Charlotte County Redfish

South Coast League (2007)

Tombstone

Born: 2006 – South Coast League founding franchise
Disbanded: February 2008¹

First Game: May 18, 2007 (L 12-7 vs. South Georgia Peanuts)
Last Game: August 28, 2008 (W 5-4, L 9-6 vs. Aiken Foxhounds)

South Coast League Championships: None

Stadium

Charlotte Sports Park
Opened: 1987

Marketing

Team Colors:

Mascot: Sinker (the Redfish)

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners: South Coast League

Major League Affiliation: Independent

Background

The Charlotte County Redfish were an independent professional baseball team from Port Charlotte, Florida that played for one season in the South Coast League (SCL) during the summer of 2007. The Redfish brought professional baseball back to Charlotte County for the first time since 2002. That was the year that the Texas Rangers abandoned Charlotte County Stadium as both the site of the club’s spring training operations and the host of the its Class A farm team in the Florida State League.

Ultimately, the South Coast League didn’t prove to be the savior that Port Charlotte needed. The start-up independent circuit featured six ball clubs in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The SCL was set up in a single-entity structure with the league owning all six teams. The league’s own financial backing came from the ownership group of the Joliet Jackhammers, a 5-year old independent club from Illinois that played in the far more stable Northern League.

The downsides of this centralized, out-of-town management structure became swiftly apparent when the SCL’s other Florida-based franchise, the Bradenton Juice, failed to secure a proper stadium lease or generate any meaningful local support. The Juice imploded barely a month into the season and ended playing most of the season as a travel team, shifting their “home” games to Charlotte Sports Park on days when the Redfish weren’t in town.

Mired In The Basement

The league had more success in Port Charlotte, where the club ranked second in attendance despite an absolutely dreadful season. Like most indy leagues, the South Coast League played a split season schedule. The Redfish finished in last place in the both halves, en route to an overall record of 24-65.

Original field manager Jackie Hernandez, a veteran of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1971 World Series championship team, was dismissed after a 5-20 start to the season. Former Detroit Tigers slugger Cecil Fielder, who had been serving as a roving hitting instructor for the entire SCL during the spring of 2007, replaced Hernandez but couldn’t right the ship.

No member of the 2007 Charlotte County Redfish ever appeared in a Major League Baseball game, outside of the two field managers.

One and Done

In the middle of the Redfish’s one and only season in 2007, Charlotte County officials announced a deal for Charlotte Sports Park to undergo a $27 million renovation and become the spring training home of the Tampa Bay Rays beginning in 2009.

In early 2008, the Redfish announced that they would play the entire 2008 season on the road due to the stadium renovations. Shortly thereafter, SCL officials announced the Redfish would not play at all in 2008. And then it all became moot just a couple of weeks later when the South Coast League itself suspended operations on April Fools’ Day, never to be heard from again.

Pro baseball returned to Charlotte Sports Park in 2009 with both Tampa Bay Rays spring training and a new Rays farm club in the Florida State League, the Charlotte Stone Crabs. The Stone Crabs played at Charlotte Sports Park for 12 seasons from 2009 until 2020. The Stone Crabs were deleted from existence during Major League Baseball’s ruthless re-organization of the Minor Leagues during the winter of 2020-21. Port Charlotte no longer has a Minor League club of its own, but continues to host Tampa Bay Rays spring training.