A Very Long Record

Today we honor the Rochester Red Wings Baseball team. The Red Wings hold a very important record in all of minor league sports. The Red Wings have not moved since February 8, 1899. The Red Wings hold the record for the longest time a minor league franchise in any sport has been in the same place. They may changed their nicknames a few times in the ensuing years, the have changed stadiums a couple times, but they have not changed cities in an amazing 112 years and counting. When you consider that the city did not miss the 4 seasons before, they just did not finish the season before in the league.

      Lets give a liitle background here. The city reentered the league in 1895 after missing 2 seasons when they obtained the franchise that had completed the season before in Yonkers, New York. The city was in the league until midway through the 1897 season, when the franchise was transferred to Montreal. To make up for that loss, the city obtained the obtained the Scranton, Pennsylvania franchise. Unfortunately, on July 13, 1898 a fire burned their ballpark to the ground. The franchise was immediately transferred to Ottawa, Ontario. The following February will a new ballpark in place, the franchise was returned to Rochester.

   The club is two seasons ahead of its next competor the Indianapolis Indians. The Indians have had to change leagues several times in their attempt to continue to nip at the Red Wings heels for the longevity record. The Indians even had a 5 year stint in the Pacific Coast League, one of the other league members at the time was the Hawaii Islanders. That makes for one very long road trip.

   Tommorrow we will look at some basketball games where records were set, however this time it this not the high scoring games we will be looking at. Alot of times I am picking out the next days blog a day in advance. If you want to see a particular event profiled that has an upcoming anniversary, please let me know I would be happy to accept your input. If you want to see the list I am drawing from try the companion website at https://sites.google.com/site/professionalsportshistory/Home/this-date-home See you then!!