The Quincy Cubs were an Illinois-based Class A farm team of the Chicago Cubs in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Quincy won the championship of the Midwest League in 1970. Pitchers Dennis Lamp, Joe Niekro and Bruce Sutter all advanced from Quincy to long and successful Major League careers.
The Waterloo Indians were an Iowa-based Class A farm club of the Cleveland Indians from 1977 until 1988. The Tribe arrived in October 197 replace the departing Kansas City Royals as Waterloo’s parent club. Waterloo won Midwest League crowns in 1980 and 1986 and posted only two losing seasons during a twelve-year run under the Indians’ banner. The club changed its name to the Waterloo Diamonds in 1989.
When the Kenosha (WI) Twins moved to Fort Wayne in late 1992, it marked the return of men’s pro baseball to the northeast Indiana city for the first time in 45 years. The Midwest League club dropped the “Twins” identity in favor of the more kid-friendly “Wizards” when it arrived in Fort Wayne. But the franchise remained a Class A farm club of the Minnesota Twins for six more seasons through 1998. The team changed names again to the TinCaps in 2009, a re-branding effort timed to coincide with the opening of $30 million Parkview Field that same year.
The Sultans were a misbegotten Minor League Baseball club that scuffled through two disappointing Midwest League seasons in the Illinois state capital in the mid-1990’s. The circumstances of the Sultans’ formation virtually ensured the ballclub would fail from the outset.
Once upon a time – 1995, to be exact – there was a new minor league baseball entry in the Midwest League to be known as the Battle Creek Golden Kazoos. Locals took a dim view of the name – they hated it, actually. But the absentee owner lived in Virginia and it’s not clear that community uproar alone would have been enough to silence the Golden Kazoos. Enter local oddball George Hubka.
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