Minor League Baseball Mugs

The Vincennes Velvets was the final moniker of the minor league baseball teams based in Vincennes, Indiana between 1903 and 1952. From 1950 to 1952, the Velvets were members of the Class D level Mississippi–Ohio Valley League, which evolved to become today's Midwest League. Previous teams in Vincennes played as members of the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League (1903–1906, 1910–1911, 1913) and Eastern Illinois League (1908). The 1950 Vincennes Velvets were a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Browns.

The Pittsburgh Burghers were a baseball team in the Players' League, a short-lived Major League that existed only for the 1890 season. The team included a number of players who had jumped from the National League's Pittsburgh Alleghenys (now the Pittsburgh Pirates), including Hall of Famers Pud Galvin, Ned Hanlon, and Jake Beckley. Hanlon served as the team's manager. Meanwhile, John Tener, who would go on to represent Pittsburgh in the United States Congress and be elected the 25th Governor of Pennsylvania, finished his pitching career with the Burghers in 1890. Later Tener would become the president of the National League, and a director of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Casper Ghosts are moving from Casper, Wyo., to Grand Junction, Colo. — and that means baseball is losing one of its neatest team/nickname combinations, just four years after the Pioneer League team adopted the name. The team, formerly known as the Butte Copper Kings and the Casper Rockies, was in the news in 2008, when it announced its unique glow-in-the-dark caps. An affiliate of the Colorado Rockies organization, the Ghosts seem to have ingratiated themselves with the community. A notice on its website announced its partnership "with US Bank, Taco Johns, and the Casper Police Department to provide a positive influence on the youth in Natrona County."

The New Haven Nutmegs of the Eastern Association ended the 1891 season with a record of 48 wins and 39 lossesNew Haven disbanded August 14. The New Haven Nutmegs represented New Haven, CT in the 1891 Eastern Association. Managed by Walt Burnham, they were 4th at 48-39 when they folded in August. OF Dan Lally (.278, .422 SLG) still led the EA with 5 homers, while 1B Sid Farrar batted .312, stole 40 bases and slugged .414. SS Ed Sales hit .307 but played for two other teams that year. A. Gilliland (9-4, 0.89) led the Association in ERA while Dad Clarkson was 16-12 with a 1.54 ERA.

The Phoenix Firebirds were a Minor League Baseball team that played in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1958 to 1959, and from 1966 to 1997. Before 1986, the team was known as the Phoenix Giants. The franchise was a member of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League (PCL), and were the top minor league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. The Firebirds were forced to leave Phoenix following the 1997 season, as the new National League expansion team, the Arizona Diamondbacks would begin play in Phoenix the following year. In a complicated series of events, the owners of the Firebirds moved their team to Tucson, Arizona, and became the Tucson Sidewinders, dropping their affiliation with the Giants in favor of the expansion Diamondbacks.

Defunct Portland Beavers Baseball 1903-2010

The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn ("Atlantic" or the "Brooklyn Atlantics") was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty. The team was also the first baseball club to visit the White House in 1865 at the invitation of President Andrew Johnson.

The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followed by eleven seasons in the National League (NL). Early names for the team included the Forest Citys and Blues. The name Spiders itself emerged early in the team's inaugural NL season of 1889, owing to new black-and-gray uniforms and the skinny, long-limbed look of many players (thereby evoking the spider arachnid). National League Park served as the team's home for its first four seasons until the opening of League Park in 1891.

Defunct Denver Bears Baseball 1885-1954

The San Jose Bees joined the California League in 1962 as an affiliate of the expansion Los Angeles Angels. They switched to a Kansas City Royals affiliate from 1970–1974 and a Cleveland Indians affiliate in 1975–1976. The team later became known as the San Jose Missions, the San Jose Expos, and most recently the San Jose Giants.

Defunct Syracuse Chiefs Baseball 1934-2018

The Denver Bears were a minor league professional baseball team dating from the 50's until 1983 when the team was renamed the Zephyrs. There was an earlier Denver Bears team playing in the Western League from 1901 to 1954, but this logo is from the later team that played at what became known later as Mile High Stadium, but was originally known as Bears Stadium.

The Salem Buccaneers was a minor league baseball team based in Salem, North Carloina, that played in the Carolina League from 1987 to 1994. The team was affillated with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Prior Salem teams included the Redbirds, Rebels, and the Roxsox.

The Cleveland Buckeyes were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1942 to 1950 in the Negro American League. The Buckeyes played in two Negro World Series, defeating the Washington Homestead Grays in 1945, and losing to the New York Cubans in 1947. They were based in Cincinnati for their first season and Louisville for their second-to-last season.

The Erie Sailors was the primary name of several minor league baseball teams that played in Erie, Pennsylvania between 1906 and 1994. Several unrelated teams used the Erie Sailors name in the Interstate League (1906–1907, 1913, 1916), the Ohio–Pennsylvania League (1908–1911), and the Central League (1912, 1915, 1928–30, 1932).

The Bayou Bullfrogs were an independent professional baseball team that played for three seasons in Lafayette, Louisiana. The team was alternately referred to as the “Lafayette Bullfrogs” and the “Lafayette Bayou Bullfrogs” in various press accounts at the time. The Bullfrogs played at Tigue Moore Field, home of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Ragin’ Cajuns baseball program. The Bullfrogs were part of the Texas-Louisiana League, a centrally-owned and operated independent circuit founded in 1994. Decisions concerning the Bullfrogs were made at the league office, as T-L League clubs had neither local ownership nor Major League parent clubs.

Defunct Montreal Royals Crest Baseball Team

The Keokuk Pirates, a minor league baseball team, played in the Central Association and Central League between 1947 and 1949.

Defunct Connecticut Defenders Baseball 1995-2009

The La Junta Railroaders were a minor league baseball team based in La Junta, Colorado. The Railroaders played in the 1912 season as members of the Class D level Rocky Mountain League. La Junta hosted home games at City Park. In 1912, minor league baseball began in La Junta, Colorado. The La Junta Railroaders became charter members of the four–team Class D level Rocky Mountain League. The league started the season with the Cañon City Swastikas, Colorado Springs Millionaires and Pueblo Indians teams joining the La Junta Railroaders in Rocky Mountain League play.

Defunct Cleveland Bearcats Baseball Team

The Worcester Worcesters were a 19th-century Major League Baseball team from 1880 to 1882 in the National League. The team is referred to, at times, as the Brown Stockings or the Ruby Legs; however, no contemporary sources from the time exist that support the use of either name. The team played their home games at the Worcester Driving Park Grounds in the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds, located south of Highland Street between Sever Street and Russell Street in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Pitches Be Crazy

Defunct Des Moines Demons Baseball Team

Holyoke Millers Baseball 1977-1982

Defunct Rochester Zeniths Baseball Team

The Newark Bears were an American Minor League Baseball team that played in the top-level International League from 1917 through the 1949 season. The Bears succeeded the Newark Indians, originally the Sailors, who played in the same circuit (known as the Eastern League prior to 1912) from 1902. During the Bears' lifetime, the International League was graded one step below the Major League Baseball level, Class AA through 1945 and Triple-A starting in 1946. Following the 1949 season, the Bears moved to Springfield, Massachusetts.

Cordele played in the Class-D Georgia–Florida League from 1936–1942 and 1946–1955. The city was originally represented by a team in the Georgia State League in 1906, with a team simply noted as Cordele. In 1913, the city was represented in the Empire State League with the Cordele Babies. The following season, the team moved into the Georgia–Florida League, as the Cordele Ramblers. After 22-year hiatus, a team reemerged in the Georgia–Florida League was the Reds, as an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds in 1937. The team became briefly known as the Cordele Bees from 1939–1940. They had affiliation an agreement with the Atlanta Crackers in 1938.

The Hartfords (more commonly called the Hartford Dark Blues because of their uniform color) were a 19th-century baseball team. The team was based in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1874, baseball in Hartford, CT was being played in a fever pitch. As talk of forming a national professional league was going on, Morgan Bulkeley, Gershon Hubbell and Middletown native Ben Douglas Jr. leased land from Elizabeth Colt to build a base ball field and stadium with a covered grandstand, and set about forming a team, The Hartfords.

The Brooklyn Ward's Wonders were a baseball team who played in the Players' League in 1890. The team's nickname derived from its superstar shortstop, hall of famer John Montgomery Ward. The team finished with a 76–56 record, finishing in second place. Other notable players for Brooklyn that year were Dave Orr, Lou Bierbauer, George Van Haltren, and Gus Weyhing. The team folded after the season along with the entire league. The team played its home games at Eastern Park.

Aliens

Ogden first had a minor league baseball team with the Ogden Lobsters of the Utah-Idaho Intermountain League in 1900. The Lobsters won the 1900 Utah-Idaho Intermountain League Championship, finishing with a record of 32–13 under manager Dad Gimlin to finish 8.0 games ahead of 2nd place Rio Grande Rios in the four-team Independent league. They finished ahead of the 3rd place Pocatello Indians and 4th place Short Line Shorts in the final league standings.

The Clovis Buzzers were a West Texas League baseball team based in Clovis, New Mexico, United States that played in 1922. They played their home games at League Park. They were the only non-Texas based team to ever play in the West Texas League. In addition, they were the first professional baseball team to ever come out of Clovis, New Mexico. The 1923 Clovis team was the Clovis Cubs who played one season, and it would be until 1938 when the Clovis Pioneers began play that minor league baseball returned to Clovis.

The Riverside Pilots were a Minor League Baseball team in Riverside, California from 1993 to 1995. They were a Class A-Advanced team that played in the California League, and were a farm team of the Seattle Mariners. In spite of making the playoffs each year of its existence, poor attendance plagued the franchise throughout its tenure. The Pilots finished last in the league in attendance for three consecutive seasons. The franchise was moved to Lancaster, for the 1996 season as the Lancaster JetHawks.

Defunct 80s Montreal Baseball All Star

Defunct 80s Mascot Denver Bears Baseball Team