Top Baseball Towns in Essex County, MA
Ranked on championships won since 2000 — high school state titles and Little League district, section and state titles counted together, with recent wins weighted more heavily. 18 towns have won something.
Danvers leads Essex County, MA, scoring 6.54 almost entirely on youth titles, though Peabody is close behind on 6.24. 18 towns have won something since 2000.
The top ten in Essex County, MA are Danvers, Peabody, North Andover, Lynn, Georgetown, Andover, Swampscott, Saugus, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea. Between them they account for 82% of every point scored across the 18 towns on this list.
Size is doing a lot of work here. Essex is in the top ten on a population of 3,760, while Lynn has 103,489 to draw on — roughly 28 times as many people. That is why the tables below are also split into population bands: a town should be measured against places its own size before it is measured against a city.
Andover is in the top ten on youth baseball alone: 8 Little League titles and no high school championship since 2000.
Recency matters in this table — a title's weight halves every 12 years, so the standings drift on their own every season. Danvers and Georgetown have won something in the last two seasons, which is why they sit where they do.
Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea share credit with neighbouring towns for a regional high school. A regional's championship is split evenly between every town it serves rather than going to the town the building happens to sit in.
One caveat worth reading before you argue with the order. The youth half of this score is Little League only, because Little League is the only organisation that publishes a championship archive — every district, section and state champion back to the 1950s. Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth publish nothing below the World Series. 2 towns in Essex County, MA run Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth ball with no Little League program at all, and they score zero youth points here no matter how much they win. Towns that run both lose the Cal Ripken half the same way. If your league has a record we're missing, tell us and we'll add it.
| # | Town | Score | Population | HS titles | LL state | LL district | Won by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danvers MA Essex County | 6.54 | 28,590 | 2 | — | 10 | Saint John's Preparatory School · Danvers High +2 |
| 2 | Peabody MA Essex County | 6.24 | 55,418 | 1 | 2 | 9 | Bishop Fenwick High School · Peabody Western Little League +1 |
| 3 | North Andover MA Essex County | 5.76 | 32,135 | 1 | — | 7 | North Andover High · North Andover Little League |
| 4 | Lynn MA Essex County | 5.24 | 103,489 | 3 | — | 3 | Saint Mary's High School · Wyoma Little League +1 |
| 5 | Georgetown MA Essex County | 4.34 | 8,558 | 2 | — | — | Georgetown High School |
| 6 | Andover MA Essex County | 4.08 | 36,927 | — | 1 | 7 | Andover Little League |
| 7 | Swampscott MA Essex County | 2.93 | 15,658 | — | — | 5 | Swampscott Little League |
| 8 | Saugus MA Essex County | 2.45 | 29,029 | — | 1 | 5 | Saugus American Little League · Saugus Little League Baseball |
| 9 | Essex MA Essex County | 2.19 | 3,760 | 1 ⌗ | — | — | Manchester Essex Regional High School |
| 10 | Manchester-by-the-Sea MA Essex County | 2.19 | 5,467 | 1 ⌗ | — | — | Manchester Essex Regional High School |
| 11 | Boxford MA Essex County | 1.72 | 8,334 | 0.67 ⌗ | — | 1 | Masconomet Regional High School · Boxford Little League |
| 12 | Lynnfield MA Essex County | 1.62 | 13,230 | — | — | 3 | Lynnfield Little League |
| 13 | Gloucester MA Essex County | 1.39 | 30,491 | — | — | 2 | Gloucester Little League |
| 14 | Newburyport MA Essex County | 1.26 | 19,163 | 1 | — | — | Newburyport High |
| 15 | Beverly MA Essex County | 1.03 | 43,223 | — | — | 2 | Beverly Little League |
| 16 | Middleton MA Essex County | 0.72 | 9,959 | 0.67 ⌗ | — | — | Masconomet Regional High School |
| 17 | Topsfield MA Essex County | 0.72 | 6,620 | 0.67 ⌗ | — | — | Masconomet Regional High School |
| 18 | Salem MA Essex County | 0.53 | 45,677 | — | — | 1 | Salem Little League |
By town size
A championship out of a town of 6,000 is a different achievement from the same title in a city of 600,000. Same scoring, ranked against places of the same size.
Under 10,000
- 1GeorgetownMA4.34 · 9k
- 2EssexMA2.19 · 4k
- 3Manchester-by-the-SeaMA2.19 · 5k
- 4BoxfordMA1.72 · 8k
- 5MiddletonMA0.72 · 10k
- 6TopsfieldMA0.72 · 7k
10,000–25,000
- 1SwampscottMA2.93 · 16k
- 2LynnfieldMA1.62 · 13k
- 3NewburyportMA1.26 · 19k
25,000–75,000
- 1DanversMA6.54 · 29k
- 2PeabodyMA6.24 · 55k
- 3North AndoverMA5.76 · 32k
- 4AndoverMA4.08 · 37k
- 5SaugusMA2.45 · 29k
- 6GloucesterMA1.39 · 30k
- 7BeverlyMA1.03 · 43k
- 8SalemMA0.53 · 46k
Over 75,000
- 1LynnMA5.24 · 103k
How this is scored
- High school state championship — 3 points
- Little League state title — 3 points
- Little League sectional title — 2 points
- Little League district title — 1 point
Only titles since 2000 count, each one's weight halves every 12 years, private-school titles count for 0.75 of a public one, and a regional school's championship is split between the towns it serves.
Full method, sources and what the rankings can't see →By county in Massachusetts
Counties with enough towns on the board to rank. Smaller counties are folded into their state list rather than given a page of three rows.