Batavia Muckdogs


The Batavia Muckdogs are a collegiate summer baseball team in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League. They are located in Batavia, a city in Genesee County, New York, United States. Their home field is Dwyer Stadium in the city of Batavia, built after the 1996 season to replace the original Dwyer Stadium that opened July 27, 1938 as home to the Batavia Bees, a semi-pro team in the Genesee County League.
Off and on from 1939 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League. With Major League Baseball's reorganization of the minor leagues after the 2020 season, Batavia and the New York-Penn League were eliminated from affiliated baseball. The Muckdogs later joined PGCBL for the 2021 season. Their 2022 season and the loss of professional baseball in Batavia was chronicled by author Will Bardenwerper in

History

Prior to the current Batavia franchise, professional baseball in the city dates back to 1897 when Batavia played in the New York State League. The Batavia Giants, sometimes referred to as the Reds because of their crimsons uniforms, were the first classified team in the city making their debut - after some rainouts - on May 14, 1897, against the Auburn franchise at a stadium built on Swan Street; future major leaguer Jack Burns batted third and played shortstop. After a rough start to the season, where the team lost their first 9 games, the team released eight players and fired manager Martin Earley. J.J. Benner took over the club as team captain and acting manager, however play did not improve and he was replaced by former major leaguer Joe Hornung who was named player-manager on May 24, he made his debut in the lineup on June 14 at 40 years old, going hitless. After 20 games the team sat at 4–16 and had money troubles where local fans would not pay the 10 cent admission, Hornung left the team on July 9. It was announced on July 24 that the team would move to Geneva, by July 25 the team had left Batavia and become the Geneva Alhambras. That season the Class-C New York State League also consisted of teams in Canandaigua, Cortland, Lyons, Palmyra, and Auburn.
As was popular across the country, Batavia hosted many semi-pro leagues prior too, and after, the Giants left town. This included the Western New York League along with teams in nearby Le Roy, Perry and Warsaw. The Batavia Bees were the popular semi-pro team prior to professional baseball coming back to Batavia in 1939, and they continued play even after the Clippers arrived.
The history of the New York–Penn League originated in Batavia as the league, then known as the Pennsylvania–Ontario–New York League, was formed in a local hotel that has since been demolished. Original league cities included Batavia, Bradford, Hamilton, Jamestown, Niagara Falls, and Olean.
The Muckdogs were founded in 1939 as the Batavia Clippers, however the team was not in operation during the 1954–56 and 1960 seasons after dropping out of the league for financial reasons. During the 1957 through 1959 seasons the team was known as the Batavia Indians, upon their final return to the league in 1961 the team was known as the Batavia Pirates until changing their name to the Batavia Trojans in 1966 until 1987.
From 1988 through the 1997 season the team brought back the historic Batavia Clippers name before changing to the Muckdogs in 1998 based on a fan poll that chose the nickname and logo. The "Muckdogs" name was inspired by Genesee County's mucklands. Batavia celebrated their 80th anniversary during the 2019 seasons as the only founding member of the league still in existence.
The Muckdogs franchise was surrendered to the league prior to the 2018 season. The team was then operated as a ward of the league.
After the cancelled 2020 minor league season, Major League Baseball took direct control of Minor League Baseball and discontinued short-season play. The Muckdogs were not among the teams invited to remain in affiliated baseball. The city received offers from collegiate summer baseball and semi-professional leagues for 2021. After being purchased by CAN-USA Sports, the Muckdogs joined Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, a collegiate summer league, for 2021.

Logo and mascot

The Muckdogs logo adopted in 1998 is a dog on a crushed fence in the shape of an "M" surrounded by muck with baseballs on either side. The team also has an alternate logo of a B with a dog.
The Muckdogs currently have one mascot, Dewey, however had three mascots who would make appearances throughout the season at Dwyer Stadium in recent years. The team's original mascot Maxwell T. Chomper, Homer and Slider.

Season-by-season record

Affiliation

As the Muckdogs, Batavia was affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1998, having been already affiliated with the Phillies since 1988, through the 2006 season. Beginning with the 2007 season, the Phillies chose to move their Short-Season A affiliate closer to Philadelphia with the Williamsport Crosscutters. Meanwhile, the Muckdogs signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. Prior to the Cardinals and Phillies affiliation Batavia was also affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, and Cleveland Indians. The team also fielded a co-op team in 1966 featuring players from 12 different organizations, most notably Cito Gaston of the Atlanta Braves. In 1975, the team fielded another co-op team with players from 8 organizations including Don McCormack from the Philadelphia Phillies. 1987 was the final co-op team in Batavia.
After the 2012 season, the St. Louis Cardinals announced they would move their affiliation to the State College Spikes, who they had been affiliated with before coming to Batavia. On September 28, 2012, the Muckdogs announced they had signed a two-year player development contract with the Miami Marlins who were affiliated with the Jamestown Jammers from 2002 to 2011. Jamestown signed an affiliation agreement with the Pittsburgh Pirates who had left State College.
AffiliationWinsLossesSeasons
Cardinals 2402096
Phillies 75675620
Indians 1,1911,26024
Mets 821253
Marlins 2773279
Pirates 3625117
Tigers 1461434
Co-Op 2653166

Operations/ownership

From 2008 to 2017 the Rochester Red Wings Triple-A team of the International League was responsible for operating the club. The team had previously been operated by the Genesee County Baseball Club who remained majority owner though the Red Wings gained a share of ownership with each season they operated the franchise with a cap of 50%.
The team has been up for sale since 2010 due to financial losses. In 2016, a sale to an ownership group that intended to relocate the franchise to Waldorf, Maryland, beginning in the 2017 season collapsed when the new owners were unable to secure permission from the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, as well as the Eastern League and Carolina League. The Orioles' Class-AA affiliate, the Eastern League's Bowie Baysox, are located in nearby Bowie, Maryland; the Nationals' Class-A affiliate, the Potomac Nationals, are based in nearby Woodbridge, Virginia. A Muckdogs move to Maryland would have impacted those teams' territorial rights.

Surrender of franchise

The Muckdogs ownership group surrendered their franchise to the NYPL on December 19, 2017, after the NYPL declined the Red Wings offer to continue to operate the ball club and the remaining owners could not meet the financial requirements to keep the team solvent. Under the terms of the surrender, if the NYPL sells the franchise, the Red Wings and Genesee County Baseball Club each will receive 45% of the proceeds, with the league keeping a 10% fee for themselves. GCBC will retain the rights to the Batavia Muckdogs name, should the league opt to relocate the franchise to a city other than Batavia. The NYPL did not guarantee the franchise will play in 2018 if a buyer could not be found. GCBC spoke of the possibility of bringing collegiate summer baseball to Batavia in the event the NYPL left.
In January 2018, the New York–Penn League agreed to keep the Muckdogs in Batavia for the 2018 season after agreeing with the City of Batavia on a lease for Dwyer Field. In 2019, the Muckdogs signed a two-year renewal of its affiliation with the Marlins, which the city insisted upon as a condition of keeping the team in Batavia; any new ownership group would still be free to move the team.
As part of the reorganization of minor league baseball, the Muckdogs minor league squad was contracted along with most of the rest of the New York-Penn League prior to the 2021 season. GCBC, in keeping with their 2017 statements, transferred the Muckdogs intellectual property to a new expansion team in the PGCBL. The Muckdogs were one of two NYPL brands to make the transfer at that time ; the Jamestown Jammers had previously made a similar transition in 2015.

Record

Through the 2017 season, Batavia has played 75 seasons of professional baseball in its current location amassing 3,197 wins and 3,532 losses.
The team's 3,000th win came in form of a 5–3 decision on June 23, 2012, against the Jamestown Jammers at Russell Diethrick Park in Jamestown, New York. Jamestown was the only other city of the league's original six remaining in the circuit, although it does not host the same franchise. Relief pitcher Jose Almarante earned the win.

Managerial history

holds the All-Time record for wins in Batavia with a record of 298 wins and 239 losses in four seasons.
Dann Bilardello is tied for the modern era regular record with 126 wins and 99 losses in three seasons, Ángel Espada tied the record in the last game of the 2016 season after four seasons, however Bilardello has one playoff victory as well giving him 127 wins overall. Mike Jacobs was named the Muckdogs manager for the 2017/2018 seasons, Tom Lawless managed the club in 2019.
Gene Baker was the first African-American manager in affiliated baseball during the 1961 season with the Batavia Pirates. Baker also is credited as being the first African-American manager in Major League History when he filled in after ejections, however, Frank Robinson was the first ever hired full time.