Oklahoma RedHawks / Oklahoma City RedHawks

Pacific Coast League (1998-2014)

Background

The Oklahoma RedHawks (later Oklahoma City RedHawks from 2009 to 2014) were a Class AAA farm club of the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros from 1998 through 2014.  Although the RedHawks identity has now passed into history after seventeen seasons, the franchise itself is historic and remains a strong entry in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) to this day.

Triple-A baseball originally came to OKC in 1962 with the formation of the Oklahoma City 89ers in the American Association. The 89ers went through bust (mid-1970’s) and boom (mid-1980’s) periods over the years, but ultimately were survivors above all else. By the late 1990’s, the American Association was on its last legs, but the 89ers were successful enough to inspire the construction of a new $34 million ballpark to replace obsolete All Sports Stadium.

During the winter of 1997-98, the 89ers left the shuttering American Association to join the PCL and changed their name to the RedHawks to break in both their new league membership and the ribbon cutting of Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark.

Notable Names

As a Triple-A ball club, Oklahoma City produced countless future Major Leagues during the RedHawks years. The best of the best included:

• Late-blooming knuckle baller R.A. Dickey (RedHawks ’99 through ’06) won the 2012 National League Cy Young Award with the New York Mets
• Closer Francisco Cordero (RedHawks ’00-’01-’02) went on to save 329 Major League games.
• First baseman Carlos Pena (RedHawks ’01) led the American League in home runs in 2009 with the Tampa Bay Rays
• Infielder Michael Young (RedHawks ’01) played 12 seasons for the Texas Rangers and has had his number retired by the Major League club
• First baseman Adrian Gonzalez (RedHawks ’04-’05) earned 5 Major League All-Star nods between 2008 and 2015
• Second baseman Ian Kinsler (RedHawks ’05-’06-’07) became a 4-time Major League All-Star with the Rangers and Detroit Tigers
• Pitcher Edinson Volquez (RedHawks ’06-’07) started Games 1 & 5 of the 2015 World Series while helping the Kansas City Royals to the league championship . Volquez hurled a no-hitter for the Miami Marlins in 2017.
• Corner infielder Chris Davis (RedHawks ’08-’09-’10) led the Major Leagues in home runs in 2013 and 2015 as a member of the Baltimore Orioles
• Pitcher Dallas Keuchel (RedHawks ’11-’12-’13) won the 2015 American League Cy Young Award with the Houston Astros
• Outfielder J.D. Martinez (RedHawks ’12) developed into a 6-time Major League All-Star and top slugger, but failed to homer in 95 plate appearances for Oklahoma City in 2012.
• Outfielder George Springer (RedHawks ’13-’14) earned a World Series MVP award in leading the Houston Astros to the championship in 2017.

R.A. Dickey’s experience in Oklahoma City was particularly noteworthy. Dickey pitched an astounding 141 games with Red Hawks across seven seasons between 1999 and 2006 while trying to find his foothold in the Majors. Only in 2005, at the tail end of his time in the Texas Rangers system, did Dickey commit to his knuckle ball. He did not spend a full season in the Majors until the age of 35 in 2010. He would win his Cy Young Award as the National League’s most outstanding pitcher two years later.

Behind The Scenes

Oklahoma City’s PCL franchise went through three ownership transitions during the 17-season RedHawks era. Original owners Gaylord Entertainment purchased the Oklahoma City 89ers for $8 million in 1993. Gaylord shepherded the ballclub through the construction of Bricktown Ballpark, the shift to the Pacific Coast League and the replacement of the 89ers brand with the RedHawks identity in 1998.

In 2003, local owners Bob Funk, Sr. and Scott Pruitt took over. Funk was a tireless promoter of Oklahoma City as a sporting destination and also owned the city’s popular Blazers ice hockey team at the time. Pruitt was a rising star in Oklahoma Republican politics who later serve a brief and scandal-plagued term sabotaging the Environmental Protection Agency during the Trump administration.

Funk and Pruitt sold out to industry heavyweights Mandalay Baseball Properties in 2010. Mandalay, chaired by Hollywood producer Peter Guber, owned four other Minor League Baseball franchises at the time. Their portfolio included the Dayton Dragons of the Midwest League, known for having the longest sell-out streak in the history of American professional sports. With Mandalay in charge from 2011 to 2014, the RedHawks would have one of the sport’s most experienced ownership groups but would no longer be locally owned.

In the same 2010 – 2011 offseason that Mandalay took over from Funk and Pruitt, the Texas Rangers departed after 28 seasons as Oklahoma City’s parent club. The Houston Astros replaced the Rangers and made the RedHawks their top Minor League affiliate.

Behind The Scenes

In 2014, Mandalay began to sell off all of its baseball teams. In Oklahoma City, Mandalay chairman Peter Guber essentially sold the team to a partnership consisting of himself and his partners in Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers ownership group. The Houston Astros departed and the Dodgers, naturally, became Oklahoma City’s new parent club as part of the ownership transition. The RedHawks brand no longer made much sense in the context of the Dodgers’ iconic connection to the color blue. So in December 2014, team officials announced that the ball club would re-brand as the Oklahoma City Dodgers for the 2015 season.

Trivia

On June 22, 2010, RedHawks shortstop Gregorio Petit hit two grand slams in a road game against the New Orleans Zephyrs. Petit would hit just five home runs for the entire rest of the 2010 season. This despite playing in a team-leading 130 games that summer.

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