The Midwest League is a Class-A minor league baseball league which operates in the Midwestern United States.

Six teams – the Belleville Stags, the Centralia Cubs, the Marion Indians, the Mattoon Indians or East Frankfort White Sox, the Mount Vernon Braves, and the West Frankfort Cardinals – began operating as the Class D Illinois State League in 1947. The league changed its name to the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League in 1949 after the Marion team moved to Paducah, Kentucky. The league added teams in Clinton and Dubuque, Iowa, in 1954 and was renamed the Midwest League two years later. After the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League folded in 1961, teams from Appleton, Burlington, and Cedar Rapids joined the Midwest League for the 1962 season and remain in the league today. In 1963 the Midwest League became a Class A league after the minor league classification structure was reorganized.

In 1976 the Midwest League contracted from ten teams to eight when teams in Danville and Dubuque were eliminated. In 1982 the league expanded to 12 teams by adding the Beloit Brewers, the Danville Suns, the Madison Muskies, and the Springfield Cardinals. The Peoria Suns replaced the Danville Suns in 1983, and acquired their current name, Peoria Chiefs, the following year. The league began splitting its season into two halves and expanded to 14 teams in 1988 with the addition of franchises in South Bend, Indiana, and Rockford, Illinois. During the 1990s several teams changed cities as Major League Baseball placed higher standards on minor league baseball facilities; franchises in smaller cities were sold to new owners who moved those teams to new ballparks in larger cities. Kenosha, Madison, Rockford, Springfield, Waterloo, and Wausau lost teams during this decade while Battle Creek, Dayton, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids (West Michigan), Kane County, and Lansing gained teams.

Michael Ynoa (born September 24, 1991) is a Dominican-American pitcher who is commonly known as "Michael Inoa." Ynoa is signed with the Oakland Athletics for the amount of 4.25 million dollars, setting a new record for the A's organization after lefty pitcher Mark Mulder was signed for 3.2 million in 1998. Ynoa was named the "Number One" and the "crown jewel" in the "Best Latino Prospects of 2008. " Ynoa is said to be the most impressive Latin American player prospect since Felix Hernandez in 2002.

He is 20 years of age, he is 6 feet 7 inches, and weighs 210 lbs (pounds), and two Major League Baseball teams (Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers) "reportedly offered Ynoa about $5 million." It was reported that Ynoa signed with Oakland not New York, who he had originally verbally agreed on a deal with, because of the better treatment of the Oakland staff, the management style of General Manager Billy Beane, and the better pitcher development record in Oakland.^{[citation needed]}

After pitching nine innings in the Arizona League, Ynoa underwent Tommy John surgery.

Sean Christopher Lucas (born December 8, 1983 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a retired Canadian football linebacker who played all six years of his career for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. He was a part of Saskatchewan's Grey Cup win in 2007 and was named a CFL West All-Star in 2009.

Lucas was signed as a free agent by Saskatchewan in 2006, and he spent most of 2006 CFL season as a member of their practice roster. He made his professional debut in the final week of the season in Edmonton against the Eskimos. He has since earned a starting spot as an outside linebacker for the Roughriders and was named a CFL West Division All-Star in 2009. In college football, he played for Tulane University.

Lance Graye McCullers (born March 8, 1964) is a former professional baseball pitcher. He played all or part of seven seasons in Major League Baseball for the San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and Texas Rangers. He was nicknamed "Baby Goose" after former big league pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage.