Texas League (1972-1975)

Born: 1972
Died: 1975 – The Aces relocate to Amarillo, TX.

Stadium: Bringhurst Field

Team Colors:

Owners:

• ????-1974: Peter Tattersall
• 1975: William Zuhone

The Alexandria Aces were a Class AA Texas League farm club of the San Diego Padres who played at Bringhurst Field for four summers between 1972 and 1975.  The “Aces” name was a throwback to the original Alexandria Aces (1934-1942 & 1946-1957) who played 21 seasons in the Louisiana-based Evangeline League.

The franchise changed hands at least once during its brief history in Alexandria (pop. 39,000), when Pete Tattersall sold the club to Oklahoma oil man William Zuhone for $50,000 in October 1974.

Future Hall-of-Famer Duke Snider managed the Aces during their first summer of operation in 1972.

Notable players who passed through Alexandria during the Padres era included Bill Almon and Randy Jones.  Almon was the #1 overall pick in the 1974 Major League Baseball amateur draft out of Brown University.  He stopped for a cup of coffee in Alexandria in 1974 before making his Major League debut later the same summer.  Almon went on to a 15-year Major League career.

Jones appeared for the Aces in 1972 and 1973.  He debuted for the Padres in June 1973 and was a two-time National League All-Star (1975 and 1976).  In 1976, Jones won the National League Cy Young Award with a 22-14 record and 2.74 ERA.

Following the 1975 season, the Alexandria franchise moved to Amarillo, Texas and became the Amarillo Gold Sox.  The “Aces” nickname has been revived by independent baseball clubs in Alexandria on two occasions, in 1994 and again in 2006.

==Key Figures==

• Bill Almon
• Randy Jones
• Duke Snider (Manager)

==In Memoriam==

1972 Aces Manager Duke Snider died on February 27, 2011 at age 84.

==Links==

Texas League Media Guides

Texas League Programs

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Florida State League (1985-1994)

Born: 1985 – The Daytona Beach Astros relocate to Kissimmee, FL.
Died: October 4, 1994 – The Astros are re-branded as the Kissimmee Cobras.

Stadium: Osceola County Stadium (5,130)

Team Colors:

Owner:

The Osceola Astros were part of the Houston Astros long-time connection to Kissimmee and Osceola County, Florida.  In 1985, Houston left their long-time spring training home in Cocoa Beach and relocated to Kissimmee.  That same spring, the moved their Class A Florida State League affiliate from Daytona Beach to Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee. Kissimmee had never had professional baseball before the Astros arrived in the spring of 1985.

A handful of notable future big leaguers came through Kissimmee during this era.  Ken Caminiti, who would win National League MVP honors in 1996, played on the first Osceola Astros club in the summer of 1985.  Other future All-Stars included Luis Gonzalez (1989), Kenny Lofton (1990), and Bobby Abreu, who came through in 1993 as a 19-year old and hit 17 triples that summer.

Attendance was lean in Kissimmee during the 1980′s, even by the low standards of the Florida State League.  During their first season, the 1985 Osceola Astros averaged only 578 fans per game.

Shortly after the 1994 season, the team underwent a re-branding and were dubbed the Kissimmee Cobras.  The Cobras operated for another six seasons as an Astros farm club at Osceola County Stadium from 1995-2000.

Former Osceola Astros GM Pat O’Conner (1986-1993) was elected President & CEO of Minor League Baseball in 2007.

==Key Players==

• Bobby Abreu
• Ken Caminiti
• Luis Gonzalez
• Kenny Lofton

==In Memoriam==

1985 Osceola Astro Ken Caminiti died on October 10, 2004 at age 41.

==Links==

Florida State League Programs

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South Atlantic League (1987-1990)

Born: October 1986 – Florence (SC) Blue Jays relocate to Myrtle Beach.
Died: 1991 – Re-branded as Myrtle Beach Hurricanes.

Stadium: Coastal Carolina Stadium (3,500)

Team Colors:

Owner: Winston Blenckstone

This Class A farm club of the Toronto Blue Jays marked the first time that minor league baseball came to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  Or, at least, near Myrtle Beach.  The Blue Jays played on the campus of Coastal Carolina University about 12 miles away from the Grand Strand.

The club was owned by Baltimore oxygen salesman Winston Blenckstone, who purchased the Sally League’s unloved Florence (SC) Blue Jays for $200,000 in October of 1986 and moved the club to Myrtle Beach.

The Blue Jays home debut on April 8, 1987 against the Savannah Cardinals drew a standing room-only crowd of 4,030, but attendance quickly settled in at less than a thousand a night.  Myrtle Beach’s attendance was among the worst in the South Atlantic League, just as it had been in Florence previously.  By April 1989, Blenckstone was frustrated and threatening to move his ball club if city leaders wouldn’t commit to a $2 million new stadium.  Blenckstone ultimately hung in for four more summers.  He re-branded the team as the Myrtle Beach Hurricanes in 1991, but that did nothing to change the club’s box office fortunes.  In late 1992, with stadium negotiations going nowhere, Blenckstone pulled up stakes and moved the franchise to Hagerstown, Maryland.

A number of notable Toronto prospects came through Myrtle Beach during the Blue Jays/Hurricanes era, including future American League Cy Young Award winner Pat Hentgen and first baseman Chris Weinke, who never made the Major Leagues but went on to win the Heisman Trophy eight years later as a 28-year old quarterback at Florida State

==Key Players==

• Derek Bell
• Carlos Delgado
• Pat Hentgen
• Mike Timlin
• Chris Weinke

==Links==

South Atlantic League Programs

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California League (1973-1975)

Born: 1973
Died: Re-branded as the Salinas Angels

Stadium: Salinas Municipal Stadium (2,500)

Team Colors:

Owner:

The Salinas Packers were a mid-1970′s Class A farm club of the California Angels in the California League.  The team marked the return of pro baseball after an absence of seven seasons, since the Salinas Indians folded  after the 1965 season.  The Packers name was a throwback to an earlier California League club also known as the Packers which was active from 1954-1958.

The team was a modest draw, averaging fewer than 1,000 fans per game at Salinas’ tiny Municipal Stadium.  In 1973, the Packers drew 51,477 fans for 70 home dates.  In 1974, crowds dipped to 41,386.  This wasn’t unusually low for the California League during the mid-1970′s, when the league as a whole averaged fewer than a thousand fans a night in both 1973 and 1974.  (1975 figures weren’t available).

It’s a long way to the top… the California League sits low on the developmental ladder, so only a handful of ballplayers who suited up for the Packers ever made it to the Major Leaguers.  The two Packers who went on to the most significant careers were outfielder Dave Collins and utility man Rance Mulliniks, who both played 16 seasons in the Majors.

Prior to the 1976 season, the Packers brief revival came to an end when the ball club was re-branded as the Salinas Angels.

==Links==

California League Programs

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American Association (1969-1981)

Born: 1969
Died: February 1, 1982 – Re-branded as the Iowa Cubs.

Stadium: Sec Taylor Stadium

Team Colors:

Owner: Ray Johnston

The Iowa Oaks were a triple-A minor league baseball club that played from 1969 to 1981 at Sec Taylor Stadium in Des Moines.  The franchise continues to exist today under the Iowa Cubs name.

During the Oaks era, the club was never especially competitive.  The Oaks only made the American Association playoffs once in thirteen seasons, advancing to the championship series in 1973, which they lost to the Tulsa Oilers.  The Oaks cycled through several Major League affiliations during the 1970′s and early 1980′s:

• 1969-1972: Oakland A’s
• 1973-1974: Chicago White Sox
• 1975: Houston Astros
• 1976-1980: Chicago White Sox
• 1981: Chicago Cubs

In April 1973, the Oaks signed 1968 American League Cy Young Award Winner and Most Valuable Player Denny McLain to a free agent contract.  The signing of the controversial McLain was made by the Oaks’ local management, and not by their parent club at the time, the Chicago White Sox.  McLain was the last man to to win 30 games in the Major Leagues, which he did at age 24 with the World Champion Detroit Tigers in 1968.  He would share the Cy Young Award again in 1969.  But he was suspended for much of the 1970 season for participating in a book making operation and when he did return, his game suffered due to a sore arm.  He made his final Major League appearance in 1972 and after his brief comeback attempt in Iowa, McLain was out of pro baseball before age 30.

Before the start of the 1981 season, the Oaks’ Major League affiliation passed from the Chicago White Sox to the Chicago Cubs.  After one final season under the Oaks name in 1981, the team was re-branded as the Iowa Cubs on February 1st, 1982.  The Iowa Cubs continue to serve as the top farm club of the Chicago Cubs to this day.

The re-branding of the team in the winter of 1981-82 coincided with the departure of longtime owner Ray Johnston, who founded the Oaks in 1969.  Johnston was offered a reported $600,000 by interests in Springfield, Illinois to sell and relocate the Oaks to that city.  But the team was saved byKen Grandquist, a member of the Oaks’ community steering committee since 1969, who spearheaded a local group to buy out Johnston for and save triple-A baseball for Des Moines.

Grandquist would own the Iowa Cubs for nearly two decades.  He died from complications of a stroke that he suffered in his skybox at Sec Taylor Stadium on opening day of the 1999 season.  He was 75 years old.

==Key Players==

• Harold Baines
• Vida Blue
• Bucky Dent
• Mike Easler
• Goose Gossage
• Mudcat Grant
• George Hendrick
• Willie Hernandez
• LaMarr Hoyt
• Tony LaRussa
• Denny McLain
• Joe Rudi
• Pat Tabler
• Manny Trillo

==Links==

American Association Media Guides

American Association Programs

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Senior Professional Baseball Association (1989-1990)

Born: 1989 – SPBA founding franchise.
Died: Postseason 1990 – The Legends cease operations.

Stadium: St. Lucie County Sports Complex

Team Colors:

Owner: Joe Sprung

The St. Lucie Legends were one of eight original franchises in the Senior Professional Baseball Association, which debuted in November 1989.  The SPBA was a Florisa-based winter time league, which played a 72-game schedule between the end of the World Series and the start of spring training.  Players had to be 35 years of age or older, except for catchers, who could be as young as 32.  (The SPBA’s oldest player was 54-year old Ed Rakow of the West Palm Beach Tropics, who last played in the Major League in 1967).

The Legends had some great names, including 1971 American League MVP and Cy Young Award winner Vida Blue, 1977 National League MVP George Foster, and former Major League All-Star Bobby Bonds.  Six-time All-Star Graig Nettles, whose 22-season Major League career concluded one year earlier in 1988, signed on as player-manager.

Despite the pedigree of top stars, the Legends were a league doormat, losing 20 of their first 23 games and costing Nettles his manager’s post.  Bonds  replaced Nettles as manager for the remainder of the season.

The team also had severe financial struggles.  Actually, the entire Senior Baseball concept was a bust throughout Florida.  The SPBA averaged just 921 fans league-wide during the 1989-90 season, and St. Lucie was one of the worst markets with average attendance of only 607 fans for 36 home games.

Team owner Joe Sprung tried to unload the team midway through the season without success.  The Legends ended up bouncing two payrolls towards the end of the season, nearly resulting in a player walkout.  The team managed to complete the 1989-90 season, finishing dead last at 20-51.  The club folded shortly thereafter.

The SPBA contracted to six clubs – including expansion teams in Arizona and California – and attempted a second season in the winter of 1990-91, but lasted only a month before folding abruptly in December 1990.

##

Each SPBA team was allowed up to three players with no Major League experience.  The Legends signed a 31-year old ex-minor league catcher named Chuck Fick.  The pinnacle of Fick’s playing career was 19 games in triple-A in 1983.  Fick then went Hollywood, playing bit parts as ballplayers in films like Mr. Baseball and The Sandlot.  Prior to joining the Legends in 1989, his most recent catching experience was as the perplexed California Angels backstop dealing with Leslie Nielsen in the 1988 hit comedy The Naked Gun:

==Key Players==

• Vida Blue
• Bobby Bonds Sr.
• George Foster
• Graig Nettles
• Luis Tiant

==Downloads==

1989-90 Senior Professional Baseball Association standard player contract

1989-90 Senior Professional Baseball Association Attendance Figures

==Links==

Senior Professional Baseball Association Programs

“Senior Citizens” – Kenn Tomasch’s SPBA retrospective on Kenn.com

###

South Atlantic League (1985-1993)

Born: August 1984 – Charleston Royals re-brand as the Charleston Rainbows
Died: Postseason 1993 – Rainbows re-brand as the Charleston RiverDogs

Stadium: College Park

Team Colors:

Owners:

• 1985-1987: Ernest Passailaigue & Ray Passailaigue
• 1987-1989: Larry Revo & Stuart Revo et al.
• 1989-1993: Marv Goldklang

The Charleston (SC) Rainbows were a Class A farm club in the South Atlantic League (1980-Present) from 1985 to 1993.  The team was previously named for its Major League parent club and known as the Charleston Royals (1980-1984).  In December 1983, owner Ernie Passailaigue travelled to the Baseball Winter Meetings in Nashville and returned convinced that the best operators in the minor leagues were turning towards distinctive local identities and merchandising for their ball clubs, rather than mimicking the brand of whichever Major League club happened to sponsor them in a particular year.  In August 1984, he announced the name change to the Charleston Rainbows, named for Charleston’s “Rainbow Row” of historic homes on East Bay Street.  One month later in September 1984 came a new working agreement with the San Diego Padres, who would be the Rainbows parent club for most of the next decade.

In the Rainbows first season in 1985, Charleston baseball fans enjoyed a full summer of watching two of the Padres’ top teenage prospects: the brothers Roberto and Sandy Alomar.  Sandy was 19 and Roberto just 17 at the time.  Sandy Alomar went on to win the American League Rookie-of-the-Year award in 1990 with Cleveland and played parts of 20 seasons in the Majors.  Brother Roberto debuted at age 20 in 1988 and played 17 seasons, earning election to the Hall-of-Fame in 2011.

In 1986, the Rainbows established what was then a Charleston pro baseball attendance record of 131,696 fans.  Under the Passailaigue’s, the club depended heavily on so-called “Buyout” nights, where local companies purchased all of the seats in the park at steeply discounted rates and distributed the tickets in the community, often at no charge.  This once-widespread marketing strategy pumps up announced attendance, but many operators believe it also conditions local fans to sit back and wait for free tickets to inevitably come available.

During the winter of 1987-88, the Passailaigue’s sold the Rainbows to another pair of brothers, Larry & Stuart Revo, for a reported $600,000 price tag.  The Revos already controlled two other minor league clubs, the Class AA Pittsfield (MA) Cubs of the Eastern League and the Class A Kinston (NC) Indians of the Carolina League.  The Revos limited partners in their baseball investments included the actor Bill Murray.  One of the Revos’ immediate changes was to reduce ticket prices, but also to cut back on the buyout night strategy to try to establish price integrity for Rainbows tickets.

The Rainbows – who were usually terrible – fielded a terrific team in 1988, finishing with the best record in the Sally League at 85-53.  The Rainbows were swept by the Spartanburg Phillies in the league championship series.  But attendance dropped to 56,909 fans, partly in response to the Revos’ tighter controls on the supply of free tickets.  Attendance wouldn’t get back over the 100,000 mark until the 1990′s.

After two years of ownership, the Revo brothers sold the Rainbows to New York investment banker Marv Goldklang in October 1989 in a deal reported at $800,000.  In 1992, the affiliation between the Rainbows and the San Diego Padres ended after eight seasons.  The Texas Rangers took on the affiliation for the summer of 1993, which would be the Rainbows final summer.  Prior to the 1994 season, the Rainbows re-branded as the Charleston RiverDogs.  College Park closed after the 1996 season, replaced by the modern Joseph P. Riley Jr. Ballpark in 1997.  As of this writing in 2013, the RiverDogs continue to thrive under long-time owner Marv Goldklang and his Goldklang Group.

==Key Players==

• Roberto Alomar (1985)
• Sandy Alomar Jr. (1985)
• Carlos Baerga (1986-1987)
• Jose Valentin (1988)

==Downloads==

Charleston Rainbows Sources

==Links==

South Atlantic League Programs

Minor League Baseball Franchise Sales Tracker

Northern League (1967-1968)

Born: 1967
Died:  August 1968 – The Mets cancel their affiliation with Mankato.

Stadium: Key City Park

Team Colors:

Owner: Mankato Area Baseball Corp. (Fritz Taylor, et al.)

A short-lived Single-A farm club of the New York Mets that lasted for just two seasons in the small city of Mankato, Minnesota.  Mankato was the second rung on New York’s developmental ladder, just above rookie level Appalachian League club in Marion, Virginia.  Most of Mankato’s players were young prospects in their late teens or early twenties.

During the 1968 season, Mankato drew only “150 to 250 fans per game”, according to United Press International.  In August 1968, Mets minor league director Joe McDonald informed Mankato President Fritz Taylor that New York would not renew their affiliation agreement with Mankato after the 1968 season ended on Labor Day weekend.  This brought the short history of pro baseball in Mankato to an end after two summers of play.

5 members of the Mankato Mets went on to see Major League service time.  The players who enjoyed the most significant Major League careers were pitchers Ernie McAnally, who won 11 games as a rookie for the Montreal Expos in 1971, and Charlie Williams, who pitched in 268 Major League games from 1971 to 1978, mostly with the San Francisco Giants.

Key City Park still stands and is known today as Franklin Rogers Park.  The 1,400-seat ballpark has hosted amateur wooden bat league baseball in the Northwoods League since 1999.

==In Memoriam==

Mankato Mets President Fritz Taylor passed away on April 1, 2007 at age 90.

==Links==

Northern League Programs

North Atlantic League (1996)
Northeast League (1997-1998)
Northern League (1999)

Born: 1996
Died: October 1999 – The Mad Dogs leave Lynn and go on a two-year hiatus.

Stadium: Fraser Field

Team Colors:

Owner: Jonathan Fleisig

The Massachusetts Mad Dogs were a low-level independent baseball club based out of Fraser Field in Lynn, Massachusetts from 1996 to 1999. Popular former Boston Red Sox star George “Boomer” Scott was the team’s field manager and the team attracted further attention from Red Sox Nation in 1997 by signing the 37-year old former Red Sox pitcher and noted eccentric Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd.

The Mad Dogs were the first pro sports investment for Jonathan Fleisig, a Wall Street commodities trader and long-time minor league baseball and hockey investor.  He bought the franchise for a reported $150,000 in 1995

The Mad Dogs played their first season in the North Atlantic League (1995-1996), a wobbly independent circuit with teams in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.  The Mad Dogs’ posted a 56-21 record – far and away the best in the league – but were upset in the championship series by the Catskill (NY) Cougars.  Reported attendance was 52,384, or slightly over 1,000 fans per game.  Following the 1996 season, the North Atlantic League disbanded and the Mad Dogs jumped to the more stable Northeast League.

Attendance plummeted in 1998 as the perilous condition of Fraser Field continued to deteriorate.  The clam shell roof of the park was condemned prior to the Mad Dogs third season and propped up by makeshift beams and there were no permanent concessions facilities.  In late 1998, Jonathan Fleisig hinted at leaving Lynn due to low season ticket sales and the decrepit state of the ballpark, but elected to return for a fourth and final season in the summer of 1999.

The Mad Dogs attracted some publicity during their finals season by signing 25-year old Tammy Holmes, thought to be the first female position player to play professional baseball for a men’s team.  Holmes was a former member of the barnstorming female team the Silver Bullets, which attracted considerable national attention before folding in 1997.  Holmes appeared in two games, going hitless in nine at-bats with five strikeouts.

In October 1999, league official approved a move of the Mad Dogs to Hartford, Connecticut where a planned $10 – $15 million renovation of Dillon Stadium would create a new home for the team.   The Hartford deal later fell apart and the ball club was mothballed for two full seasons.

In 2002, Fleisig reactivated the franchise at Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  Boomer Scott returned as manager of the renamed Berkshire Black Bears.   The story – well, one side of the story – of Fleisig’s rivalry with former New York Yankee and Ball Four author Jim Bouton to get the lease at Wahconah Park is captured in Bouton’s 2003 book Foul Ball.  The Black Bears lasted only two seasons in Pittsfield, then moved again the New Haven’s Yale Field and became the New Haven County Cutters, still under Fleisig’s ownership.

The Cutters folded after the 2007 season, finally closing the book on the original franchise started three cities and three leagues earlier in 1996.

Following the demise of the Mad Dogs, a former fan purchased the team’s Spike The Bulldog mascot costume at a storage unit sale. He periodically dressed up in the costume to attend minor league games around New England.  For several years in the early 2000′s, it was not unusual to see Spike quietly sitting alongside human fans in various ballpark grandstands around the region quietly keeping score in his game program.

==Key Players==

• Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd

==Downloads==

1999 Massachusetts Mad Dogs Scorecard

New York Penn League (1982-1985)

Born: 1982
Died: Postseason 1985 – The White Sox relocate to St. Catharines, Ontario.

Stadium: Sal Maglie Stadium

Team Colors:

Owner: George Wenz
The Niagara Falls White Sox were one of several Niagara Falls entries in the New York-Penn League between the years 1970 and 1993, following the Niagara Falls Pirates (1970-1979) and preceding the Niagara Falls Rapids (1989-1993).

The Sox were a short season single-A farm club of the Chicago White Sox from 1982 to 1985, one of the bottom rung’s on Chicago’s developmental ladder.  Twelve Niagara Falls players from the White Sox era ultimately made it to the Major Leagues.  The most notable were 1990 National League Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek and closer Bobby Thigpen, who established a Major League record with 57 saves with Chicago in 1990.

The Sox won the New York-Penn League title during the club’s first season in the summer of 1982.

Owner George Wenz paid less than $10,000 for the ball club prior to the 1982 season.  After the 1985 season, he sold the team for a reported $250,000 and the franchise relocated to Ontario where it became the St. Catharine’s Blue Jays.