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Lansing Lugnuts

American Minor League baseball team

Lansing Lugnuts

American Minor League baseball team

FieldValue
nameLansing Lugnuts
founded1955
founding cityLafayette, Indiana
cityLansing, Michigan
based1996
logoLansingLugnuts_PrimaryLogo.png
uniformlogoLansingLugnuts_PrimaryCapLogo.png
class levelHigh-A (2021–present)
past class levelClass A (1955–2020)
current leagueMidwest League (1955–present)
divisionEast Division
majorleagueOakland Athletics / Athletics (2021–present)
pastmajorleague{{plainlist
nicknameLansing Lugnuts (1996–present)
pastnames{{plainlist
colorsRed and silver
ballparkJackson Field (1996–present)
pastparks{{plainlist
mascotBig Lug
leaguenum9
leaguechamps
firsthalfnum4
firsthalfchamps
secondhalfnum1
secondhalfchamps
ownerDiamond Baseball Holdings
gmZac Clark
managerDarryl Kennedy
website
  • Toronto Blue Jays (2005–2020)

  • Chicago Cubs (1999–2004)

  • Kansas City Royals (1995–1998, 1969–1976)

  • San Diego Padres (1990–1994)

  • Co-op (1989)

  • Cleveland Indians (1977–1988, 1955)

  • Boston Red Sox (1956–1968)

  • Springfield Sultans (1994–1995)

  • Waterloo Diamonds (1989–1993)

  • Waterloo Indians (1977–1988)

  • Waterloo Royals (1970–1976)

  • Waterloo Hawks (1958–1969)

  • Lafayette Red Sox (1956–1957)

  • Lafayette Chiefs (1955)

  • Lanphier Park (1994–1995)

  • Riverfront Stadium (1958–1993)

  • Loeb Stadium (1955–1957)

The Lansing Lugnuts at Oldsmobile Park in 2009

The Lansing Lugnuts are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Athletics. They are located in Lansing, Michigan, and play their home games at Jackson Field.

The Midwest League came to Lansing 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 occasions in three cities: as the Waterloo Royals from 1969 through 1976, as the Sultans of Springfield 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. In October 2016, their player development contract was extended through the 2018 season. Since 2021, they have been the High-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics.

The Lugnuts' ballpark, Jackson Field, opened in 1996. The stadium seats over 10,000 fans and is one of the most handicapped accessible stadiums in the country. The franchise 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 mascot, Big Lug.

In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Lugnuts were organized into the High-A Central. In 2022, the High-A Central became known as the Midwest League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.

Crosstown Showdown

Since 2007, the Lansing Lugnuts have participated in an annual exhibition game 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:

DateWinning teamScoreLosing teamAttendanceRef
April 3, 2007Lansing Lugnuts4–3Michigan State6,223
April 24, 2008Lansing Lugnuts4–2Michigan State12,862
April 16, 2009Michigan State12–2Lansing Lugnuts12,992
April 26, 2010Lansing Lugnuts5–4Michigan State6,778
April 5, 2011Michigan State4–3Lansing Lugnuts7,212
April 5, 2012Lansing Lugnuts7–0Michigan State12,997
May 1, 2013Lansing Lugnuts10–2Michigan State11,619
April 3, 2014Lansing Lugnuts3–2Michigan State4,455
April 9, 2015Lansing Lugnuts9–4Michigan State9,318
September 6, 2016Lansing Lugnuts4–1Michigan State8,432
September 5, 2017Lansing Lugnuts5–1Michigan State6,804
September 4, 2018Lansing Lugnuts6–4Michigan State6,338
September 3, 2019Lansing Lugnuts5–1Michigan State5,933
April 6, 2022Lansing Lugnuts3–2Michigan State3,117
April 4, 2023Lansing Lugnuts12-3Michigan State4,412
April 3, 2024Lansing16-0Michigan4,118
April 1, 2025Michigan1-0Lansing3,733

Playoffs

SeasonQuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinals
1996---
1997W, 2–1, MichiganW, 2–0, Fort WayneW, 3–2, Kane County
1998---
1999W, 2–0, MichiganL, 2–0, Wisconsin-
2000---
2001L, 2–0, Dayton--
2002W, 2–1, MichiganW, 2–1, West MichiganL, 3–1, Peoria
2003W, 2–0, South BendW, 2–0, Battle CreekW, 3–0, Beloit
2004L, 2–1, West Michigan--
2005---
2006W, 2–0, South BendL, 2–0, West Michigan-
2007L, 2–0, West Michigan--
2008L, 2–0, Dayton--
2009---
2010---
2011W, 2–1, DaytonW, 2–0, Fort WayneL, 3–0, Quad Cities
2012L, 2–0, Fort Wayne--
2013---
2014---
2015W, 2–0, Great LakesL, 2–1, West Michigan-
2016---
2017---
2018L, 2–0, Bowling Green--
2019---

Media coverage

Jesse Goldberg-Strassler broadcasts Lugnuts home and away games on WVFN-AM. WVFN previously aired Lugnuts games from 2001 to 2003.

Lugnuts games also aired on WJIM-AM from 1996 to 2000 and WQTX-FM from 2004 to 2016. Several games per season aired on WLNS-TV from 1996 through 2001. From 2002 to 2009, one game aired each season on WILX-TV.

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

  • Jeremy Affeldt
  • Kevin Appier
  • Carlos Beltrán
  • Juan Brito
  • Lance Carter
  • Tim Collins
  • Chad Durbin
  • Carlos Febles
  • Jeremy Giambi
  • Mark Quinn
  • José Santiago
  • Andy Sisco
  • Orber Moreno

Chicago Cubs

  • Francis Beltrán
  • Ronny Cedeño
  • Rocky Cherry
  • Robinson Chirinos
  • Hee-seop Choi
  • Juan Cruz
  • Ryan Dempster
  • Jake Fox
  • Adam Greenberg
  • Ángel Guzmán
  • Rich Hill
  • Jon Leicester
  • Carlos Mármol
  • Sean Marshall
  • Juan Mateo
  • Adalberto Méndez
  • Sergio Mitre
  • Orber Moreno
  • Corey Patterson
  • Billy Petrick
  • Félix Pie
  • Andy Pratt
  • Mark Prior
  • Clay Rapada
  • Ryan Theriot
  • Jermaine Van Buren
  • Todd Wellemeyer
  • Randy Wells
  • Carlos Zambrano

Toronto Blue Jays

  • Anthony Alford
  • Henderson Álvarez
  • Danny Barnes
  • Chad Beck
  • Jon Berti
  • Bo Bichette
  • Cavan Biggio
  • Ryan Borucki
  • Joel Carreño
  • Miguel Castro
  • Taylor Cole
  • David Cooper
  • Evan Crawford
  • Jonathan Davis
  • Matt Dermody
  • Danny Farquhar
  • José Fernández
  • Graham Godfrey
  • Ryan Goins
  • Yan Gomes
  • Kendall Graveman
  • Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
  • Adeiny Hechavarria
  • Drew Hutchison
  • Casey Janssen
  • Danny Jansen
  • Brett Lawrie
  • Jesse Litsch
  • Aaron Loup
  • Trystan Magnuson
  • Darin Mastroianni
  • Tim Mayza
  • Deck McGuire
  • Brad Mills
  • Daniel Norris
  • Roberto Osuna
  • Tyler Pastornicky
  • Luis Perez
  • Kevin Pillar
  • Dalton Pompey
  • Carlos Ramírez
  • Sean Reid-Foley
  • Jordan Romano
  • Marc Rzepczynski
  • Aaron Sanchez
  • Anthony Sanders
  • Justin Shafer
  • Dwight Smith Jr.
  • Travis Snider
  • Marcus Stroman
  • Noah Syndergaard
  • Rowdy Tellez
  • Ryan Tepera
  • Curtis Thigpen
  • Richard Ureña

Miami Marlins

  • Anthony DeSclafani
  • Jake Fishman
  • Adam Greenberg
  • Jake Marisnick
  • Justin Nicolino
  • Renyel Pinto
  • Matt Treanor

St. Louis Cardinals

  • Kiko Calero

San Francisco Giants

  • Eugenio Vélez

Roster

2010 Lugnuts wearing their away jerseys

References

;Notes ;Sources

  • Roth, Bob. Our Lugnuts, Year One. 1996.
  • Lansing Lugnuts Official Website

References

  1. (December 19, 2022). "Tyler Parsons New Durham Bulls GM; Zac Clark Promoted in Lansing as Replacement". August Publications.
  2. "Top 100 Teams {{!}} MiLB.com History {{!}} The Official Site of Minor League Baseball".
  3. Nicholson-Smith, Ben. (September 23, 2014). "Gibbons: Jays like what Pompey offers". [[Sportsnet]].
  4. Calloway, Brian. (October 4, 2016). "Lugnuts to remain affiliated with Toronto Blue Jays". USA Today High School Sports.
  5. Mayo, Jonathan. (February 12, 2021). "MLB Announces New Minors Teams, Leagues".
  6. (March 16, 2022). "Historical League Names to Return in 2022".
  7. Solari, Chris. (April 9, 2015). "Solari: Crosstown Showdown a flashback to Lugnuts debut". [[Lansing State Journal]].
  8. (September 5, 2017). "Spartans Fall to Lugnuts Tuesday in 11th Annual Crosstown Showdown". [[Michigan State Spartans]].
  9. Goldberg-Strassler, Jesse. (September 4, 2018). "Pearson impresses in return, Lugnuts win 7th straight Showdown". [[MiLB.com]].
  10. Goldberg-Strassler, Jesse. (September 3, 2019). "Hiraldo, Perez HRs power Lugs to 8th straight win over Michigan State". [[MiLB.com]].
  11. (April 6, 2022). "Spartans Edged By Lugnuts, 3-2, In Crosstown Showdown Wednesday". Michigan State Spartans.
  12. (April 4, 2023). "Spartans Topped By Lugnuts In 2023 Crosstown Showdown". Michigan State Spartans.
  13. (April 4, 2023). "MSU baseball falls to Lansing Lugnuts in 15th annual Crosstown Showdown Tuesday". [[The State News]].
  14. "Spartans Downed By Lugnuts In Crosstown Showdown".
  15. "Spartans Top Lugnuts, 1-0, Tuesday In Crosstown Showdown".
  16. Goldberg-Strassler, Jesse. "Lugnuts pitching dominates in 1-0 Crosstown Showdown".
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