The Midwest League came to Fort Wayne in. The franchise is the oldest in the Midwest League and dates back to the league's beginning as the Illinois State League, starting in in Mattoon, Illinois as the Mattoon Indians. In the team moved to Keokuk, Iowa, where it spent five seasons as the Keokuk Cardinals; it was then based in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin and Kenosha, Wisconsin before moving to Fort Wayne. The team was a Minnesota Twinsfarm team before they affiliated with the Padres in. When the team moved to Fort Wayne in 1993, it adopted a new name, the Wizards. The name TinCaps was chosen following the 2008 season, alluding to John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. The Tin Cap refers to a fictionalized depiction of John Chapman wearing a cooking pot as a hat in the 1948 Walt Disney movie "Johnny Appleseed," though this depiction has been disputed by historians. Chapman spent his final years in Fort Wayne and is buried in the city. The team's home park was Memorial Stadium, opened in 1993; a franchise attendance record of 318,506 was also set that year. As part of the Harrison Square revitalization project, Parkview Field became the official home of the TinCaps at the start of the 2009 season. To coincide with the new ballpark, the team held a contest to determine a new name for the Wizards once that new ballpark opened, and "TinCaps" was the result. The mascot of the TinCaps is Johnny TinCap. Previously, for the Wizards, it was Dinger the Dragon and prior to that, the Wizards were represented by Wayne the Wizard. The team won the Midwest League 2009 championship by sweeping the Burlington Bees, 3–0. The first two games were played at Parkview Field and the final, decisive game was played in Burlington, Iowa. The team and its staff were honored at Parkview Field in a special victory rally on September 18, 2009. In addition to winning a franchise record-setting 94 games in their new home, fans shattered the previous attendance record for the season, with 378,529 coming through the turnstiles. The TinCaps also clinched playoff spots in every season of Parkview Field's existence with the exception of 2016.
Trea Turner, Torii Hunter, Jake Peavy, Joakim Soria, Nate Freiman, David Freese, Max Fried, Will Venable, Nick Hundley, Matt Antonelli, Josh Geer, Josh Barfield, A. J. Pierzynski, Michael Cuddyer, Wade LeBlanc, Corey Koskie, Dirk Hayhurst, LaTroy Hawkins, Matt Lawton, Brandon Gomes, Mat Latos, Daniel Robertson, Allan Dykstra, Brad Brach, Matt Wisler, Corey Kluber, Dan Serafini, Mike Hazen, Miles Mikolas, and Fernando Tatis Jr.
