Category: Western Baseball League 1995

1997 Bend Bandits program from the Western Baseball League

Bend Bandits

June 16, 2020

The Bend Bandits were an independent (non-Major League affiliated) minor league baseball team that played in the Central Oregon during the late 1990’s. The Bandits were one of eight original clubs in the all-independent Western Baseball League formed in 1995. They replaced the Bend Rockies of the Northwest League, a Class A farm club of Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies, who left town at the end of the 1994 season. The Bandits went out of business after the 1998 season.

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Feather River Mudcats

December 18, 2019

The Feather River Mudcats were a luckless entry in the independent Western Baseball League that went bankrupt after one season in the small Northern California city of Marysville. The team spent its entire existence embroiled in an intellectual property dispute with the owner of the Carolina Mudcats, a Class AA farm club of the Colorado Rockies in Zebulon, North Carolina. Throughout the 1990 the Carolina Mudcats consistently ranked among the most popular minor league baseball brands in terms of nationwide cap and merchandise sales.  The original Mudcats did not take kindly to a rogue indy ball club moving in on their catfish empire.

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2001 Long Beach Breakers program from the Western Baseball League

Long Beach Breakers

December 27, 2016

The Long Beach Breakers were a short-lived minor league baseball club that played for two summers in the independent Western League in 2001 and 2002. Oddly, the Breakers won the Western League championship in their debut season, despite finishing the regular season with a league-worst 36-54 record. Former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager was the Breakers’ field manager for both seasons of play.

The Breakers won the Western League title in their debut season, despite finishing the regular season with a league-worst 36-54 record.

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