Tombstone
Formed:
Folded: 1997
First Game:
Last Game:
Seasons: 2
States & Provinces: 6
(MA, NH, NJ, NY, Ontario, PA)
Leadership
Trophy Case
Background
The North Atlantic League was a particularly disorganized entrant into the Independent Baseball gold rush that followed the formation of the Northern League in the Upper Midwest and the Frontier League in the Rust Belt in 1995. Copy cat operators rushed to carve up the rest of the country, securing leases at obsolete ballparks left behind by affiliated Minor League Baseball, of which there was no shortage.
The league began with just four clubs in the summer of 1995 and expanded to six teams for its final season in 1996. In early 1997 the NAL’s two best clubs from 1996, the Catskill Cougars and the Massachusetts Mad Dogs, jumped to the rival Northeast League. The defections reduced the NAL two just two active clubs and the circuit folded shortly thereafter without staging a third season.
With its demise, the NAL ceded its Northeastern U.S. footprint to the existing Northeast League and the long-in-the-works Atlantic League. The latter was a far better capitalized and more sophisticated operation that would launch in 1998 and go into several former NAL cities, including Newark, New Jersey and Nashua, New Hampshire.
North Atlantic League Franchise List
| FRANCHISE | YEARS ACTIVE | NAL CHAMPIONS |
|---|---|---|
| Altoona Rail Kings | 1996 | Never |
| Catskill Cougars | 1996 | 1996 |
| Massachusetts Mad Dogs | 1996 | Never |
| Nashua Hawks | 1995-1996 | Never |
| Newark Barge Bandits | 1995-1996 | 1995 |
| Niagara Falls Mallards | 1995 | Never |
| Welland Aquaducks | 1995-1996 | Never |
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