Tombstone
Born: September 25, 1998 – The Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks relocate to Schaumburg, IL11Karuhn, Carri. “Last Piece In Place For The Flyers”. The Tribune (Chicago, IL). September 26, 1998[/mfn]
Folded: March 2011
First Game: May 28, 1999 (W 6-0 vs. St. Paul Saints)
Last Game: September 5, 2010 (L 4-3 vs. Winnipeg Goldeyes)
Northern League Championships: None
Stadium
Alexian Field (7,048)22004 Schaumburg Flyers Media Guide
Opened: 1999
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners: Richard Ehrenreich, et al.
Major League Affiliation: Independent
Background
The Schaumburg Flyers were a minor league baseball team that played in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois from 1999 until 2010. The Flyers competed in the Northern League, an “independent” circuit whose members had no affiliation with Major League Baseball parent clubs.
7,600-seat Alexian Field was constructed at a cost of approximately $20 million to lure the club from Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1999. Popular former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle was the Flyers’ field manager for the first three seasons of the team’s existence from 1999 through 2001.
On The Field
Notable Flyers included former Detroit Tigers All-Star catcher Matt Nokes, who signed with Schaumburg in 2001 at age 37. Nokes had a superb year (.354, 16 HRs, 69 RBI) but did not return in 2002.
In 2002, outfielder Jim Rushford became the first ex-Flyer to reach the Major Leagues, appearing in 23 games as a September call-up of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Demise
Team owner Rich Ehrenreich began to fall behind on lease payments for Alexian Field in 2007. By the end of the 2010 Northern League season, the team’s accumulated debt and penalties exceeded $900,000. Efforts to sell the team to poorly vetted buyers fell through in 2010 and led to litigation. Meanwhile, the Northern League folded after the 2010 season. The Flyers announced plans to play on in a dubious sounding enterprise known as the North American League. Before the Flyers could join the new league, the city evicted the team from Alexian Field over unpaid bills. The Flyers went out of business in March 2011.
After a summer without baseball in 2011, the Flyers were replaced by the Schaumburg Boomers of the independent Frontier League in 2012.
Trivia
On June 19th, 1999 96-year old former Negro League star Ted Radcliffe took the mound for the Flyers and delivered a single pitch, a ball, to Matt Faulken of the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks, becoming the oldest person to ever appear in a professional baseball game.
Schaumburg Flyers Shop
Links
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