Northeast League
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 (original) 2003 (after de-merger with Northern League |
| No. of teams | 8 |
| Country(ies) |  United States Canada |
| Ceased | 1999 (merged with Northern League) 2004 |
| Last champion(s) | New Jersey Jackals |
| Most titles | New Jersey Jackals (4, 2 if strictly Northeast League titles are counted) |
The Northeast League was an independent minor baseball league that operated in the Northeastern United States from 1995 until 1998 and from 2003 until 2004. Between 1999 and 2002, the league was part of the Northern League after the two leagues agreed to merge. The league was superseded by the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball, which its members joined for the 2005 season.
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[edit] Early history
In 1995 Miles Wolff, who founded the Northern league and served as its commissioner, started this independent league (his second). For the first season, six teams played and all five were based in southern and central New York. Albany (Albany Diamond Dogs), Glens Falls (Adirondack Lumberjacks), Yonkers (Yonkers Hoot Owls), Newburgh (Newburgh Night Hawks), Little Falls (Mohawk Valley Landsharks) and Mountaindale (Sullivan Mountain Lions) were all given teams and Albany won the first league championship in a 68-game season.[1] The overall title, however, went to Adirondack.
For 1996, things changed slightly. Sullivan's team was sold to a new ownership group who renamed them the Catskill Cougars and moved them to the North Atlantic League while Mohawk Valley moved to West Warwick, Rhode Island, expanding the league into New England as the team became the Rhode Island Tiger Sharks. To replace the Mountain Lions/Cougars, an expansion team was granted to Elmira, New York to replace the city's affiliated team which moved to Lowell, Massachusetts and took the name Elmira Pioneers as every other professional team that called Elmira home since 1923. Yonkers was also folded and the league expanded into Maine with the Bangor Blue Ox taking their place.[2]. Albany won the league title again.[3]
In 1997 the league expanded to eight teams and switched to a two-division format. Newburgh and Rhode Island folded, Catskill returned to the league from the North Atlantic League and the Massachusetts Mad Dogs, based in Lynn, Massachusetts, came with them while Waterbury, Connecticut and Allentown, Pennsylvania were given expansion teams called the Waterbury Spirit and Allentown Ambassadors respectively. The league was won by the Elmira Pioneers.[4]
For 1998, the Diamond Dogs added the name of their actual home city, Colonie to their name while the Blue Ox franchise was folded. In their place the league expanded into New Jersey and added the New Jersey Jackals, who played in a then-unfinished Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls, New Jersey, to the league. The new franchise won the Northeast League championship in their first season.
After the season, prior to the merger with the Northern League, the Catskill franchise again folded.
[edit] After the merger
After the four-year merger, the Northeast League returned to its status as a separate entity following the 2002 season. In that time, Northeast League teams won all four league titles as the Diamond Dogs, Lumberjacks, and Jackals defeated their Northern League opponents.
When the Northeast League returned to play in 2003, only the Jackals, Ambassadors, and Pioneers were still in the league as they had left it. The Lumberjacks moved to Bangor to become the Bangor Lumberjacks and replace the Blue Ox, whose franchise charter was given to a team from Quebec City, Quebec and marked the league's first entry into Canada with Les Capitales de Quebec. Massachusetts and Waterbury's franchises went dormant, with the Mad Dogs eventually moving to Pittsfield, Massachusetts and becoming the Berkshire Black Bears while the Spirit were moved to the Mad Dogs' stadium in Lynn and became the North Shore Spirit. Catskill had returned to the league in 2000 but folded after the season, and after the Tri-City ValleyCats were formed in the Albany area the Diamond Dogs were folded. To round out the league at eight teams, Brockton, Massachusetts joined the league as the Brockton Rox were formed.[5]
After the Rox won the 2003 league title, Berkshire moved to New Haven, Connecticut as the New Haven County Cutters while Allentown folded and were replaced by a traveling team, the Northeast League Aces. The 2004 season, proving to be the final Northeast League season, New Jersey defeated North Shore in the league championship series. New Jersey, Brockton, North Shore, New Haven, Quebec, and Elmira became part of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball (or Can-Am League) along with an expansion franchise in Worcester, Massachusetts and a traveling team formed when Bangor's charter for the new league was rescinded.
[edit] Today
As of the end of the 2011 season, only three of the remaining Northeast League teams exist. Of those teams, the Jackals, Rox, and Capitales still play in the Can-Am League and the Capitales have won four of that league's championships including three consecutive from 2009 to 2011. The Pioneers were the first to leave the league, as they disbanded as a professional team following the 2005 season and joined the New York Collegiate Baseball League. The Spirit and Cutters folded after the 2007 season, with the ownership of the North Shore club citing money losses and poor attendance despite the team's successes, while the latter was cited as the reason why New Haven failed.
[edit] League champions
Champions of the Northeast League, 1995–98
- 1995 Adirondack Lumberjacks
- 1996 Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs
- 1997 Elmira Pioneers
- 1998 New Jersey Jackals
Champions of the Northern League[6]
- 1999 Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs
- 2000 Adirondack Lumberjacks
- 2001 New Jersey Jackals
- 2002 New Jersey Jackals
Champions of the Northeast League, 2003–2004
- 2003 Brockton Rox
- 2004 New Jersey Jackals
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/league.cgi?id=9c513c59
- ^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/league.cgi?id=982437de
- ^ http://www.rauzulusstreet.com/baseball/minors/northerneastchamps.htm
- ^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/league.cgi?id=146d9fb7
- ^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/league.cgi?id=effe1991
- ^ For the four years that the Northeast League was part of the Northern League as the Northern League East, all four league champions came from the Northern League East.
