In its infancy, the league was an 18-and-under-league, and its first games were held on area fields. In the late 1940s, the Ellipse, just behind the White House, became the league's first official home. Jack Pope, who pitched for the Silver Spring Elks in 1949 and in 1950, remembers crowds standing down each foul line to see league games.

Pope recalls: "People used to stop at the Ellipse on the way home from work and watch the games. The quality of play was quite good, and there were always really good crowds at those games." The 1947 league champion, Marx Jewelers, won the championship of the All-American Amateur Baseball Association (AAABA). During that first decade, the league received considerable support in the form of bats, balls and gloves from Washington Nationals' owner Clark C. Griffith. When Griffith died in 1955, the league was renamed the Clark C. Griffith Memorial Baseball League in his honor.

Throughout the 1950s and early1960s, the league was dominated by Washington Boys Club and Federal Storage teams coached by Joe Branzell. Branzell's teams won the Clark Griffith League Championship a record 12 consecutive years from 1951–1962 and captured the AAABA crown in 1956, 1960, and 1962. Federal Storage's games were occasionally broadcast from the Ellipse on Saturday mornings over WMAL-TV. This was the first and only time that amateur baseball in the District was televised live. Legendary Washington sportscaster Ray Michaels handled the play-by-play. Many football fans better knew Michaels in later years as the P.A. voice of the Washington Redskins at R.F.K. Stadium.

Those Federal Storage teams featured future major leaguers Craig Anderson (Cardinals and Mets), Steve Barber (Orioles and Yankees) and Tom Brown (Senators). When Branzell left coaching to become a scout for the Washington Senators, the team disbanded.

In 1966, the league moved to Northern Virginia.  The games were played at George Mason University from ‘72 to ‘86, but were moved to South Lakes Baseball Field in Reston, Virginia in 1987.

In 1993, the league began using wooden bats, and the league began recruiting only college baseball’s best players.  The league also changed its name to the Clark Griffith Collegiate Baseball League. 

 Recently, the CGL Board unanimously voted to become a college eligibility league, thus conforming to the standards set forth by the NCAA.  The league now consists of five teams (Vienna Senators, Fairfax Nationals, Herndon Braves, Fauquier Gators, and the Reston Hawks).  All teams play a 40- game schedule with two rounds of playoffs following the regular season.  The CGL is often mentioned in the same breath as other fine summer leagues such as the Cape Cod League, Alaskan League or the Jayhawk League.  CGL teams have won 12 National Titles in tournaments sponsored by the All American Amateur Baseball Association (AAABA) and the National Amateur Baseball Federation (NABF).  More than 200 CGL alums have gone on to play professional baseball, with more than 45 reaching the Major Leagues.

Notable players that have gone on to play in the Major Leagues include Mark Teixeira, an all star with the Texas Rangers, Mike Venafro, and most recently, Cla Meredith, a former Senators pitcher who broke into the big leagues for the World Champion Boston Red Sox after less than year in the minor leagues.