Tombstone
Born: December 1, 1974 – Midwest League expansion franchise
Re-Branded: December 1978 (Wausau Timbers)
Midwest League Championships: None
Stadium
Athletic Park (3,000)11978 Cedar Rapids Giants Program
Dimensions (1978): Left: 318′, Center: 365′, Right: 316′21978 Cedar Rapids Giants Program
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners:
- 1975-1977: Merle Miller
- 1977-1978: Mike Feder, Stan Schulz, Steve Schulz, Jim Hansen, Jim Brown, Bob Koplitz
Major League Affiliation: New York Mets
Attendance
Background
Pro baseball returned to Wausau, Wisconsin when the Midwest League chose the city of 32,000 over Lafayette, Indiana for an expansion club at the 1974 Baseball Winter Meetings. Wausau became the northernmost stop in the Class A circuit during the 1970’s, playing against intra-state rivals from Appleton and Wisconsin Rapids as well as clubs from Iowa and Illinois.
Wausau’s previous minor league team, the Lumberjacks of the Northern League, left town in 1957.
From 1975 to 1978, Wausau served as a farm club for the National League’s New York Mets.
Race To The Bottom
The Mets had a rough go of it on the field. Wausau’s best season as a New York affiliate came in 1976 when the team finished a mere 17 games under .500 at 56-73. Every other season, the team lost at least 25 more games than it won.
Only the presence of Wausau’s equally dreadful in-state rival, the Appleton Foxes, kept the team out of the divisional cellar each summer from 1975 to 1977. Invariably, a single late season victory or a well-placed rainout allowed Wausau to edge out Appleton by a half-game in the standings.
That all changed in 1978. Appleton dominated the circuit with a 97-40 record en route to the Midwest League championship. Years later, Minor League Baseball would name the 1978 Appleton Foxes one of the Top 100 Minor League teams of all-time. Wausau, meanwhile, fumbled their way to a 55-81 record and finished 41.5 games behind the Foxes.
Notable Alumni
The top future Major League players to come out of Wausau during the Mets residency were pitchers Juan Berenguer (Wausau ’75) and Neil Allen (Wausau ’76) and 1986 Mets World Series hero Mookie Wilson, who hit .290 for the club as a 21-year old in 1978.
Catcher Ned Yost (Wausau ’75) managed the Kansas City Royals to a World Series victory in 2015.
Catcher Alex Trevino (Wausau ’77) went on to a journeyman career in the Majors. Trevino later became the long-time Spanish-language broadcaster of the Houston Astros.
Timbers to Cougars
The Mets pulled out of Wausau at the end of the 1978 season. Wausau forged on in the Midwest League as the ‘Timbers’ for another 11 seasons through 1990. The franchise moved to Geneva, Illinois in 1991 where it remains to this day as the Kane County Cougars.
The Wisconsin Woodchucks amateur collegiate team set up shop at Wausau’s Athletic Park in 1994 and enter their 27th season of play in 2020, coronavirus permitting.
Trivia
After the Mets left town in late 1978, Wausau’s ownership group held a Name The Team contest to re-brand the club with ‘Timbers’ coming out on top. Other names considered at the time included Blue Sox, Calibers, Chiefs, Fireflys, Indians, Loggers, Lumberjacks and Pioneers. (Wausau Daily Herald 12/12/1978)
Wausau Mets Shop
Links
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