River City Rascals

Frontier League (1999-2019)

Tombstone

Born: 1998 – The inactive Zanesville Greys relocate to O’Fallon, MO
Folded (Announced): August 12, 2019

First Game:
Final Game: September 16, 2019

Frontier League Champions: 2010 & 2019

Stadium

T.R. Hughes Ballpark

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

1999-2006: Harold Burkemper, Ken Wilson, et al.
2006-2019: PS&J Baseball (Steve Malliet, et al.)

Major League Affiliation: Independent

Background

The River City Rascals were an independent minor league baseball team that played in the Western suburbs of St. Louis for 21 seasons from 1999 to 2019.

The Rascals were an immediate hit upon arriving in suburban O’Fallon, Missouri in 1999. The ball club led the Frontier League in attendance in each of its first four seasons. Crowds peaked during the summer of 2004 when the Rascals drew 185,333 fans to T.R. Hughes Ballpark, an average of 4,111 per contest.

On the field, the Rascals won two Frontier League titles (2010 & 2019), both under the direction of long-time field manager Steve Brook, who helmed the club for ten summers. River City produced three future Major League players (as of this writing):

Pitcher Josh Kinney (River City ’01) won a World Series ring with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006
Outfielder Justin Christian (River City ’03-’04) appeared briefly with the Yankees and Giants
Pitcher Joe Thatcher (River City ’04-’05) won 11 Major League games between 2007 and 2015

Demise

Rascals attendance crashed from that all-time peak of 185,333 in 2004 to an (at the time) all-time low of 108,928 the very next summer. The team’s original local ownership group sold the club the next year. Veteran minor league operator Steve Malliet took over and kept the Rascals going for 13 more seasons.

In late 2018 the city of O’Fallon briefly evicted the Rascals from CarShield Field in a dispute over payments. The parties patched things up well enough for the Rascals to resume play under a one-year lease during the summer of 2019. But in early August 2019, Rascals ownership announced that the club’s 21st season would be its last.

A little over a month later, the Rascals defeated the Florence Freedom in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the 2019 Frontier League championship series to claim their second league crown and go out on top.