Connecticut Defenders

Eastern League (2006-2009)

Tombstone

Born: October 17, 2005 – Re-branded from Norwich Navigators
Moved: September 23, 2009 (Richmond Flying Squirrels)

First Game:
Last Game:

Eastern League Championships: None

Stadium

Dodd Stadium
Opened: 1995

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners: Lou DiBella, et al.

Major League Affiliations: San Francisco Giants

Background

The Connecticut Defenders were the second of several minor league baseball teams to make their home in Norwich, Connecticut after the city opened the $9 million Dodd Stadium in 1995. The Defenders followed on the heels of the Norwich Navigators. The Navs’ glory days came from 1995 to 2002, when Norwich was the double-A farm club of the New York Yankees. Prospects such as Alfonso Soriano came up through Norwich and aging superstars such as Roger Clemens, Darryl Strawberry and Andy Petitte visited for injury rehab appearances. In 2002, the Navs won the Eastern League title.

But the Yankees departed after the 2002 season. Interest in the team, already declining, plummeted when the far-away San Francisco Giants took over as parent club in 2003.

Boxing promoter Lou DiBella bought the Navs on the eve of the 2005 season and made no secret of his dislike for the Navigators name and branding. In October 2005 DiBella held a press conference at the Foxwoods Resort Casino to announced the team’s new military-themed identity: the Connecticut Defenders. He cited the (relatively) nearby U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Naval Submarine Base as inspiration for the name.

DiBella’s grab for statewide baseball sovereignty infuriated Connecticut’s other (and more popular) Eastern League club, the New Britain Rock Cats.

“It’s disrespectful, almost insulting,” Rock Cats president Bill Dowling told The Hartford Courant. “The league is upset too. He’s a boxing promoter. He goes his separate way. It’s not a good thing to do and not a good way to start off in the league as a new owner.”¹

“What Next, Locusts?”

DiBella’s efforts failed to turn around Norwich’s declining fortunes. The Defenders ranked dead last among the Eastern League’s 12 teams in attendance in 2006 and against in 2007.

Five years removed from the Yankees departure, Norwich finally had a big baseball event again when the Eastern League All-Star Game came to town in July 2007. The Defenders responded with a near sell-out for the day long festivities, including a pre-game Home Run Derby. The fog started to roll in about two hours before game time. Just as the home run derby was about to begin, a concession stand fire alarm went off, requiring an evacuation of the stadium. Sergio Santos of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats allegedly won the Derby, sending balls deep into the fog banks now hanging over the outfield and (one presumes) over the walls beyond.

The All-Stars fumbled through most of three innings, but officials called the game at 2-2 after a routine fly ball descended from the mists and nearly plonked Defenders All-Star outfielder John Bowker.

“What next, locusts?” asked DiBella in comments published by The Reading (PA) Eagle.² “The plague? We held off the rain, but who would have thought the fog would be so thick we’d have to separate it with our hands?”

Move To Richmond & Aftermath

What was next for DiBella, inevitably, was to move the team. The Defenders lasted two more money-losing summers in Norwich before departing for Richmond, Virginia in 2010, still under DiBella’s ownership. The Richmond Flying Squirrels assembled a front office dream team lead by long-time Reading Phillies exec Chuck Domino and former Altoona Curve GM Todd Parnell. The Flying Squirrels led the Eastern League in attendance during their 2010 inaugural season with announced totals of 463,842.

The Connecticut Tigers of the Class A New York-Penn League quickly replaced the Defenders in 2010. The Tigers and the NYPL played a short-season schedule from June to August, playing only 36 games each summer compared to the 70-game home slate of the Eastern League days.

After 10 seasons, the Tigers announced they would change their name to the Norwich Sea Unicorns for the 2020 season. However, the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And then the New York-Penn League and the short season Class A classification itself was eliminated in Major League Baseball’s seismic re-organization of the minor leagues during the fall & winter of 2020. At the time of this writing, it remains uncertain whether the Sea Unicorns will find a new league to join.