Lansing Lugnuts

Lansing Lugnuts
Founded in 1996
Lansing, Michigan

Team Logo

Cap Insignia
Class-level
  • Single-A (1996-present)
Minor league affiliations
Major league affiliations
Name
  • Lansing Lugnuts (1996-present)
Ballpark
Minor league titles
League titles 1997, 2003
Division titles 1996 2nd half, 1999 1st half, 2008 1st half
Owner(s)/Operated by: Take Me Out To The Ballgame, LLC
Manager: Mike Redmond
General Manager: Pat Day

The Lansing Lugnuts are a Class A minor league baseball team, affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays, that plays in the Midwest League.

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 [1] from 1969 through 1976, as the Sultans of Springfield [2] 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 Cooley Law School Stadium (previously known as Oldsmobile Park and named after the now-defunct General Motors division that was based there), which opened in 1996. The new name comes from a naming rights deal with Thomas M. Cooley Law School, based in Lansing and the largest law school in the United States. Cooley Law School Stadium 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. The Lugnuts have their own "theme" which plays immediately after the national anthem for every home game.

Contents

Crosstown Showdown

From 2007-present the Lansing Lugnuts have participated in an exhibition with nearby Michigan State University which draws a large crowd of students to the event. The overall record and attendance for each game is as follows.

Media Coverage

All Lugnuts games are aired on WQTX 92.1. The play-by-play announcer is Jesse Goldberg-Strassler. Previous radio homes for Lugnuts games were WJIM-AM from 1996-2000, and WVFN-AM from 2001-2003.

Several games per season aired on WLNS-TV from 1996 through 2001. One game was aired on WILX-TV each season from 2002 to 2009.

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.

Current roster

Players Coaches/Other

Pitchers

  • 33 John Anderson
  • 29 Dustin Antolin
  • 16 Danny Barnes
  • 36 Brandon Berl
  • 45 Misaul Diaz
  • 15 Matt Fields
  •  5 Sean Griffith
  • 37 Casey Lawrence
  • -- Andrew Liebel
  • 12 Dayton Marze
  • 28 Sean Nolin
  • 31 Tyler Powell
  • -- Brian Slover
  • 39 Egan Smith
  • 34 Sam Strickland
  • 30 Marcus Walden
  • 22 Daniel Webb

Catchers

  • -- Luis Hurtado
  • 17 Jack Murphy
  •  4 Carlos Perez

Infielders

  •  7 Oliver Dominguez
  • 23 Lance Durham
  • 25 K.C. Hobson
  •  1 Bryson Namba
  •  3 Matt Nuzzo
  •  9 Garis Pena

Outfielders

  •  6 Eli Boike
  • 15 Markus Brisker
  • 21 Michael Crouse
  • 19 Marcus Knecht
  • 32 Jake Marisnick

Manager

  • 35 John Tamargo, Jr.

Coaches

7-day disabled list
* On Toronto Blue Jays 40-man roster
∞ Reserve list
§ Suspended list
‡ Restricted list
# Rehab assignment
Roster updated December 22, 2011
Transactions
More rosters

References

External links