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40-501: After the announcement of a new team coming to the area, the ownership group—which was known as Sussex Professional Baseball—held an online contest for fans to try to name the team. On January 25, 2006, "Sussex Skyhawks" was chosen as the winning name. The Skyhawk name represented the Skylands Region of northwestern New Jersey, where the team was playing, and Sussex was chosen to represent Sussex County, New Jersey , where Augusta

80-546: A 5–0 lead before Sussex scored six runs in the fourth en route to an 8–5 win, and a berth in the Can-Am League Championship Series against Quebec. In Game 1 at Skylands Park, the circuit's top pitcher, Quebec's Michel Simard, hooked up in a pitcher's duel with Kyle Ruwe of Sussex. Finally, in the bottom of the tenth, Jorge Moreno's single scored Michael Perodin to give the Skyhawks a 3–2 win. In

120-731: A Quebec City resident, founded a new team, the Quebec Indiens . With only amateur players from Quebec in its lineup, the Indiens played their first seasons in the Mauricie League . A few years later, they joined a new version of the Provincial League . During their final year in 1970, the Indiens' lineup was made up of only professional American and Latino players. Throughout the years, the Quebec Indiens won

160-578: A baseball fan, was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the Quebec Provincial League season in Trois-Rivières . During his visit, he noticed how severely damaged the stadium had become and decided to allow public funding to be used for the construction of new sport facilities in many Quebec cities. By doing so, he also wanted to create thousands of new jobs during a period of economic struggles. In 1938, following

200-407: A decade. "Even though there weren’t superstars, they had tough outs (batting) 1-9. I think that's what has carried them through." After a slow start which saw Sussex end the month of May with a 3–8 record, the team turned things around behind clean-up hitter Matt Weston (second in the league with 22 home runs) and closer Matt Petrusek (22 saves, tied for first). By the final weekend of the first half,

240-659: A demand by a group representing the Quebec Athletics , the government agreed to build a new baseball stadium in Quebec City and in early April 1938, construction work began in Parc Victoria. The stadium would be completed a few months later at the end of the 1938 baseball season. On May 14, 1939, a first baseball game was held at the new stadium. Then-mayor of Quebec City, Lucien Borne , was in attendance, which saw more than 5,000 people attend that game with

280-407: A diverse geography filled with lakes, rivers, and picturesque hills. This region is considered by Köppen to be Humid Continental (Dfb). 40°41′35″N 74°51′59″W  /  40.6931°N 74.8663°W  / 40.6931; -74.8663 This New Jersey state location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Stade Municipal (Quebec City) Stade Canac

320-923: A new manager to replace McCormick, George McQuinn , another former MLB All-Star and for a second straight year the Braves won the Canadian–American League championship. That 1950 Braves squad are still considered today as one of the best minor league teams of all time. In 1951, the Braves quit the Canadian–American League to join the Provincial League , becoming an affiliate of the Boston Braves / Milwaukee Braves . On July 15, 1953, with Warren Spahn as their starting pitcher, Milwaukee played an exhibition game against Quebec at Stade Municipal. Two years later, on May 31, 1955, Milwaukee came to Stade Municipal to play another exhibition game. This time, they had baseball legend Hank Aaron in their lineup where Aaron

360-403: A sweep at the hands of the traveling Grays franchise. Despite numerous roster changes, Sussex finished last in the season's first half with a 15–31 record. The team showed slight improvement in the second half, tying for eighth place with a 19–28 record, but the overall 34–59 record remained worst in the league. The team saw a significant increase in overall attendance, drawing 101,638 fans over

400-414: A three-game knot at the top of the standings. The Skyhawks never recovered, and the second half was a disaster as Sussex lost twenty games in a row at one point in 2006. Sussex finished with a 9–26 mark in the second half and a league-worst 32–48 overall. The team drew 85,126 fans to Skylands Park, an average of 2,183. The Skyhawks' 2007 season started poorly; they lost 10 of their first 11 games including

440-639: A total of three championships (1960, 1964, 1969). In 1969, the Montreal Expos joined Major League Baseball and became the first non-American major baseball team. Two years later, in 1971, they established their Double-A affiliate in Quebec, where the team was named the Québec Carnavals in honour of the famous Carnaval de Québec . After a difficult inaugural season, the Carnavals finished

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480-531: Is a stadium in Quebec City , Quebec . It is used primarily for baseball and is currently the home stadium for the Quebec Capitales of the independent Frontier League . Originally opened in 1939, it has a capacity of 4,300 (one site claims 4,297 ) and is located within the boundaries of Parc Victoria , a municipal park and recreation area located between the St-Roch district of Quebec City and

520-670: Is located. For their inaugural season, the Skyhawks hired Brian Drahman, who had been the pitching coach for the New Jersey Jackals, as their manager. The team took the place of the Elmira Pioneers , who left the professional ranks to join the New York Collegiate Baseball League , and their roster was composed largely of players who had been a part of The Grays , the league's 2005 traveling team. Due to poor weather and other factors,

560-411: Is white with blue pinstripes for home games and grey for away games. The home uniform has the word "Skyhawks" across the front and number on the back. Road jerseys say "Sussex" on the front. The alternate jersey is blue with Skyhawks and the number on the front, and the number also on the back. Black home hats with an "S" and a talon holding a baseball coming through the center. Same hat (except in grey) on

600-590: The Chicks . For two decades, the stadium was only used for junior baseball and became heavily damaged. In the 1990s, the Stade Municipal was in such bad shape the city council strongly considered demolishing it, however, a group of citizens formed the Comité de Relance in a desperate effort to save the facility. Only minor work would be done by that committee to repair some parts of the aging stadium. Even though

640-625: The Newark Bears and Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League. For Sussex, the only downside was the tiny crowds at their home playoff games: barely 2,000 for the four games combined, in a 4,000-seat stadium. (Minor league baseball playoff games often draw poorly, however, due to a lack of promotion.) Their regular season average attendance slid to 1,713, next-to-last, ahead of only the Nashua Pride. Featuring nine players from

680-683: The 1972 season with a 75-64 record, just 2½ games behind the Trois-Rivières Aigles while breaking the existing attendance record for the Eastern League with a total admissions of 142,818 people throughout their season. In 1973, future Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter joined the team and would go on to finish the season with 15 home runs while producing a total of 68 runs batted in. During that same campaign, Quebec City fans were also introduced to another future Expos All-Star player, pitcher Steve Rogers . The 1974 season

720-823: The 2010 season, the Skyhawks' lease at Skylands Park ended. With attendance falling and the team losing money, the ownership group began to seek a buyer so they could focus their resources on their primary team, the New Jersey Jackals . Hall was not able to find a buyer to keep the team operational for the 2011 season, therefore, on January 11, 2011, the Skyhawks announced they were suspending operations. Pitchers Catchers Infielders Outfielders Manager Coaches [REDACTED] Disabled list ‡ Inactive list § Suspended list  updated 2011-04-02 Transactions Ron Perodin OF The Skyhawks uniform

760-640: The Athletics winning their first game at the stadium 6-5 against Trois-Rivières . The first Quebec player to hit a home run at Stade Municipal was Roland Gladu who would go on to play in the Majors for the Boston Braves in 1944. In 1941, the Athletics joined the Canadian–American League and became an affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers . From 1943 through 1945, baseball was not played at

800-598: The Caps pitchers in the early going, plating ten runs in the first four innings and cruising to a 10–5 win, becoming the first championship team to play in Skylands Park since the New Jersey Cardinals won a New York–Penn League title in their inaugural season in 1994. The Skyhawks became the fifth New Jersey team to win an independent league championship joining the aforementioned Jackals and Surf as well as

840-829: The New Jersey State Department of Tourism; the others are Gateway Region , Greater Atlantic City Region , the Southern Shore Region , the Delaware River Region , the Shore Region , and the Central Jersey Region . The Skylands Region officially encompasses Morris , Sussex and Warren counties. The area features uplifted land, rolling hills and mountainous characteristics of North Jersey . The region contains 60,000 acres (240 km ) of state parkland and

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880-892: The Québec Carnavals became the Quebec Metros . During the 1976 campaign, young rising star Andre Dawson played in only 40 games in Quebec City, although his impressive performance (.357 AVG, 8 HR, 27 RBI) quickly saw him promoted to the Expos Triple-A affiliate, the Denver Bears , of the Pacific Coast League. At the end of the 1977 season, the Montreal Expos moved their Double-A affiliate to Memphis, Tennessee, and became known as

920-500: The Skyhawks attendance was disappointing early in the inaugural 2006 season, until the team found itself in a tight, multi-team race for the first-half pennant. With a 23–19 record into the first half's final weekend, Sussex had a chance to win the first half if they could take two out of three games from the North Shore Spirit . Instead, they were swept, and the Skyhawks tumbled all the way to fifth place, one of six teams in

960-595: The Skyhawks were 25–19, just three games back of the first-place Québec Capitales —who were in Skylands Park for a four-game series. In a similar ending to 2006's first half, however, the Capitales won three of four, and Sussex had to settle for a three-way third place tie with their sister team the Jackals and the Atlantic City Surf . The Hawks got off to another slow start in the second half; their record

1000-649: The course of the year. However, the average attendance declined due to the team having more home games in 2007 than they did in 2006. Both figures ranked seventh in the Can-Am League. In the offseason, Brian Drahman and the entire coaching staff was fired. To replace Drahman, former Houston Astros manager Hal Lanier was named as the Skyhawks' skipper. Lanier brought along Nick Belmonte to serve as director of player personnel. "You had to convince players things were going to be different (to get them signed)," said Belmonte, who has been teaming with Lanier for well over

1040-500: The demolition of the building was avoided, a private investor was desperately needed in order to justify some investments by the city. In 1998, Jean-François Côté who had been promoting the return of professional baseball in Quebec City for a few years already, managed to invite Miles Wolff , the editor of Baseball America , to visit the stadium. Due to the very bad condition of the structure, Wolff did not see any potential for any future professional baseball at this location. Following

1080-454: The disappointment of Wolff's visit, the city spent the next 6 months renovating the old facility after which Wolff was invited once again to visit the Stade Municipal at which time his reaction after that second visit in Quebec City was very favorable. On June 4, 1999, the Quebec Capitales , a new minor professional baseball team, began to play at the stadium and since then, the city has continued to invest important amounts of money to modernize

1120-629: The prior year's championship team, the Skyhawks got off to a 4–1 start, taking three of four in Brockton against the Rox , then won their home opener, 4–3, against Worcester. But a slump during which Sussex lost seven of eight games dropped the Skyhawks below .500, and they never recovered, ending the first half of the season at 21–26, tied for last place in the Can-Am League. In the second half, Sussex opened with two victories against Worcester, but then dropped 17 of its next 20 games. The team ended up 17–30 in

1160-414: The road. Their logo is the word "Skyhawks" in script in light blue with black and white outline superimposed over the depiction of a light blue bird in flight, holding a baseball in its talons. Skylands Region The Skylands Region (simply known as Skylands ) is a region of New Jersey located in the northern and central parts of the state. It is one of seven tourism regions established by

1200-486: The second game, Sussex scored four runs in the first inning, then watched Quebec come back to take a 5–4 lead. The lead seesawed back and forth until Matt Weston's two-RBI single in the eighth sealed the Skyhawks' 8–6 win. On September 12, 2008, the Skyhawks met Les Capitales Stade Municipal in Quebec, looking for an improbable sweep in the Championship Series. In game three, the Skyhawks offense bludgeoned

1240-417: The second half; its combined record of 38-56 placed the Skyhawks fifth overall, one of the two Can-Am teams left out of the playoffs. The team's average attendance dropped for the fourth straight season to 1,695. A total of 79,663 fans came to Skylands Park during the year. After the season, manager Hal Lanier announced he would not return for 2010. The Skyhawks hired manager Ed Ott for the 2010 season. Ott

Sussex Skyhawks - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-481: The south shore of the Saint-Charles River . The ballpark is often informally referred to as simply "Parc Victoria" by local residents even though the field only occupies about a quarter of the park's total area. Modest in capacity relative to the size of the city's population, it has been well-attended during Capitales home games. Section source: In 1937, then-Premier of Quebec, Maurice Duplessis ,

1320-755: The stadium due to World War II. After the end of the war baseball was once again played at Stade Municipal. Under new ownership, the Athletics were renamed the Alouettes . They became an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs in 1946 and of the New York Giants in 1948. However, from 1946 to 1948, the Alouettes were not successful on the field, finishing last every year. In 1948, the Alouettes were sold to businessman Ulysse Ste-Marie . Wanting to get his newly acquired team back on track, he began by changing

1360-413: The stadium while keeping its historic side. In October 2016, a group named Complexe de Baseball Victoria (CBV) officially took over management of the stadium from the city. An estimated 3.3 M$ was slated to be invested to install a synthetic field and fences which can be moved to create 2-3 smaller fields. The deal between the city and CBV also allowed them to sell the stadium naming rights. In late 2016,

1400-536: The team's name to the Quebec Braves . Ste-Marie also hired a new manager for his team, Frank McCormick , a former 9-time MLB All-Star for the Cincinnati Reds . During his first year as their manager, the Braves won 90 games, 34 more than the previous year, and clinched the 1949 Canadian–American League pennant, however McCormick quit the team after only one year. For the 1950 season, Ste-Marie hired

1440-563: Was a former MLB catcher for the Pirates and Angels between 1974 and 1981. The team started out strong, going 25–21 in the first half, good enough for 3rd place overall. However, the team struggled mightily in the second half of the year with a miserable 10–35 record, by far the worst in the league. With a final record of 35–56, the Skyhawks finished in last place overall with three fewer wins than in '09. They also saw their overall attendance drop to an all-time low of 71,826 (1,670 per game). After

1480-564: Was enough to qualify them for the playoffs, and Lanier won manager of the year. In the league semifinals against Worcester, the Skyhawks dropped the opener of the best-of-five series, 3–2, before roaring back to win three in a row. Pitching, which had been the Hawks' biggest weakness in 2008 (their 5.03 ERA was second-worst in the league) came through against the Tornadoes with 3-2 and 4-0 wins in games two and three. In Game 4, Worcester jumped to

1520-479: Was exceptional for the Carnavals. They managed to clinch their division pennant and five of their outfielders would go on to play in Major League Baseball, Warren Cromartie , Jesus Bombo Rivera , Tony Scott , Ellis Valentine and Jerry White . In 1975, the Carnavals began to experience extreme financial struggles at which François Bonetto became the new team owner and changed the team's name, as

1560-534: Was just 6–11 at the end of July, and hopes of a playoff spot seemed dashed. Then, in August, the Skyhawks got red hot: they put together a seven-game winning streak and two streaks of five wins in a row, including the last five games of the regular season. Sussex wound up in a three-way tie for the second half title with Quebec and the Worcester Tornadoes with a 27–20 record. The Skyhawks' combined record

1600-666: Was the only player to hit a home run during that game. In 1955, the Provincial League and the Quebec Braves ceased operations. During their seven year-existence, the Braves were considered a dynasty winning a total of six championships. In 1957, Quebec City found itself without a professional baseball team as the Minor Leagues in North America were going through a tough time. However, Hugues Beaudoin,

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