Tag: One-Year Wonders

1999 Sacramento Steelheads program from the Western Baseball League

Sacramento Steelheads

January 7, 2021

The Sacramento Steelheads were an independent professional baseball team that existed for only season in the California capital before getting displaced by the return of Class AAA baseball to the city in the year 2000. The 1999 Steelheads set up shop on the campus of Sacramento City College. The team played one season in the six-team Western Baseball League, competing against teams from California, Nevada, Utah and Washington. They finished in last place with a 36-54 record.

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Montreal Express

December 31, 2020

Deposited into the Molson Centre during the National Lacrosse League’s Canadian expansion spree of the early 2000s, the Montreal Express were a box-office bust that came and went in just one season. The Express were competitive on the carpet (8-8) during the 2001-02 NLL season, but heavy financial losses led to the team’s closure during the summer of 2002.

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Cincinnati Swarm Arena Football 2

Cincinnati Swarm

December 27, 2020

The Cincinnati Swarm were a Arena Football 2 franchise that played a single season at the U.S. Bank Arena (AKA Riverfront Coliseum) during the summer of 2003. The Swarm were just another chapter in that building’s grim history with indoor football, following the Cincinnati Rockers (1991-1992) and preceding the Marshalls (2005-2006) and the Jungle Kats (2007).

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Daytona Beach Admirals Florida State League

Daytona Beach Admirals

December 20, 2020

The Daytona Beach Admirals were a short-lived entry in the Class A Florida State League, operated by long-time Chicago Cubs and National League executive Blake Cullen. The team would last only one season as a Chicago White Sox farm club during the summer of 1987. But Cullen continued on as a minor league sports investor and one year later he recycled the ‘Admirals’ name for his wildly successful minor league hockey team in Norfolk, Virginia.

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Vancouver Nighthawks

December 19, 2020

The Vancouver Nighthawks were a dead-on-arrival minor league basketball promotion that set up shop at the gargantuan B.C. Place stadium in the summer of 1988. Team owner Don Burns abandoned the club early in the season. The Nighthawks finished in last place in the six-team World Basketball League and quietly folded. The World Basketball League had one peculiar rule: eligible players were allowed to be no taller than 6′ 5″ tall!

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