The Nashua Pirates were a New Hampshire-based Class AA farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the mid-1980’s. The team muddled through three straight losing seasons before moving to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1987. Though Holman Stadium has hosted numerous independent and collegiate wooden bat league teams in the years since, the Nashua Pirates remain the last Major League farm club to play in the Gate City.
Eastern League (1980-1985) Born: March 1980 – Eastern League expansion franchise Affiliation Change: 1986 (Glens Falls Tigers) First Game: April 12, 1980 (L 3-1 @ Waterbury Reds)
Eastern League (1984-1987) Born: September 8, 1983 – The Lynn Pirates relocate to Burlington, VT Affiliation Change: September 15, 1987 (Vermont Mariners) First Game: April
This Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class AA farm club lasted only season at Fraser Field in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1983. The Pirates followed on the heels of the Lynn Sailors (1980-1982), a Seattle Mariners affiliate that struggled to find an audience in the small, economically depressed city north of Boston. The club’s box office was so weak that the Pirates were asked to play all of their playoff dates on the road. Despite this disadvantage, the Lynn Pirates advanced to the Eastern League championship series in their only summer of play. The ball club moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1984.
The Akron Aeros were a long-time Class AA farm club of the Cleveland Indians, playing under the Aeros for sixteen seasons. The ball club was lured from nearby Canton, Ohio in 1997 with the promise of a $31 million new stadium, Canal Park. The franchise remains in the Eastern League to this day and still serves as a Cleveland farm club, but changed its name to the Akron RubberDucks in 2014.
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