Show any stuff from short-lived minor league teams

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Ben, your team was in the same Northern League as the Mankato Mets, and played then too. Sweet!

By the way, it looks like you got a Big-League signature along the top of your program-- the late Craig "Mongo" Kusick of the Twins. Nice.

Edited to add: I see sigs of Mike Poepping and Jim Hughes too, who both made it to the Twins. Hughes and Kusick had Topps baseball cards, as did Dan Vossler (1974 Rookies), who also signed your program, even though he never made it.

Whoever got the autographs got all but 2 of the St Cloud Rox team.

We have had a few minor league teams in our little town.
1920+21 Huron Packers Bill Shipke(has a T206 card) played his last season here in 1920.

1965-1968 Huron Phillies In 1968 we had Larry Cox, Greg Luzinski, and Manny Trillo on the team.

1969+70 Huron Cubs Rick Reuschel played his first year here in 1970.

1994 Huron Heaters

Sadly I never got to see a single one of those games. I was only 1yo when the Cubs left and was working in Missouri in 94.

[Gary Dunaier]

The Queens Kings were a minor league affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays who only played for one season, 2000. They played at St. John's University in Jamaica, NY, not very far from Shea Stadium. One of my regrets is that I never attended a game.

I do have a program that I bought on Ebay. Don't remember if there was anything else included in the lot, like a ticket or a schedule.

In 2001, the Kings became an affiliate of the New York Mets, and moved to Coney Island... where they're now known as the Brooklyn Cyclones.

[Nashvol]

I have this program for the AA Nashville Xpress who shared Greer Stadium with the Nashville Sounds for two years, 1993 & 1994. The Southern League club had no home when Charlotte moved up to AAA. We had a game at Greer everyday for both of those years, including visits by the AA Birmingham Barons and Michael Jordan...

[JMEnglish27]

We had a Giants single-A team for 30 years that left after the 1987 season. In their place, for one year only, we got the Fresno Suns. Fantastic fun to watch team...Independent, mostly stocked with Japanese minor leaguers, but a major leaguers looking for a home dropped in too (Dwayne Murphy, Julio Cruz). After the one season in '88, they moved to Salinas and became the Spurs.

[nolemmings]

Great stuff guys. Keep 'em coming!

[MW1]

1949-50 Portland Penguins. One-year wonders playing in the Western Hockey League. Complete with "Mr. Perkins", their mascot, lower right, waddling out of the picture.

[Bumpus Jones]

The Savannah Redlegs were around from 1956-59. Here's a program and team photo from their last year...

[Aquifer]

Responding to the Fresno Suns, who went independent and employed Japanese players. Was fun to see that because when they moved to Salinas, a longtime friend was the G.M. there and continued the trend of Japanese players--apparently no "farm system" over there so it was a lucrative thing for an independent club that had no PDC (player development contract) with a Major League affiliate. Here's a jersey from 1990-91. Jim Eppard, wore this one--he played at Cal (UC Berkeley to you non-SF/Bay Area folk) and later briefly with the Angels after winning a couple of minor league batting titles. At least one, anyway.

[bbpostcards]

Formerly called the Pacific Northwest League, the Pacific National League was renamed in 1903 as a challenge to its new rival, the Pacific Coast League. In 1904, the PNL consisted of the Salt Lake City Elders, Butte Miners, Spokane Indians, and Boise Fruit Pickers.

[Aquifer]

On a bit of a roll now. Here's a 1979 jersey from the Santa Clara Padres, a Cal-League entry for just this one year and again an independent. Brutal uniforms--just brutal. This "away" top looks okay but now add in green pants with a red and white piping and red stirrups. Now...come to the home jersey which was a bright red version of this one, only white script lettering and worn with the same green pants. Looked like a Christmas tree out there. But the team wasn't without notice--it included Rays Manager Joe Maddon and two guys who got a little time in the bigs--Ron Tingley, a catcher for the Angels and John Hobbs who made a couple of appearances with the Twins.