Lakewood BlueClaws

A swimming blue crab with a baseball bobbing in front of it. Superimposed over the water is the "BlueClaws" wordmark in powder blue outlined in red and navy blue. The word "Lakewood" is arched above the crab in blue.

Division titles

League titles

2006

Manager

Kevin Jordan

Owner

The Lakewood BlueClaws are a minor league baseball team based in Lakewood, New Jersey. The BlueClaws play in the Class A South Atlantic League and are affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. Their home field is FirstEnergy Park. They are the current champions of the South Atlantic League.

The BlueClaws moved to Lakewood from Fayetteville, North Carolina, where they had been known first as the Fayetteville Generals and later as the Cape Fear Crocs. Their first season in Lakewood was 2001. The Phillies' previous South Atlantic League affiliate was based in Kannapolis, North Carolina, and known as the Piedmont Boll Weevils from 1995 to 2000.

Since their arrival in New Jersey, the BlueClaws have been a success at the gate. In each of their first five seasons, they have averaged over 6,500 fans per game. On August 26, 2002, in a game against the Hickory Crawdads which the BlueClaws won 3-0, attendance was a South Atlantic League record 13,003. The BlueClaws have led the South Atlantic League in attendance every year, topping out at over 460,000 in 2006 and became the fastest team in South Atlantic League history to reach the 2 million fan attendance mark. This success comes in the absence of great success on the field. In their first four seasons, the BlueClaws failed to qualify for the playoffs. Their overall record topped the .500 mark for the first time in 2004.

On September 1, 2004, Ryan Howard became the first former BlueClaw to play in the major leagues, playing first base for the Phillies in a 7-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park. He played for the BlueClaws in the 2002 season. In 2005, he was named the National League Rookie of the Year.

The team shares ownership with the Trenton Thunder.

1 Season Records
2 Post-Season Records
3 Alumni
4 External link

[edit] Season Records

Season	Affiliation	Manager	First Half Record	Second Half Record
2001	Phillies	Greg Legg	28-42, 7th place North	32-37, 5th place North
2002	Phillies	Jeff Manto	33-36, 6th place North	36-34, 5th place North
2003	Phillies	Buddy Biancalana	22-47, 8th place North	35-34, 3rd place North
2004	Phillies	P.J. Forbes	31-36, 7th place North	39-30, 3rd place North
2005	Phillies	P.J. Forbes	25-45, 6th place North	31-38, 7th place North
2006	Phillies	Dave Huppert	37-32, 4th place North	47-23, 1st place North

[edit] Post-Season Records

The Blue Claws won the 2006 South Atlantic League Championship on September 15, first defeating the Lexington Legends in the Northern division final, two games to none, then defeating the Augusta GreenJackets in a dramatic 5-0 victory, winning the championship series three games to one.

[edit] Alumni

[edit] External link

Lakewood BlueClaws (official site)

Philadelphia Phillies Franchise
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South Atlantic League
Delmarva Shorebirds \| Hagerstown Suns \| Hickory Crawdads \| Kannapolis Intimidators \| Lake County Captains \| Lakewood BlueClaws \| Lexington Legends \| West Virginia Power		Asheville Tourists \| Augusta GreenJackets \|Charleston RiverDogs \| Columbus Catfish \| Greensboro Grasshoppers \| Greenville Drive \| Rome Braves \| Savannah Sand Gnats