Canton-Akron Indians

Eastern League (1989-1996)

Tombstone

Born: September 1, 1988 – The Vermont Mariners announce they will move to Canton, OH
Re-Branded: November 7, 1996 (Akron Aeros)

First Game: April 7, 1989 (W 3-0 @ Williamsport Bills)
Last Game: September 2, 1996 (W 5-2 vs. Trenton Thunder)

Eastern League Championships: None

Stadium

Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium (5,738)
Opened: 1989

Ownership & Affiliation

Owner: Mike Agganis

Major League Affiliation: Cleveland Indians

Background

In 1988 and 1989 the city of Canton, Ohio constructed a simple $2.9 million ballpark for the purpose of luring an Eastern League minor league baseball team away from Burlington, Vermont. Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium was named in honor of the native son of Akron who starred for the New York Yankees during the 1970’s until he perished at age 32 in a plane crash at Akron-Canton Airport in 1979.

The ballpark’s dimension were built to the exact specifications of Cleveland Stadium (320′ down the foul lines and 400′ to dead center), as the new “Canton-Akron” club would serve as the Class AA farm team of the nearby Cleveland Indians.

Canton’s investment was notably ill-timed. The era of the $2M – $5M econo-ballpark in minor league baseball was all but over. Within just a few years, Thurman Munson Stadium would be comprehensively obsolete. And Akron would come calling with plans for a next-generation $31 million palace to replace it.

Notable Names

Future Major League stars who came up through Canton-Akron between 1989 and 1996 included:

5-time All-Star and 1995 American League home run champ Albert Belle (Canton-Akron ’89-’90)
3-time American League All-Star pitcher Charles Nagy (Canton-Akron ’89-’90)
Future Hall-of-Fame third baseman Jim Thome (Canton-Akron ’91-’92)
Paul Byrd (Canton-Akron ’92-’94) went on to earn 109 Major League victories
Reliver Alan Embree (Canton-Akron ’92-’94) went on to pitch 16 Major League seasons
2-time National League All-Star outfielder Brian Giles (Canton-Akron ’92-’93)
12-time MLB All-Star Manny Ramirez hit .340 with 17 homers for Canton-Akron in 1993
First baseman Richie Sexson (Canton-Akron ’96) hit 306 Major League homers in 12 seasons
Bartolo Colon (Canton-Akron ’96) spent 21 seasons in the Majors and won the 2005 American League Cy Young Award

Jim Thome would go on to hit 612 Major League home runs, which ranks 8th all-time as of 2019. But his power was not yet apparent as a 20 and 21-year old prospect in 1991 and 1992. Thome knocked only 6 round trippers in 477 plate appearances across his two summers in Canton.

Move To Akron

Team owner Mike Agganis originally purchased the Eastern League franchise in his hometown of Lynn, Massachusetts for $48,000 in 1981 .¹ He subsequently moved the team to Burlington, Vermont and then on to Canton. In the meantime, the value of minor league franchises skyrocketed throughout the 1980’s. In 1994 the Eastern League’s Harrisburg (PA) Senators club sold for a reported $4.1 million.

Agganis’ lease with the city of Canton ran for ten seasons, from 1989 through 1998. But by 1994 Agganis was deeply dissatisfied with the soggy playing surface conditions at Thurman Munson Stadium and at loggerheads with Canton officials over the city’s commitments to maintain the ballpark. In November 1994 he signed a deal with Akron officials to build an 8,500-seat, $31 million dollar downtown ballpark.

The Indians played two more lame ducks season in Canton until Akron’s Canal Park was ready to open in the spring of 1997. The team re-branded itself as the Akron Aeros in November 1996.

The Canton Crocodiles (1997-2001) of the independent Frontier League moved into Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium to replace the Indians in 1997.