Author: Drew Crossley

1995 Long Beach Barracuda Baseball Scorecard from the Western Baseball League

Long Beach Barracuda

July 14, 2022

The Long Beach Barracuda were one of eight founding members of the independent Western Baseball League during the summer of 1995. The Barracuda, who played at Blair Field, were Long Beach’s first professional team since the Beachcombers of 1913. The club was strong on the field under the direction of former American League Most Valuable Player and a circus behind the scenes. By the end of the summer, the Barracuda had declared bankruptcy, fought off a takeover bid from actress Heather Locklear, changed their name and won the league championship.

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2002 Dubois County Dragons baseball program from the Frontier League

Dubois County Dragons

July 10, 2022

The Dubois County Dragons were a southern Indiana indepenent baseball team that played seven seasons between 1996 and 2002. The Dragons played in the Heartland League from 1996 to 1998 and then jumped to the Frontier League in 1999. Following the 2002 season, the team moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

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Logo of the Jacksonville Generals from the American Indoor Soccer Association

Jacksonville Generals

July 9, 2022

The Jacksonville Generals represent a strange footnote from the 1980’s indoor soccer phenomenon. The Generals competed only in a 12-game postseason showcase tournament known as the “Challenge Cup” put on by the American Indoor Soccer Association (AISA) during the late winter and spring of 1988. The club never played a regular season game in any league. A number of former Jacksonville Tea Men of the early 80’s returned to play for the Generals including Arnie Mausser, Ricardo Alonso, Alan Green and head coach Dennis Viollet.

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Illustration of goaltender Marco Baron on the cover of a 1979-80 Grand Rapids Owls program from the International Hockey League

Grand Rapids Owls

July 7, 2022

Pro hockey returned to Grand Rapids, Michigan abruptly in December 1977 with the messy midseason arrival of the Dayton Owls, an International Hockey League club displaced due to low attendance just two dozen games into the 1977-78 season. The Owls would provide the first pro hockey action seen in Grand Rapids since the departure of the IHL’s Rockets 22 years earlier at the end of the 1955-56 season. The Grand Rapids Owls would appear in the IHL’s Turner Cup Finals in 1979 before disbanding the following year.

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Rochester Athletics

July 4, 2022

The Rochester Athletics were a Minnesota-based minor league baseball team that played part of one season in the Class B Three-I League during the summer of 1958. The A’s served as a farm team for Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Athletics. Several Rochester A’s players eventually advanced to the Major Leagues. The best was 22-year old shortstop Dick Howser. With attendance lagging around 500 souls per game at midseason, the club moved 44 miles east to Winona and finished out the season as the Winona A’s.

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