“Dedicated to preserving amateur baseball in the City of Chicago.”
The Chicago Metropolitan Baseball Association (CMBA) is an adult amateur baseball league committed to maintaining organized, competitive baseball within the City of Chicago and nearby communities. Since its founding in 1994, the league has carried forward a long tradition of neighborhood baseball played on municipal diamonds and park fields throughout the city.
History Origins
The CMBA traces its roots to the long-running Winnemac/Riis Park Twilight League, a Chicago weeknight baseball league that for decades gave working adults the opportunity to play organized summer baseball on city park fields. By the early 1990s, however, many clubs were balancing schedules between separate weeknight and weekend leagues, creating rising costs, scheduling conflicts, and uncertainty about the future of organized city baseball. Following the 1993 season, the remaining teams chose to reorganize rather than allow the tradition to disappear, leading to the formation of the CMBA. The new league introduced a unified scheduling structure that allowed games to be played throughout the week instead of only on weeknights, eliminating the need for teams to compete in multiple leagues at once. Beginning with six teams competing across Chicago and nearby suburbs, the CMBA established a season running from mid-May through early August, with teams typically playing 27–34 games under traditional American League rules. As interest in the league grew through the late 1990s and early 2000s, the CMBA expanded to as many as fifteen teams and adopted divisional alignments to improve scheduling and maintain competitive balance. Those divisional structures have continued to evolve over time as teams joined, departed, and the league adapted to preserve parity and long-term stability.
Playing in the City
One of the defining characteristics of the CMBA has been its commitment to playing baseball within Chicago itself. While many amateur leagues in the region gradually moved toward suburban complexes and distant facilities, the CMBA continued to utilize city parks and neighborhood fields.
League officials and participating clubs have also worked with local park authorities over the years to help maintain and improve several of the diamonds used for competition. This partnership has helped ensure that organized baseball continues to be played in Chicago parks that have hosted games for generations.
The League Today
Today the CMBA operates as a not-for-profit amateur baseball association. League fees are directed entirely toward operating the season, including field rentals, umpires, equipment, and league administration.
Each summer, players from across the city and surrounding communities take the field in a league built on competition, tradition, and a shared love of the game.
What began with a small group of teams determined to preserve organized baseball in Chicago has grown into a long-standing amateur league that continues to fulfill its original mission: preserving amateur baseball in the City of Chicago.