Fort Wayne Wizards

Midwest League (1993-2008)

Tombstone

Born: 1992 – The Kenosha Twins relocate to Fort Wayne, IN
Re-Branded: October 2, 2008 (Fort Wayne TinCaps)

First Game: April 10, 1993 (W 4-3 & L 3-2 @ Waterloo Diamonds)
Last Game: September 1, 2008 (L 3-0 @ Great Lakes Loons)

Midwest League Championships: None

Stadium

Memorial Stadium

Branding

Team Colors:

Mascot: Dinger (the Dragon)

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

1993-1998: Eric Margenau
1998-2006: General Sports & Entertainment (Andy Appleby)
2006-2008: Hardball Capital (Jason Freier & Chris Schoen)

Major League Affiliations:

1993-1998: Minnesota Twins
1999-2008: San Diego Pades

Attendance

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Sources:

The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007 (1993 – 2006 figures)
Baseball America 2008 Almanac (2007 figures)
Baseball America 2009 Almanac (2008 figures)

Background

When the Kenosha (WI) Twins moved to Fort Wayne in late 1992, it marked the return of men’s pro baseball to the northeast Indiana city for the first time in 45 years. The last team to play in the city was actually the Fort Wayne Daisies (1945-1954) of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The most recent men’s team was the Fort Wayne Generals, who played a single season in the Central League in the summer of ’48.

The Midwest League club dropped the “Twins” identity in favor of the more kid-friendly “Wizards” when it arrived in Fort Wayne. But the franchise remained a Class A farm club of the Minnesota Twins for six more seasons through 1998. Key players during the Twins era in Fort Wayne included:

Pitcher LaTroy Hawkins (Wizards ’93)
Outfielder Torii Hunter (Wizards ’94)
Catcher A.J. Pierzynski (Wizards ’95-’96)
Outfielder Michael Cuddyer (Wizards ’98)

Twins Out, Padres In

The San Diego Padres replaced the Twins as the Wizards’ parent club in 1999. The Wizards produced two future Cy Young Award winners during the Padres years. Jake Peavy won 13 games for the Wizards during the summer of 2000. Peavy won the NL Cy Young with San Diego in 2007.

Corey Kluber (Wizards ’08) won two AL Cy Young Awards with the Cleveland Indians in 2014 and 2017.

Another notable player from the Padres era was journeyman pitcher Dirk Hayhurst. Hayhurst eventually played briefly in the Majors with San Diego and Toronto in 2008 and 2009. He’s better known for the four memoirs he wrote about baseball life, starting with The New York Times bestseller Out of My League published in 2010. Hayhurst’s other books include The Bullpen Gospels, Wild Pitches, and Bigger Than The Game: Re-Stitching a Major League Life.

Wizards to TinCaps

In 2006 Jason Freier and Chris Schoen of Atlanta-based Hardball Capital purchased the team from Andy Appleby. Hardball contributed $5 million towards construction of a new $30 million downtown ballpark to replace 15-year old Memorial Stadium. Hardball announced a brand re-boot of the Wizards to coincide with the opening of Parkview Field in 2009.

On October 2, 2008 the team announced its new identity: the Fort Wayne TinCaps, a reference to the American pioneer Johnny Appleseed, who settled in Fort Wayne at the end of his life.