Hagerstown Suns
The Hagerstown Suns are a Minor League Baseball team based in Hagerstown, Maryland. They are a member of the South Atlantic League and are the Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They play their home games at Municipal Stadium which was opened in 1930 and seats 4,600 people. The team mascot is Woolie, a giant woolly bear caterpillar.
History
Previous Hagerstown teams
Professional baseball has been played in Hagerstown since the late nineteenth century. The Hagerstown Lions played for one season in the independent Cumberland Valley League during 1896. In 1915, the Class D Blue Ridge League was formed with its headquarters in Hagerstown. Hagerstown fielded a team for the next 16 seasons. Throughout this time, they won five pennants and donned four different names: the Blues, Terriers, Champs, and Hubs. Before the beginning of the 1931 season, the Blue Ridge League disbanded. The club was then affiliated with the Class C Middle Atlantic League, but on June 28, 1931, the club moved to Parkersburg, West Virginia.Professional baseball returned to Hagerstown in 1941 when Oren E. Sterling moved his Sunbury Indians franchise to town and became a Detroit Tigers affiliate. The newly named Hagerstown Owls joined the Class B Interstate League. Gene Raney purchased the team from Sterling in 1950, and the renamed Hagerstown Braves became an affiliate of the Boston Braves. The team moved to the Piedmont League in 1953 and once again had a name and affiliation change. The new Washington Senators affiliate, the Hagerstown Packets, competed until the league disbanded after the 1955 season.
Carolina League (1981–1988)
Hagerstown was without a professional team until 1981 when Lou Eliopulos purchased the Rocky Mount Pines Class A Carolina League franchise and moved them north to Hagerstown. The team was a co-op affiliate during 1981, with coaches supplied by the Baltimore Orioles and players supplied by several major league clubs to include the Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and Pittsburgh Pirates. The newly named Hagerstown Suns proceeded to win the Carolina League championship in their inaugural season by defeating the Peninsula Pilots. In 1982, the Suns began a long-term affiliation with the Baltimore Orioles.Eastern League (1989–1992)
In 1989, Hagerstown moved up to the Double-A Eastern League, taking over the Williamsport Bills franchise and again affiliating with the Orioles. The Suns' and Keys' owners failed to claim an Eastern League expansion franchise for Bowie in 1993, they instead chose to move their existing franchise there as the Bowie BaySox. Hagerstown's relationship with the Baltimore Orioles ended after 1992. Unlike when the Carolina League team had left a few years earlier, there was no guarantee that another team would return to Hagerstown.South Atlantic League (1993–present)
Hagerstown would not go without, though. Winston Blenckstone immediately relocated his Myrtle Beach Hurricanes franchise in the Class A South Atlantic League to Hagerstown after the 1992 season and promptly renamed them the Suns.Toronto Blue Jays (1993–2000)
Affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays, the Suns reached the playoffs in 1994. They advanced to the league championship, but lost to the Savannah Cardinals. The 1998 team won the first-half division title and finished with the best record in the Northern Division. They made the playoffs and won in the first round, but did not advance to the championship because the league now had a three-round playoff format featuring 8 out of 14 teams. In the second round, the Suns lost to the eventual league champion Capital City Bombers.In 1999, the Suns again made the playoffs by winning the first-half division title and wound up with the best overall record in the SAL. They were knocked out of the first round by their division rival, the Cape Fear Crocs.
San Francisco Giants (2001–2004)
After eight seasons with the Blue Jays, the team switched its parent club to the San Francisco Giants in 2001. The team was also sold to Andy Rayburn. After winning the Northern Division second-half title, the Suns entered the playoffs, but came up short as Lexington swept them in two games.New York Mets (2005–2006)
Hagerstown once again changed affiliates in 2005, initiating a two-year stint with the New York Mets. In June, the Suns qualified for the playoffs in dramatic fashion. Pitcher Gaby Hernandez's 115–pitch no-hitter in a 1–0 win over the West Virginia Power on June 19 set up a one-game playoff between the Suns and Lexington Legends on June 25 for the first-half crown. Both teams completed the first–half regular schedule with 42–28 records. In the one game playoff, the Suns defeated the Legends, 9–4, with Hernandez again taking the mound and the win. The Suns slumped badly during the second half of the season, finishing last in the Northern Division. In September however, Hagerstown won the Northern Division by defeating the second-half Northern Division champion Delmarva Shorebirds two games to one. The Suns were ultimately unsuccessful in their quest for the South Atlantic League championship, losing to the Kannapolis Intimidators, three games to one.Washington Nationals (2007–present)
In 2007, the Suns became a member of the Washington Nationals farm system. The Suns won few games as the talent-poor Nationals organization rapidly promoted Suns players with potential.playing for the Suns in 2011.
Bryce Harper, the overall first pick in the 2010 Major League Baseball draft, started the season with the Suns. Before he moved to the Double-A Harrisburg Senators in mid-season, he played well enough to be selected for the SAL All-Star Game. The Suns made the 2012 divisional playoffs; however, they were swept by the defending SAL champion Greensboro Grasshoppers, two games to none.
In 2013, Hagerstown led the SAL in the offensive categories of runs scored, runs batted in, and on base percentage. The Suns again qualified for the divisional playoffs as the SAL first-half Northern Division champions. Improving over 2012, the Suns won the SAL Northern Division championship, defeating the West Virginia Power, two games to one. However, in the league championship, the Suns fell to the Savannah Sand Gnats, three games to one.
The Suns won the second half and improved their playoff performance, but it was still not enough to claim the John Henry Moss Cup, symbolic of the SAL championship. The Suns swept the Northern Division championship series, two games to none over the Greensboro Grasshoppers, but lost the SAL championship series, three games to two, to the Asheville Tourists.
The 2016 campaign saw a return to postseason play for Hagerstown as the Suns won the first-half Northern Division title by one-half game over the Delmarva Shorebirds. In the Northern Division championship the Suns were swept 2–0 by the Lakewood BlueClaws. The Suns SAL End-of-Season All-Stars were Kevin Gutierrez, Ian Sagdall, and Patrick Anderson.
Possible relocation
Discussions concerning the relocation of the Hagerstown Suns to Virginia began circulating in 2012. That year a letter from the Washington Nationals was sent to Suns majority owner Bruce Quinn stating that Hagerstown's 80-year-old Municipal Stadium was no longer up to Major League Baseball standards. This prompted the owner to begin looking for other options. Initially, Quinn began discussions with the Winchester Economic Development Authority to relocate the team to Winchester, Virginia, to begin play in 2014. The negotiations failed in part because of the refusal of the community to provide public funding for a new stadium. Not coincidentally, Suns fan attendance at home games fell to its lowest point in Suns history to that point, despite the team qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in seven years.In October 2013, the Suns formally applied to Minor League Baseball to relocate to Fredericksburg, Virginia, for the 2015 season. The Suns and their partners, New Jersey-based Diamond Nation and a Fredericksburg-area automotive company, agreed to purchase a 38-acre stadium site inside the Fredericksburg city limits. The facility was initially planned to be ready for the start of the 2015 season at a cost of $29 million. However, in November 2014 Diamond Nation announced that it was terminating its option to purchase the Suns. A contributing factor in this decision was the increase in estimated cost to build the facility to $53 million.
In 2015, Quinn entered into negotiations with Spotsylvania County, Virginia officials to move the Suns. Quinn proposed a 5,000-seat, $30 million stadium, with $28 million borrowed by the county and $2 million paid by the Suns, who would pay a rent of $175,000 annually. Minor League Baseball gave Quinn until July 31 to complete the deal. With the deadline passed, the Suns will be in Hagerstown for the foreseeable future.
In December 2017, the President of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau said that a sale of the Suns was pending and could happen as early as February 2018. In March 2018, the same official said those talks had stalled but that there were at least two other serious groups seeking to buy the team., the team owners were still those who bought the team in 2010.
Ballpark
The Hagerstown Suns' Municipal Stadium boasts the honor of being one of the three oldest Minor League baseball stadiums in the country.From 1915 to 1929, Hagerstown's minor league teams played at Willow Lane Park, where Bester Elementary School is now located. When the city made the decision to build the school, the need for a new stadium was urgent. The Field and Athletic Association was created to find land and build a stadium. The organization struck a deal with the city, leasing a tract of land for 99 years at $1 per year. Municipal Stadium was quickly built on the land in a mere six weeks, just in time for the first home game on May 8, 1930. Since then, the stadium has undergone two major renovations.
The first renovation took place in 1981, when Minor League Baseball returned to Hagerstown after a 26-year absence from the city. About $546,000 was put into the stadium overhaul, which included the installation of a public address system, stadium lights, underground electricity, and new seats and bleachers. In 1995, $500,000 worth of improvements to the stadium were made, such as the installation of new seats, and upgrading the VIP section to include cup holders. The Sunset Grille and bar area was also added at this time.
The playing surface was renovated following the 2010 season. In addition, seating improvements and the installation of a state-of-the-art video board enhanced the fans experience in 2011. In April 2014, Hagerstown and the Suns agreed to a two-season lease extension on Municipal Stadium for 2015 and 2016 which could be voided by mutual agreement.