Lansing Lugnuts

"Lugnuts" redirects here. For other uses, see Lugnut (disambiguation).
Lansing Lugnuts
Founded in 1955
Lansing, Michigan
Team logoCap insignia
Class-level
Current Class-A[1] (1955–present)
Minor league affiliations
League Midwest League (1955–present)
Division Eastern Division
Major league affiliations
Current Toronto Blue Jays (2005–present)
Previous
Minor league titles
League titles (9)
  • 1958
  • 1959
  • 1960
  • 1975
  • 1976
  • 1980
  • 1986
  • 1997
  • 2003
Division titles (5)
  • 1996 (2nd half)
  • 1999 (1st half)
  • 2008 (1st half)
  • 2012 (1st half)
  • 2015 (1st half)
Team data
Nickname Lansing Lugnuts (1996–present)
Previous names
Colors Red and silver
Ballpark Cooley Law School Stadium (1996–present)
Previous parks
Owner(s)/
Operator(s)
 Tom Dickson & Sherrie Myers
Manager John Schneider
General Manager Nick Grueser
The Lansing Lugnuts at Oldsmobile Park in 2009

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 after owners Tom Dickson and Sherrie Myers moved the team to work with the City for a public-private lease to build a new stadium. Mayor David Hollister, and the City Council worked to attract the owners and build the stadium for downtown economic development. The team began playing in downtown Lansing in 1996. The franchise began as the Lafayette Red Sox in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1955; after two seasons it became the Waterloo Hawks, moving 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[2] from 1969 through 1976, as the Sultans of Springfield[3] 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. In September 2014, the Jays extended their agreement with the Lugnuts through the 2016 season.[4]

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 is also the home of Jackson Field, named after Jackson Life Insurance, based in Lansing. The stadium seats over 10,000 fans and is one of the most handicapped accessible stadiums in the country. 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 original song which plays immediately after the national anthem for every home game accompanied by their friendly oversized mascot, Big Lug.

Crosstown Showdown presented by Auto-Owners

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. The PA Announcer is Jennifer Swanchera.

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 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.

Kansas City Royals

Chicago Cubs

Toronto Blue Jays

Miami Marlins

St. Louis Cardinals

San Francisco Giants

Current roster

2010 Lugnuts wearing their away jerseys
Lansing Lugnuts roster
Players Coaches/Other

Pitchers

  • 17 Ryan Cook
  • 13 Josh DeGraaf
  • 27 Conor Fisk
  • 30 Jonathan Harris
  • -- Clinton Hollon ‡
  • 28 Dusty Isaacs
  • 19 Dan Lietz
  • 40 Angel Perdomo
  • 29 Gustavo Pierre
  •  4 Sean Reid-Foley
  • 16 Francisco Rios
  • 34 Tayler Saucedo
  • 18 Starlyn Suriel
  • 46 Jon Wandling

Catchers

  • 22 Justin Atkinson
  • 15 Ryan Hissey
  • 25 Juan Kelly

Infielders

  •  3 Aaron Attaway
  •  7 JC Cardenas
  •  2 Gunnar Heidt
  • 12 Conner Panas
  •  6 Carl Wise

Outfielders

  • 24 Josh Almonte
  • 32 Jacob Anderson
  • 23 Austin Davis
  •  1 Andrew Guillotte
  •  9 Lane Thomas

Manager

  • 14 John Schneider

Coaches


7-day disabled list
* On Toronto Blue Jays 40-man roster
# Rehab assignment
∞ Reserve list
‡ Restricted list
† Temporary inactive list
Roster updated May 9, 2016
Transactions
→ More MiLB rosters
→ Toronto Blue Jays minor league players

References

Notes
  1. ↑ http://www.milb.com/milb/info/classifications.jsp
  2. ↑ http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/history/top100.jsp?idx=60
  3. ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Springfield_Sultans
  4. ↑ Nicholson-Smith, Ben (September 23, 2014). "Gibbons: Jays like what Pompey offers". Sportsnet. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  5. ↑ http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/sports/2015/04/09/solari-lugnuts-column/25560349/
Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lansing Lugnuts.
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