baseball
Origins of league date back to 1903; current circuit headed into sixth season
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 Tradewater Pirates
Established: 1999, joined
KIT League in 2007
Stadium: Riverside Park
Colors: Red, yellow, black
www.tradewaterpirates.com
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The KIT League, or Kitty League, was formed in the winter of 2004 with the first season of play being the summer of 2005. The KIT acronym represents Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee, though franchises from neighboring states are also welcome to the league. The league is governed by a board of directors made up of representatives from each team and the league commissioner, Randy Morgan of Paducah.
The circuit is a collegiate summer baseball league currently featuring teams from Marion, Fulton, Owensboro and Dawson Springs (Tradewater) in Kentucky and Farmington, Mo. The Sikeston (Mo.) Bulls and Union City (Tenn.) Greyhounds, both charter member of the league when it formed in 2004, will not field a team in 2010.
With only five franchises in the league for 2010, the circuit will play interleague games for the first time. All four Kentucky teams will face opponents—Nashville, Middle Tennessee and East Tennessee—from the Tennessee Summer Collegiate Baseball Association. Because of logistics for team travel, Farmington will face opponents from the Missouri-Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas Summer Collegiate Baseball League, better knows as the MINK League.
Each team is comprised of players from NCAA, NJCAA and NAIA schools. The players must be currently playing on a college team, have signed a letter of intent or have committed to play baseball at the previously mentioned collegiate levels. Each team's active roster is limited to 24 players, though non-active reserves may be added.
The KIT League season begins in May and continues through July with each team playing 50 games – 25 home and 25 away. The postseason, a three-tiered playoff system, ends in early August with a best-of-three championship series.
The heritage for the KIT League is in the old Kitty League. This was a Class D Minor League from 1903 through 1955. The old league was named for the states the teams hailed from – Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee and Indiana – KITI.
Many eventual Major Leaguers played in the small towns that made up the Kitty League. Several of the current KIT League teams have taken their predecessors nicknames to continue the baseball tradition in these communities. Those include Union City Greyhounds, Fulton Railroaders and Owensboro Oilers. Marion also once fielded a summer league baseball team, but prior to the 2008 debut of the Bobcats, it had been 59 years.
Perhaps Tradewater’s home of Dawson Springs has the richest baseball history, however. Before the winter sun and warmth of Florida and Arizona came calling, Major League spring training once took place in towns like Dawson Springs, where the Pittsburgh Pirates visited each year.
Farmington Browns
Fulton Railroaders
Marion Bobcats
Owensboro Oilers