The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks are a professional minor-league baseball team based in Fargo, North Dakota , in the United States. The RedHawks are members of the American Association of Professional Baseball , an official Partner League of Major League Baseball . The RedHawks have played their home games at Newman Outdoor Field since 1996, when the team started as members of the Northern League .
32-531: The team was created as a Northern League expansion franchise in 1996 along with the now-defunct Madison Black Wolf . Chris Coste is probably the most well-known former RedHawks player and was a member of the 2008 World Series -winning Philadelphia Phillies . The RedHawks and the St. Paul Saints were among most stable and successful independent baseball teams until the Saints became part of affiliated baseball and became
64-715: A 63–37 record and lost in the North Division championship series to St. Paul 3–2 in the best-of-five series. Bennett was named the American Association's Manager of the Year. In 2020, the RedHawks were one of six teams selected to compete in the condensed 60-game season due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Newman Outdoor Field served as one of the hubs where games were played; the team shared their home field with
96-565: A Triple-A franchise in 2021. They are reported to have had the first broadcast by minor league professional baseball on the internet. In fifteen seasons in the Northern League, the RedHawks set the modern Northern League best single-season record for winning percentage with a 64–21 (.753) mark in 1998, set the record for most wins in a season with 68 in 2005, made it to the playoffs in 14 of 15 seasons, won five Northern League titles, and were named Baseball America's Independent Team of
128-498: A new independent organization called the North American League . The modern Northern League was founded by Miles Wolff. Wolff started the league after many midwestern cities contacted him (through his affiliation with Baseball America ) asking how they could get a minor league team. After visiting some of them, most notably Duluth, Minnesota , and its Wade Stadium , he began contacting potential owners to start
160-497: A number from 1 through 5 attached to the LS depending on how long they had been in pro baseball. The league began in 1993 with six teams: Duluth–Superior Dukes ( Duluth, Minnesota ), Rochester Aces ( Rochester, Minnesota ), St. Paul Saints ( St. Paul, Minnesota ), Sioux Falls Canaries ( Sioux Falls, South Dakota ), Sioux City Explorers ( Sioux City, Iowa ) and Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks ( Thunder Bay , Ontario ). The prospects for
192-660: The American Association of Independent Professional Baseball . Stone was replaced by Jim Weigel, who in turn was replaced by Clark C. Griffith after one year in charge. Following the 2007 season, the league was left with six teams as Calgary and Edmonton left to join the Golden Baseball League . This number grew to seven in 2009 as Zion, Illinois , was granted an expansion team known as the Lake County Fielders . In 2010 an eighth team
224-486: The Can-Am League ) The Northern League has hosted an annual All-Star Game since 1997. The venue changes annually. Its format pits the all-stars from each division against each other. In 2008 and 2009 there were no divisions during the regular season so the league temporarily split to have the "Chicagoland" clubs play the "I-29" clubs in 2008 and the "Great Lakes" clubs play the "Great Plains" clubs in 2009. In 2010
256-481: The Frontier League . The other three franchises merged with the Golden Baseball League and United League Baseball franchises to form the North American League . However, things did not work out as planned. The Flyers were evicted from Alexian Field , their home stadium, due to a large amount of debt owed to their home town of Schaumburg and eventually suspended operations. The RiverHawks decided to decline
288-584: The Lincoln Saltdogs while teams were awarded to Joliet, Illinois , and Gary, Indiana , in 2002. The Joliet JackHammers made the playoffs in their first season while the Gary SouthShore RailCats were forced to play an entire season on the road because the city of Gary did not have their stadium completed on time. At the end of the 2002 season Miles Wolff resigned as commissioner of the Northern League to focus on his duties with
320-583: The St. Paul Saints in the first round. They followed that up with four straight losing seasons. They finished their five-year run in Madison with a 191–235 record, a .448 winning percentage. Jimmy Buffett was part owner of the team when it started its first season in 1996. This article about a baseball team in Wisconsin is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Northern League (baseball, 1993%E2%80%932010) The Northern League
352-629: The Winnipeg Goldeyes . Prior to the start of the season on July 3, the team announced that Jim Bennett would not return as manager and named hitting coach Chris Coste interim manager. After a sub-.500 finish in 2020, the RedHawks went 61–38 and reached the American Association Finals for the first time since joining the league in 2011, losing 3–0 to the Kansas City Monarchs . The next season, though,
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#1732794239019384-465: The Decade for the 1990s. The 1998 team recorded a combined record of 70 wins and 22 losses during the regular season and playoffs (.761). On October 13, 2010, the RedHawks left the Northern League, along with the Gary SouthShore RailCats , Kansas City T-Bones , and the Winnipeg Goldeyes to join the American Association for the 2011 season. The four remaining Northern League teams all folded or left
416-1018: The Edmonton Capitals (the former Cracker-Cats). The fate of the North American League was also soon decided with the Golden Baseball League's teams disbanding and the United Baseball League decided to re-adopt their league name due to only UBL teams remaining in the ill-fated NAL after the 2012 season. The UBL itself folded after the 2014 season. Over 12 seasons, over two dozen former Northern League players have played in Major League Baseball. These include players such as J. D. Drew , Kevin Millar , Chris Coste , Jeff Zimmerman , and Rey Ordóñez . Several former MLB players played in
448-473: The Northern League and become the Northern League's East Division. The rest of the Northern League teams comprised the Central Division, and both division champions would meet in a league championship series. The merger lasted until 2002, and Northeast League teams won all four of the Northern League's championships in that time. Meanwhile, Madison's team moved to Lincoln, Nebraska , in 2001 to become
480-436: The Northern League consisted of between eight and twelve teams, it played a split season 96-game schedule with two divisions from late May until early September. The division winners in each half qualified for the post-season, though if a team were to win both halves, the team with the best overall record, regardless of division, qualified as a wild card. Both the league semi-finals and Championship Series were best of five. When
512-527: The Northern League voted to expand from its 96-game season to a 100-game schedule, effective for the 2010 season. The playoff format was to remain the same, with the top four clubs making the playoffs. During the season, rosters were limited to 22 players, broken into seven classes based on a players years of service. One year of service was defined as one National Association (affiliated) season, or two independent league seasons. Final league members Former Team (Left to re-form Northeast League , then later
544-670: The RedHawks went 64–36, their best mark in a decade, avenged their loss to Kansas City, then went on to defeat the Milwaukee Milkmen 3–2 on a walk-off single from Leobaldo Pina in the tenth inning of the deciding fifth game to win their first American Association championship and sixth overall league title. The league title earned the RedHawks the right to play in the inaugural 2023 Baseball Champions League Americas in October, 2023. The tournament, held in Mérida, Yucatán , Mexico,
576-471: The invitation in the league and return to the Frontier League for 2011. The Fielders were the only team remaining from the original three merged into the new league but have since folded, meaning there are no longer any Northern League teams remaining in the North American League. As of the end of the 2011 season only one member of the North American League has, in fact, played in the Northern League –
608-428: The league dropped to six teams in 2008, it still played a 96-game schedule, but did not split the season and did not have divisions. Instead, the top four teams qualified for the playoffs. The first round consisted of a best-of-five series between the first and fourth-place finishers and between second and third-place finishers. The winners of the first round then played a best-of-five championship series. In October 2009
640-498: The league including Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd , Darryl Strawberry , Jack Morris , Pedro Guerrero , Jermaine Allensworth , Ken Harvey , Mike Caruso , Bo Hart , Leon "Bull" Durham , and Brant Brown . Former MLB players and coaches have also coached or managed in the Northern League including Terry Bevington , "Dirty" Al Gallagher , Jackie Hernández , Danny Jackson , Maury Wills , Tim Johnson , Ron Kittle , Hal Lanier , Darryl Motley , Matt Nokes , and Wayne Terwilliger . When
672-708: The league were originally "cloudy." Many forecast an early demise especially in St. Paul where competition with the Minnesota Twins led many local sportswriters to consider it a "beer league." The league, however, was a relatively moderate success, with only the Rochester franchise struggling to draw crowds to their games. The first league title was won by St. Paul. After the season, the Aces were sold to an ownership group led by future Winnipeg , Manitoba mayor Sam Katz and
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#1732794239019704-405: The league. Mike Stone left the commissioner's position in 2005 shortly after a dramatic move by several of the league's teams. Following the season's conclusion St. Paul, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, and Lincoln announced they were leaving the league to form a new independent league with five teams from the folded Central Baseball League in the southern United States; the new league was to be known as
736-479: The league. Accordingly, the Northern League ceased operations and folded in October 2010. As a result, the RedHawks have the distinction of being the last league champion. They have won the 2012 and 2013 American Association North Division championship. On August 13, 2017, the Redhawks relieved Doug Simunic of his duties as field manager. Simunic had served in the position for all 22 years of the team's existence. He
768-428: The league. The league was structured to where teams were not allowed to load their rosters with ex-pros. Players with five or more years of professional experience were labeled "veterans" and teams could carry no more than four. At least the same number of "rookies" (players with less than a year of experience) had to be on a team's roster. The rest of the roster was made up of "limited service" or "LS" players, each having
800-668: The metropolitan area that includes Moorhead, Minnesota , joined the league. The second wave of expansion came in 1999. First, the Whiskey Jacks left Canada and moved to Schaumburg, Illinois , where they became known as the Schaumburg Flyers . The bigger news, however, was that the Northeast League , an independent league in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states also founded by Wolff, would merge with
832-559: The now-reinstated Northeast League. Mike Stone became league commissioner in 2003. Over the next two years the league entered three new markets. Charter member Duluth-Superior left Minnesota in 2003 to move to Kansas City, Kansas , and became known as the Kansas City T-Bones . For 2004, the league expanded its Canadian operations into the province of Alberta and added the Calgary Vipers and Edmonton CrackerCats to
864-598: The team relocated to the city and became known as the Winnipeg Goldeyes , taking the name of the Winnipeg team that played in the original Northern League. The Goldeyes won the league championship in their first season in the new city. The first wave of expansion to the league came in 1996 as the Northern League entered Wisconsin and North Dakota. The Madison Black Wolf , based in the capital of Wisconsin, and Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks , based in Fargo, North Dakota , but named for
896-488: Was a Northern League baseball club located in Madison, Wisconsin , from 1996 to 2000. They played their home games at Warner Park which was then nicknamed "The Wolf Den". The club was owned by Madison Baseball, LLC, which folded operations following the 2000 season. The club moved then to Lincoln, Nebraska , where it is known as the Lincoln Saltdogs . The Black Wolf made the playoffs in their inaugural season, losing to
928-552: Was added when the Rockford RiverHawks moved from the Frontier League . Following the 2010 season, the Northern League announced that Winnipeg, Kansas City, Fargo-Moorhead, and Gary SouthShore would be leaving the league to join the American Association . This left Rockford, Lake County, Joliet, and Schaumburg with decisions to make. The JackHammers were sold and renamed to the Joliet Slammers , and moved to
960-478: Was an independent minor professional baseball league. It was not affiliated with Major League Baseball or the organized minor leagues . The league was founded in 1993 and folded after its 2010 season when financial stability became a problem. The three teams remaining in the league when it folded joined with the remaining teams in United League Baseball and the Golden Baseball League to form
992-542: Was replaced by pitching coach Michael Schlact, who after finishing the season on an interim basis was named the permanent manager on September 7, 2017. Michael Schlact managed one season with the RedHawks, before stepping down in February 2019 to take a coaching position within the Milwaukee Brewers minor league system. On March 20, 2019, Jim Bennett was named as the franchise's third manager. The team went on to
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1024-470: Was won by the RedHawks, who defeated the Caimanes de Barranquilla of Colombia in the championship game, 8–0. Pitchers Catchers Infielders Outfielders Manager Coaches [REDACTED] Disabled list ‡ Inactive list § Suspended list Roster updated August 9, 2024 Transactions Madison Black Wolf The Madison Black Wolf
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