The Chico Heat were the class of the independent Western Baseball League during their six summers of play between 1997 and 2002. The Heat appeared in the WBL championship series five times in six seasons, winning it all in 1997 and 2002. Chico also led the Western League in attendance in all six of their campaigns.
Bakersfield, California was a mainstay of the Class A California League for 75 years, missing only four seasons that the league played between 1941 and 2016. The Blaze were the last of Bakersfield’s Cal League ball clubs, playing at Sam Lynn Park for 22 summers between 1995 and 2016.
The Border City Bandits were an ill-conceived minor league hockey outfit that went belly-up midway through their first and only Central Hockey League season during the winter of 2000-01. The border cities, in the Bandits case, were the twin cities of Texarkana on either side of the Arkansas-Texas boundary. The Bandits established their offices in Texarkana, Texas but played their games across the border in a converted rodeo arena in Texarkana, Arkansas.
The Tyler Roughnecks were an independent professional baseball club that played for only one season at Mike Carter Field. The Roughnecks were founding members of the six-team All-American Association. The league featured clubs in small cities across Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas. The team moved to Jackson, Mississippi following the 2001 season.
The Daytona Cubs were a long-time Florida State League farm team of the Chicago Cubs, playing 22 seasons between 1993 and 2014. The club was notable for its dominant postseason performances, capturing 10 straight playoff series and six Florida State League titles over a 20-year period between 1993 and 2013. The franchise re-branded itself as the Daytona Tortugas in 2014 after the Chicago Cubs ended their partnership with the ball club.
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