The Rockford Expos were an Illinois-based Class A farm club of the Montreal Expos from 1988 until 1992. When Rockford’s owners were awarded a Midwest League expansion franchise in June 1987, it marked the return of professional baseball to the city for the first time since the departure of the Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1954.
The San Diego Flash were a 2nd Division professional soccer club that competed in the United Soccer League’s A-League from 1998 through 2001. At the time, the A-League was the second highest level of outdoor soccer competition in the United States, operating one level beneath Major League Soccer. The club helped to develop the careers of future Major League Soccer standouts Joe Cannon and Jimmy Conrad before collapsing due to finance problems.
Remembered mostly for being NHL Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur’s junior team, the Saint-Hyacinthe Laser was a shaky Quebec Major Junior Hockey League entry from 1989 to 1996. Various generations of owners considered moving the Laser out of Saint-Hyacinthe at different junctures during the early 1990’s. The franchise finally left town after seven seasons, moving to Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec in 1996 where the former Laser franchise continues to play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League today as the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
The Clinton C-Sox were an Iowa-based farm club of the American League’s Chicago White Sox from 1959 through 1965. Prior to hooking up with the White Sox in 1959, Clinton served as a minor league affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1954 to 1958 and the club was known as the Clinton Pirates. In their finest season, the C-Sox won Class A Midwest League pennant in 1963, posting a 83-41 record and besting the 2nd place Burlington Bees by 11 games.
The Dakota Wizards were a long-running minor league basketball team that played for 17 seasons at the Civic Center is Bismarck, North Dakota between 1995 and 2012. That lifespan marked that Wizards as one of the more durable minor league hoops outfits in American history. After three losing seasons in their first four years, the Wizards would emerge as a minor league power of sorts. During the club’s final thirteen seasons from 1999 through 2012, the Wizards would win four league titles and suffer only two losing campaigns.
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