Introducing the Fort Wayne TinCaps

The third installment of our Introduction to the Midwest League features a team coming off perhaps its best season ever. The Fort Wayne TinCaps not only won their first Midwest League title this season, but the newly renamed team opened a gem of a new stadium while drawing more fans than any other season in their history. This is the first team the Hot Rods will play next season when they begin 2010 on the road on April 8.

TEAM: Fort Wayne TinCaps

MLB AFFILIATE: San Diego Padres (1999)

LOCATION: Fort Wayne, Indiana

FIRST SEASON: 1993

STADIUM (CAPACITY): Parkview Field (8,000)

2009 RECORD: 94-46, 1st place, Eastern Division, Won league championship

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS: 2009

NOTABLE MLB ALUMNI: Twins: LaTroy Hawkins (1993), Torii Hunter (1994), A.J. Pierzynski (1995-1996); Padres: Sean Burroughs (1999), Jake Peavy (2000), Joakim Soria (2006)

Baseball in Fort Wayne dates back nearly 150 years as several players in Fort Wayne formed the Summit City Club in April of 1862. Several versions of that original team formed and reformed over the next several years, highlighted by playing games against the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869 (combined scored in two games: Cincinnati 127, Fort Wayne 15). Two years later the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was formed, giving birth to the Fort Wayne Kekiongas.

Throughout the next 70 years, there was baseball in Fort Wayne in a variety of affiliated and unaffiliated leagues, including the Interstate League, Central League, and Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. Fort Wayne even fielded a team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the league made famous in the movie A League of their Own. The Fort Wayne Daisies (1945-1954) would be the last pro team in Fort Wayne until 1993 when the Kenosha (WI) Twins moved to Indiana.

Originally named the Fort Wayne Wizards, they played their first 16 seasons at Memorial Stadium, which opened in 1993. The Wizards kept their affiliation with the Twins through 1998, producing quite a few well-known big league players. Although they managed a 68-67 record, the Wizards drew nearly 320,000 fans, a number that would last until 2009 when the club drew nearly 380,000 fans in a new stadium.

The Wizards reached the postseason in three of their first six seasons. In 1995 they were swept by Michigan in the first round. Two years later they won their first playoff series by sweeping West Michigan, 2-0, before falling to Lansing in the league semi-finals. A year later, in 1998, history repeated itself with a first round win over Peoria followed by a second round sweep at the hands of Rockford.

After the 1998 season the Wizards changed affiliations, switching from the Twins to the San Diego Padres, the team they are joined with through the 2010 season. While the Padres system hasn't produced quite as many big names as the Twins (yet), the team continued to find the postseason, making the playoffs in 2000 and then every year from 2003-2006. Each of those seasons ended in defeat, however, with a first round exit from the playoffs.

After 16 years without a title, things changed for the Wizards entering 2009. First, they opened a brand-new stadium, Parkview Field, which took home Ballpark of the Year honors from BaseballParks.com. With the move into a new building the team felt it was a great chance to create an entirely new experience for baseball in Fort Wayne. They held a Name-the-Team contest to draw something unique, local, and family-friendly. The end result was the TinCaps, named in honor of John Chapman. You may know him by his nickname, Johnny Appleseed.

With the change in name and venue, the results on the field changed as well. The TinCaps ran away with the Eastern Division title with 94 wins, the most in the MWL since the 1987 Springfield Cardinals. Their success continued in the postseason with series victories against South Bend (2-1), Great Lakes (2-1), and Burlington (3-0) for the TinCaps' first Midwest League championship. Combining regular season and playoff victories, Fort Wayne was 101-48, tied for the most wins by a team in MWL history (1978 Appleton Foxes). The championship also ended the TinCaps dubious recognition as the oldest MWL team without a championship.

When it comes to producing players, a total of 87 Wizards or TinCaps have made the big leagues, including 11 players in 2009. As a Twins affiliate, Fort Wayne produced some of the most well-known names in baseball, including pitcher LaTroy Hawkins, who went 15-5 with a 2.06 ERA as a starter for the Wizards in 1993. Other famous Twins included Torii Hunter, a center piece for Los Angeles Angels in the upcoming MLB Playoffs, A.J. Pierzynski (Chicago White Sox), Corey Koskie (1995), Javier Valentin (1995 MWL MVP), and Michael Cuddyer (1998).

After the switch to the Padres affiliation, Fort Wayne was once again blessed with a dominant arm almost right away. In 2000, the second year with San Diego, 2007 NL Cy Young winner Jake Peavy compiled a 13-8 record with 164 strikeouts in 133.2 innings. A year prior to Peavy, former Little League legend Sean Burroughs played in Fort Wayne, hitting .359 over 122 games. He eventually made it to San Diego before ending his big league career with none other than the Tampa Bay Rays in 2006.

Before we end, there are two other points to mention. One of the first lighted baseball games was played in Fort Wayne on June 2, 1883, as Fort Wayne hosted the Quincy Professionals. And Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez hit his first professional home run in Fort Wayne as a member of the Appleton Foxes on April 24, 1994.

NEXT WEEK: Quad Cities River Bandits (St. Louis Cardinals)