Waterbury Spirit
Northeast League (1997-1998) Northern League (1999-2000) Born: 1996 – Northeast League expansion franchise Suspended Operations: Postseason 2000 Moved: 2003 (North Shore Spirit) First Game: May
Northeast League (1997-1998) Northern League (1999-2000) Born: 1996 – Northeast League expansion franchise Suspended Operations: Postseason 2000 Moved: 2003 (North Shore Spirit) First Game: May
We’re talking Rochester, Minnesota today, not New York. The Rochester Aces were one of six original franchises that launched independent baseball’s Northern League during the summer of 1993. Three of these clubs – the St. Paul Saints (now the triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins), the Sioux City Explorers and the Sioux Falls Canaries – are still around today, nearly three decades later. But the Aces saw the weakest community response of the original six and lasted just a single season in Minnesota’s third-largest city.
Northeast League (1995-1998) Northern League (1999-2002) Born: 1995 Folded: October 2002 First Game: Last Game: September 1, 2002 (L 3-2 @ Elmira Pioneers) Northeast League
The Edmonton Cracker-Cats were a shambolic independent baseball operation that arrived at Telus Field in the spring of 2005 in the wake of the departure of the Class AAA Edmonton Trappers of the Pacific Coast League. The ‘Cats arguably received more attention for a 2006 brawl against the rival Calgary Vipers than any on-field accomplishments. But the club did manage to develop two future Major Leaguers in pitchers Robert Coello and Scott Richmond.
The Catskill Cougars were an on-again, off-again minor league baseball team that floated through several independent (non-Major League affiliated) pro baseball leagues during the late 1990’s. The Cougars played at Baxter Stadium in the tiny hamlet of Mountain Dale, New York (pop. 869). They opened for business in 1996, following on the heels of the short-lived Sullivan Mountain Lions (1995), who left town a few months earlier after just one summer of play.
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