The Madison Muskies enjoyed a twelve-season run in Wisconsin’s capital city, serving as a Class A farm team of the Oakland Athletics from 1982 until 1993. The Muskies helped launch the career of future Oakland Stars Jose Canseco, Terry Steinbach and Walt Weiss. The franchise moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1994 and become the West Michigan Whitecaps, who are still active today.
Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League (1958-1961) Midwest League (1962-1994) Born: 1958 Re-Branded: September 13, 1994 (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers) First Game: April 27, 1958 (W 9-2 @ Davenport DavSox) Last Game:
Short-lived but ambitious re-branding of the Midwest League’s Quad City River Bandits franchise, timed to coincide with a major renovation of John O’Donnell Stadium ahead of the 2004 season. However, when the ball club changed hands in 2007, the new owners opened a fan vote to re-assess the future name of the team. 14,000 voters delivered a landslide victory for a return to the “River Bandits” name, while the option to remain as the Swing of the Quad Cities earned just 6% of the reported votes.
The Southwest Michigan Devil Rays of 2005-2006 were the last of three relatively short-lived Minor League Baseball teams to make their home at Battle Creek’s C.O. Brown Stadium between 1995 and 2006. The Devil Rays followed on the heels of the Michigan Battle Cats (1995-2002) and the Battle Creek Yankees (2003-2004). Each club was an iteration of the same Class A Midwest League franchise, which cycled through four different ownership groups and four different Major League parent clubs across a dozen seasons. The team moved to Midland, Michigan and became the Great Lakes Loons in 2007.
The Cedar Rapids Reds were a Class A farm club of the Cincinnati Reds in the Class A Midwest League from 1980 through 1992. Cincinnati replaced the San Francisco Giants as Cedar Rapids’ Major League parent club shortly after the 1979 season. The club played under the “Reds” name until the end of the 1992 season. At that point, Cedar Rapids signed a new Player Development Contract with the California Angels and adopted the Cedar Rapids Kernels moniker that the club still plays under today (as of 2022).
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