Lansing Lugnuts

The Lansing Lugnuts are a Class A minor league baseball team, affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays, that plays in the Midwest League. The Lugnuts replaced the Charleston Alley Cats as a Blue Jays affiliate following the 2004 season.

The Midwest League came to Lansing, Michigan in 1996. The franchise began in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1955; after two seasons it moved to Waterloo, Iowa, where it stayed for 36 seasons. Before the 1994 season it moved to Springfield, Illinois, but only spent two seasons there before moving to Lansing. The franchise was an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals on two separate occasions in three different cities: as the Waterloo Royals from 1969 through 1976, as the Springfield Sultans in 1995, and then, upon the team's move to Lansing, from 1996 through 1998. The Lugnuts were then an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs from 1999 through 2004 before joining the Jays' farm system for the 2005 season.

The team plays at Oldsmobile Park (named after the now-defunct General Motors division that was based there), which opened in 1996. Oldsmobile Park seats over 11,000 fans and is one of the largest Class A Minor League baseball parks in the United States. The franchise national attendance record of 538,326 was set during its inaugural year. They won the Midwest League Championship in 1997 and 2003.

Alumni

The following are players currently in Major League Baseball who played, at one time, for the Lugnuts. This partial list includes players making injury-comeback starts as well as those that developed in Lansing.

• Jeremy Affeldt
• Carlos Beltran
• Francis Beltran
• Juan Brito
• Kiko Calero
• Lance Carter
• Ronny Cedeno
• Jose Cepeda
• Hee Seop Choi
• Juan Cruz
• Ryan Dempster
• Chad Durbin
• Carlos Febles
• Jeremy Giambi
• Rich Hill
• Casey Janssen
• Jon Leicester
• Sergio Mitre
• Ober Moreno
• Corey Patterson
• Felix Pie
• Mark Prior
• Jose Santiago
• Andy Sisco
• Ryan Theriot
• Matt Treanor
• Todd Wellemeyer
• Carlos Zambrano

Reference

• book, "Our Lugnuts, Year One", by Bob Roth, 1996, ISBN 0965560309

Sources

• Dinda, J. (2003), "Lansing, Michigan, in the Midwest League," http://www.mwlguide.com/cities/lansing/index.html
• Lansing Lugnuts Official Website

External links

• Lansing Lugnuts official web site
• Lugnuts page at the Lansing State Journal
• Lansing Lugnuts at Minor League Baseball site
• Broadcaster's Blog of Brad Tillery
• Big League Lugnuts Current and former Lugnuts in the Major Leagues

Template:MLB Blue Jays franchise