Introducing the South Bend Silver Hawks

This week's edition of our Midwest League preview studies a team that's lasted for more than 20 years in a land where football and basketball rule. With a run of seven straight playoff appearances, the South Bend Silver Hawks may need a "Home Run Jesus" to go along with his 'touchdown' counterpart at Notre Dame University.

TEAM: South Bend Silver Hawks

MLB AFFILIATE: Arizona Diamondbacks (1996)

LOCATION: South Bend, IN

FIRST SEASON: 1988

STADIUM (CAPACITY): Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium known as "The Cove"

2009 RECORD: 59-78, 4th Place in Eastern Division; Lost to Fort Wayne in Round One of MWL Playoffs (2-1)

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3 (1989, 1993, 2005); 11 playoff appearances

NOTABLE MLB ALUMNI: 113; Mike Cameron (1992-93), Brandon Webb (2000), Dan Uggla (2002)

VS. BOWLING GREEN: 14 games (April 20-22 at SB, May 25-27 at BG, August 3-6 at BG, August 21-24 at SB)

Entering their 23rd season in 2010, South Bend's affiliation with the Midwest League has been the city's longest relationship with any one baseball entity. There was an on-again, off-again relationship with the Central League that spanned from 1903 to 1932, sandwiched around a two-year partnership in the Southern Michigan Association in '14-'15. Then, in 1943, the city entered into a 12 season affair with the Blue Sox of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The Blue Sox, who lasted for the duration of the AAGPBL, took home the regular season championship in '43 before winning the whole kit-and-caboodle in '51 and '52.

Once the AAGPBL ceased operations in 1954, South Bend was without baseball until the MWL expanded from 12 to 14 teams for the 1988 season. The South Bend White Sox, appropriately named for their parent club in Chicago, and the Rockford Expos both joined the North Division as the league expanded its size while reducing itself from three to two divisions. Rockford made the postseason, but South Bend, with just 59 wins, was left on the outside looking in. That situation, however, would be remedied just one year later.

In 1989, South Bend jumped out of the game with guns blazing, racing to 44 first-half wins to clinch a playoff spot. By the end of the year, the White Sox, with 85 wins, were 11.5 games better than their fellow MWL sophomores in Rockford. As they rolled into the postseason, the White Sox couldn't be slowed, running off a perfect 5-0 record against Rockford and Springfield to win the city's first baseball title since the Blue Sox last title in 1952.

As is often the case, or at least it seems, when a team rattles off that many wins, there was no future headlining MLB player on the '89 squad. Lefty Scott Radinsky recorded 31 saves, eventually turning into a dependable big leaguer for 11 seasons and four big league teams. It wasn't until the early '90's when the big names started rolling in.

The 1992 team is the first to boast a big-time big leaguer. In fact, four players from the club went on to have lasting major league careers: catcher Olmedo Saenz (hit .260 over a nine year career); relief pitcher Alan Levine (ten years, 3.96 ERA); starter James Baldwin (79 wins, 2000 MLB All-Star); and outfielder Mike Cameron (295 MLB home runs), who just signed a two-year deal with the Boston Red Sox this week. Perhaps most famously, however, the '92 squad featured a rehab appearance by the Hall-of-Famer Carlton Fisk, who went 1-2 with a 3-run homerun on his way back to Chicago.

After a second championship effort in 1993, South Bend saw a new name attached to its ball club. The White Sox moniker was ditched in exchange for 'Silver Hawks' for the 1994 season. For those of you dedicated to the study of birds, you know that a silver hawk does not belong in an aviary. In fact, it doesn't even fly. The Silver Hawks name is an ode to a car model once made by Studebaker in South Bend. To complete the circle of irony, the team's mascot is indeed a bird.

Two years after the name change, the club switched affiliations when the White Sox left and the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks came to town. As you would expect with a brand-new franchise running things, the wins were sparse those first few years in South Bend, ignominiously low-lighted by a 40-100 record in 1998.

But, as the big league club improved, so did the farm team. The Silver Hawks won 68 games in 1999; a year later, it was 60 wins with future MLB reliever Duaner Sanchez hurling four complete games. In 2001, things really started to turn around; they went to the postseason in eight of the next nine years, winning the title again in 2005 and extending their consecutive playoff stretch to seven years this past summer.

Along the way, the alumni list began to grow to feature some well-known names not only on the Diamondbacks but in Major League Baseball. In 1997, Brad Penny recorded ten wins and a 2.73 ERA for the 'Hawks, jumpstarting him to his current record of 105-84 in the bigs. Another two-time all-star, Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla, played in South Bend in 2002.

Current Diamondbacks that once called South Bend home include Mark Reynolds (2004-05), who had 19 homeruns for the Silver Hawks and currently sits at 88 for the D-Backs. Infielder Justin Upton, the No. 1 pick in 2006 and the brother of Rays' outfielder B.J. Upton, began his pro career at 18 with South Bend, recording 41 extra-base hits in his first season.

Perhaps most well-known among South Bend alums, at least in the Bluegrass State, is 2006 NL Cy Young winner Brandon Webb. He pitched for South Bend in 2000, just months after being drafted out of the University of Kentucky. The Ashland, KY, native pitched a dozen games to end the season, recording two saves. He'd become a permanent fixture in Arizona's rotation just a few years later, making his big league debut on April 22, 2003. Since then, he won the Cy Young, made three all-star teams, and recorded 22 wins in 2008.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning South Bend's Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium. Named after 1969 Hall-of-Famer Stan Coveleski, who retired in South Bend, 'The Cove' was the first park to have open concourses, which allow you to see the field while you are waiting in concessions lines. According to team broadcaster Owen Serey, local legend says folks would flock to the ballpark just to check out the innovative design and borrow the idea for future parks. Think of that next time you celebrate a Hot Rods homerun while ordering your hot dogs and soda.

NEXT WEEK: Lake County Captains (Cleveland Indians)