A rare Elmira, New York minor league baseball team NOT known as the Pioneers. The 1971 Elmira Royals won the Eastern League title in their only season of competition under the Royals name. But the team was remarkably unproductive for a Class AA farm team. Not a single member of the 1971 Elmira Royals would appear in the Majors beyond 1973.
To be a baseball fan in Elmira, New York is to be a Pioneers fan. The local nine have been the Pioneers in league after league since 1935 with only a few short interruptions. Today we look at the most unusual of those detours: the two-year reign of Lou Eliopulos, the retired cemetery operator who dreamed of a nationwide chain of Suns-branded minor league baseball teams and ever so briefly made it happen.
Northeast League (1996-1998 & 2003-2004) Northern League (1999-2002) Can-Am League (2005) Born: 1996 Folded: First Game: June 1, 1996 (W 6-4 vs. Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs)
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