Defunct Baseball Socks
Description: The Hutchinson Elks were a minor league baseball team based in Hutchinson, Kansas. Between 1934 and 1954 the team played in the Western Association. The team first began in 1934 as the Hutchinson Larks. The following year the club came a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals before spending the next 7 seasons affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1939 the team's name changed to the Hutchinson Pirates. After World War II, the club became and affiliate of the Chicago Cubs and became the Hutchinson Cubs, winning their first league title in 1946. On July 21, 1948, club then moved to Springfield, Missouri and became the Springfield Cubs.
Description: Cordele played in the Class-D Georgia–Florida League from 1936–1942 and 1946–1955. The city was originally represented by a team in the Georgia State League in 1906, with a team simply noted as Cordele. In 1913, the city was represented in the Empire State League with the Cordele Babies. The following season, the team moved into the Georgia–Florida League, as the Cordele Ramblers. After 22-year hiatus, a team reemerged in the Georgia–Florida League was the Reds, as an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds in 1937. The team became briefly known as the Cordele Bees from 1939–1940. They had affiliation an agreement with the Atlanta Crackers in 1938.
Description: The Mobile Bears were an American minor league baseball team based in Mobile, Alabama. The franchise was a member of the old Southern Association, a high-level circuit that folded after the 1961 season. Mobile joined the SA in 1908 as the Sea Gulls, but changed its name to the Bears in 1918, and the nickname stuck. The club played in the Association until July 1931, when it moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. Almost exactly 13 years later, in July 1944, the Bears returned to Mobile when the Knoxville Smokies franchise shifted back from Tennessee. (A club known as the Mobile Shippers competed in the Class B Southeastern League from 1937 to 1942.)
Description: In 1903 the former Des Moines Midgets were renamed the Des Moines Undertakers. The club was just 55-76, 7th in the 8-team Western League, though Harvey Cushman led the league with 195 strikeouts. Shortstop Charley O'Leary was fourth in the circuit with a .311 batting average and had the best fielding percentage at his position. Due to the presence of the insurance industry in Des Moines, IA the club was renamed the Des Moines Prohibitionists in 1904.
Description: The Rockford Expos was the initial moniker of the minor league baseball team located in Rockford, Illinois from 1988 to 1999. The Expos were Rockford's first entity in the Midwest League. Rockford was an affiliate of the Montreal Expos (1988–1992), Kansas City Royals (1993–1994), Chicago Cubs (1995–1998) and Cincinnati Reds (1999). In 2000, the Rockford franchise moved to Dayton, Ohio, where the franchise played in the Midwest League and continues play today as the Dayton Dragons.
Description: Ogden first had a minor league baseball team with the Ogden Lobsters of the Utah-Idaho Intermountain League in 1900. The Lobsters won the 1900 Utah-Idaho Intermountain League Championship, finishing with a record of 32–13 under manager Dad Gimlin to finish 8.0 games ahead of 2nd place Rio Grande Rios in the four-team Independent league. They finished ahead of the 3rd place Pocatello Indians and 4th place Short Line Shorts in the final league standings.
Description: The city of Mansfield, Ohio, was home to minor league baseball teams, known by various nicknames, which played periodically between 1887 and 1912, and between 1935 and 1941. The team first began play in the Ohio State League in 1887 as simply Mansfield. The following season, the club moved to the Tri-State League until 1890. After a three-year hiatus, Mansfield once again fielded a new team, the Mansfield Electricians and played the 1893 season in the short-lived Ohio–Michigan League. No team was then fielded until 1897, when the city fielded the Mansfield Haymakers in the Interstate League.
Description: The Portland Mavericks were an independent professional baseball team based in Portland, Oregon. They began play in the short-season Class A Northwest League in 1973, after the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League left after the 1972 season and became the Spokane Indians. The Mavericks operated as an independent club in Portland for five seasons, until the return of the PCL in 1978, and played home games on artificial turf at Civic Stadium in Portland.
Description: The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. Tracing their origins back to the 1930s, the Clowns were the last of the Negro league teams to disband, continuing to play exhibition games into the 1980s. They began play as the independent Ethiopian Clowns, joined the Negro American League as the Cincinnati Clowns and, after a couple of years, relocated to Indianapolis. Hank Aaron was a Clown for a short period, and the Clowns were also one of the first professional baseball teams to hire a female player.
Description: Local enthusiasts in 1942 brought a professional team to Burlington. The Burlington Bees played in Burlington in 1942, and from 1945-1951. The Bees played in the Bi-State League and the Carolina League. Following the departure of the Bees, the Burlington-Graham Pirates came to the area in 1952. This team played four seasons at Graham High School, now known as Tom Zachary field. Jack McKeon was of the most famous to play for them. McKeon went on to manage several teams including the 2003 Florida Marlins who won the World Series.
Description: The Charleston Charlies were a colorful (at times, blindingly so) Class AAA ballclub that made their home in West Virginia from 1971 through 1983. From 1971 through 1976, the Charlies were the top farm club for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were a National League power at the time.
Description: The Camden Riversharks were an American professional baseball team based in Camden, New Jersey, from 2001 to 2015. They were a member of the Liberty Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, which was not at that time affiliated with Major League Baseball. The Riversharks played their home games at Campbell's Field, which was situated at the base of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Due to its location on the Delaware River, the ballpark offered a clear view of the Philadelphia skyline. The "Riversharks" name referred to the location of Camden on the Delaware River, and the primary logo incorporated the Benjamin Franklin Bridge that links Camden to Philadelphia.
Description: The Worcester Worcesters were a 19th-century Major League Baseball team from 1880 to 1882 in the National League. The team is referred to, at times, as the Brown Stockings or the Ruby Legs; however, no contemporary sources from the time exist that support the use of either name. The team played their home games at the Worcester Driving Park Grounds in the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds, located south of Highland Street between Sever Street and Russell Street in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Description: The Dubois County Dragons were a southern Indiana independent professional baseball team active from 1996 through 2002. The Dragons made their home in tiny Huntingburg, which a population of just 5,598 souls in the 2000 U.S. Census. The Dragons were founding members of the Heartland League, an obscure independent loop that formed in 1996 with just four ball clubs in Illinois and Indiana. The Dragons remained in this shaky enterprise for its full three-year run until the Heartland League folded following the 1998 season. In 1999, the Dragons moved to the larger and more stable Frontier League where they would play for the next four seasons.
Description: The Mesa Miners were an independent professional baseball team based in Mesa, Arizona. They began as a member of the Arizona Division of the now-defunct Golden Baseball League in 2005. The original team became known as the Reno Silver Sox in 2006, and then the Tucson Toros in 2009, but the league could bring the Miners back as an expansion team should they decide to do so. They returned to play in 2011 after a six-year absence as a member of the Arizona Summer League, one of two instructional leagues affiliated with the North American League, which was not affiliated with either Major League Baseball or Minor League Baseball.
Description: The Madison Muskies were a Class A minor league baseball team that played in the Midwest League from 1982 to 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1993, the team relocated to Comstock Park, Michigan and became today's West Michigan Whitecaps. The Muskies were an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics.
Description: The Victoria Mussels were a minor league baseball team located in British Columbia, Canada. The Mussels were members of the short-season Class A Northwest League from 1978-1979. Besides the Mussels, the other teams in the 1978 North Division were the Bellingham Mariners, Grays Harbor Loggers and the Walla Walla Padres. The South Division consisted of the Bend Timberhawks, Salem Senators, Eugene Emeralds and the Boise Buckskins. Jim Chapman managed the team in 1978 and played infield while Don Rogelstad served as the pitching coach along with pitching for the Mussels in 10 starts.
Description: The Shreveport Captains (1971–2000) were a professional minor-league baseball team based in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the United States. They were affiliated with the California Angels (1971–72), Milwaukee Brewers (1973–74), Pittsburgh Pirates (1975–78) and San Francisco Giants (1979–2000). The team was later changed to the Shreveport Swamp Dragons (2001–02) and then moved to Frisco, Texas, to become the Frisco RoughRiders.
